Chainmaille Project Inspiration: Using crystals in your maille

Our Featured Product coming up for April is Swarovski® Faceted Round Crystal Beads in 6mm or 8mm, available on our findings page.  Integrating crystal beads into chainmaille is a trend that has been developing over the last several years; we love the combination of shiny rings and bling-y beads.

There are a variety of ways to include crystal beads in your work.  For this post, we pulled together lots of inspirational images of projects created by a wide variety of chainmaille artists (more information for each can be found by clicking the image and many can be found on our magazine projects page.)  You’ll notice that more often than not, the beads are added using looped wire.  We recommend using Wubbers Round Nose Pliers to aid in this task. :)

We hope these projects will inspire you to experiment with adding crystals into your own work – who knows, it could just earn you a $25 Blue Buddha gift certificate!  (Stay tuned to our blog for details.)  For even more inspiration, check out our past blog post matching the crystals to our niobium colors.  You may also find our post about caring for jewelry with fragile components helpful.


Beaded Zig Zag Byzantine - chainmaille

"Beaded Zig Zag Byzantine" by Rebeca Mojica

Timeless Teardrops - chainmaille

"Timeless Teardrops" by Karen Karon

Niobium Crystals - chainmaille

"Niobium Crystals" by Rebeca Mojica

Captive Pearls - chainmaille

"Captive Pearls" by Lauren Anderson

Lancelot Necklace - chainmaille

"Lancelot Necklace" variation by Rebeca Mojica

Rings of Saturn - chainmaille

"Rings of Saturn" by Lauren Anderson

Chain of Command - chainmaille

"Chain of Command" by Arja Aalto-Viittala

Floating Bead Pendant - chainmaille

"Floating Bead Pendant" by Rebeca Mojica

Floating Bead Necklace - chainmaille

"Floating Bead Necklace" variation by Rebeca Mojica

Beaded Romanov - chainmaille

"Beaded Romanov" by Scott David Plumlee

Byzantine Crosses - chainmaille

"Byzantine Crosses with Turquoise" by Lori Weidhuner

Crystal Quad Cuff - chainmaille

"Crystal Quad Cuff" by Lauren Anderson

Summer Breezes - chainmaille

"Cool Summer Breezes" by Lauren Anderson

Spine of the Centipede - chaimaille

"Spine of the Centipede" by Lauren Andersen

2 by 2 chainmaille bracelet

"2 by 2 Chainmaille Bracelet" by Gladys Botz

Crystal Constellations - chainmaille

"Crystal Constellations" by Miachelle DePiano


Stay tuned to our blog to find out how you can participate in our “Featured Product of the Month Contest” and create some inspiration of your own!

Vote for April’s “Maillers’ Choice” kit!


B3’s Maillers’ Choice Kit continues to be a hit!
For April, you’ll customize one of our all-time most popular kits – Celtic Visions Star Pendant.  Read more below!




Celtic Visions Star - Maillers' Choice Kit
For April, you’ll be customizing our Celtic Visions Star PendantThis project is a Blue Buddha classic and it continues to be one of our most popular kits year after year.  It’s a great beginning level project so anyone can try it out, even if you’re brand new to chaimaille!

We will release this kit on April 17th in another 12-hour sale.  Make sure to join our mailing list for reminders about the sale and a link to the kit as soon as it is available.





Stainless Steel SALE!

Over the past year, we have slowly been transitioning to stainless steel rings made from a new, easier-to-manipulate wire.  We began by replacing some of our most popular sizes (F18. H18, L16) and liked the new wire so much that we decided to replace all of them!

At this point, almost all sizes of our stainless steel rings are made from this new wire and the final sizes, N16, R16 and Z16 will be available soon.  If you have ordered stainless steel from us in the last several months, you have likely already noticed a change in their “friendliness”.  If you have not worked with our stainless steel before (or tried it a long time ago) you may want to order one of our “Try Before You Commit” stainless steel packs.  This $0.75 cent pack will give you a selection of each gauge we sell so you can see if you might want to try working with it.

To make room for our newer rings and complete the transition, we must clear out our old stainless steel rings.  These rings are not for everyone but we do have a number of customers who enjoy muscling through this awesome metal and we think you’ll find these prices enticing!  Please do shop carefully – sale items are non-returnable and we wouldn’t want you to be stuck with something you don’t enjoy working with!  Please also note our difficulty ratings and tool recommendations for each size.

Happy Muscling!

Chainmaille kits by artists – FOR YOU!

Dragon Eye PendantWe released the first B3 project (“Scale Barrette”) from chainmaille designer Omni Mee last week and have turned our focus to a long-anticipated tutorial for Lisa Smeltzer’s epic “Dragon Eye Pendant” (shown left).  Beginning to work with more new designers is a fun new adventure for B3.  We are also continuing relationships with successful B3 projects designers and ambassadors like Kat Wisniewski and Vanessa Walilko (both of whom are always busy creating something epic-ly awesome on their own!)

Long-time relationships and new partnerships alike, working with these folks is an honor for B3.  We feel so lucky that such talented folks are willing to share their ideas, not only with our business but with our customers.  It really takes a special artist to be willing to teach others and encourage them to grow using their designs as stepping stones. 


 

These designs are just the beginning, however.  We have been busy putting everything into place to start working with more and more designers each year.  “Who are these designers?” you might ask.  Well, they could be you!


B3 project proposals are accepted on an ongoing basis.  Many of you have already sent us your initial ideas via email (don’t worry, we haven’t forgotten about you!).  We now have a more thorough and official submission form.  Whether you’re just learning about this program or you have already sent us an email with ideas, we encourage you to look over our project submission form and consider completing it for your project pitch.  We will begin reviewing the submissions more closely and contacting potential designers for 2013 project releases in the Spring and Summer. 

Submit Your Project

 

Cast your vote for March’s Featured Product Contest!

CAST YOUR VOTE NOW!

Submissions for March’s Featured Product of the Month Contest are closed…..which means it’s time for YOU to cast your vote to determine the winner. Folks this month were challenged to create a piece that featured one of our more obscure sizes – O18.  We commend the few brave souls who stepped up to the challenge and can’t wait to see who wins! Voting will close March 31st. Voting is only allowed once per computer so choose wisely!


To share the survey, we recommend you copy the link to this blog post and use that in any emails, blog posts, or social media posts you’d like to make about it (we’ve noticed some weirdness in the past with sharing the link directly – it sometimes like to bump people out of voting that haven’t already.)

Get a sneak peak at the all of our finalists below:


Butterflies - chainmaille weave  Captive Inverted Round Bracelet  - Chainmaille Weave  Spring Celebration - Mobius Chainmaille Weave  Captive Inverted Round Glass Rings - Chainmaille Weave

 

FEATURED PRODUCT FOR MARCH – Swarovski® Faceted Round Crystal Beads


Beaded Zig Zag ByzantineWe’re looking for some bling for April!  The featured product will be Swarovski® Faceted Round Crystal Beads, 6mm or 8mm, available on our findings page.  These beads lend a sophisticated sparkle to any maille project and match perfectly with our anodized niobium rings (check out this blog post to see the color match-ups!)

We can’t wait to see what you come up with!  Stay tuned to our blog for some ideas and inspiration for using this component and get ready to sparkle!