Introduction: Viking Weave Necklace and Bracelet
Similar to French knitting this is a surprisingly easy way to make woven wire cord for bracelets and necklaces!
I was looking for something interesting to make for my better half as a Christmas present and I stumbled across this very old method of wire weaving:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucet
http://www.waynesthisandthat.com/knittingnancys.html
A quick search gave many tutorials, the following was great:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ynf5jjpL1U&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PLEF355CEE40339342
It would make an excellent valentines gift!
Step 1: Tools and Materials
Tools:
- Mandrel
- Something tubular and sturdy to weave around.
- I used a 10mm drill bit.
- Pulling board
- This is a board with sequentially smaller holes drilled through.
- I used 11mm-7mm holes in a pine off cut.
- Pliers
- Safety glasses
- Flicking around the pointy end of a length of wire will end in tears (or ocular tears). They can be picked up for not a lot, I prefer the lighter ones:
Materials:
- Wire
- The weave in the front picture uses 20Ga. It was something similar to:
- For a first go try copper wire as it's often inexpensive.
- Silver and gold coated copper provide an excellent combination of looks, bendyness and price. The set of pictures with the thinner rose gold weave used a 0.4mm 26Ga wire:
- Jump rings
- Can be made with the same wire as the weave
- Clasps
- For the silver one I used:
- For the Rose gold one I used a fancy magnetic type, I would recommend looking into these as they are very easy to close one handed fro bracelets etc.
Step 2: Starting the Weave
Starting loops
- Take a length of spare wire approximately 300mm long.
- Bend it into a four leaf clover shape.
- Wrap the ends together.
- Bend the leaves around your mandrel.
Your starting loops need to be secure enough to align the first couple of rows and are used to pull the finished weave through the sizing block. Once your weave is finished you will need to unwind these loops.
UPDATE!!
It's only taken seven years but... I've added a video! Some bits are easier to see in motion and some are not, hopefully with a choice of pictures and video I've manged to show what to do more clearly?
Step 3: Weaving
- Bend your weaving wire 90o about 25mm from the end.
- Hook this though one of your starting loops from back to front (see picture).
- Take the other end of your weaving wire and loop from back to front on the next starting loop (see picture).
- Don't worry too much about the tension, just keep the loops running parallel down the mandrel.
- Continue until you run out of wire.
Step 4: Joining
- As you can't weave the wire on a spool and lengths several meters long are difficult to handle you'll need to join two or more lengths.
- Thread the loose end of the original wire back up inside the weave, it may be easier to remove the wire from the mandrel.
- Hook the new length around the above loop, similar to starting the weave.
- I've used copper wire for the new length in the photos to make it easier to follow.
Step 5: Sizing
Before the weave is finished it's drawn through a series of holes, this evens out the weave and sets the outer diameter. As a consequence the length of the weave changes.
Starting with the largest hole pull the weave through a couple of times, then decrease in size until the desired diameter is reached.
As a rough guide a weave pulled through holes down to 8mm diameter has 7 rows in 50mm when using 0.9mm thick wire, thus if you wanted a 200mm bracelet you'd need about 28 rows woven before drawing the weave.
Step 6: Finishing the Ends
Once the starting loops are carefully unwound from the weave these top loops can be joined with a ring failry easily. The loops at the bottom end are a little more tricky, look for the points at which the wire crosses itself, the lowest point of each loop, and thread a ring through all four.
Step 7: Using for Jewellery
Using the weave for jewellery
Necklace:
I bought two snake weave bracelets, connect one of the jump rings on the weave to the loopy end of one of the bracelets. I removed the clasp from the second bracelet and join the other end of the weave with the jump ring.
Bracelet:
I used a wrapped extended loop to get the bracelet sizing perfect and used a clasp. The extended loop is heavier than the weave which means it doesn't spin round all the time.