Humor

Humor

The Viking Weave

This is a very old and simple method of weaving wire that can be used to make necklaces and bracelets. Whether you are looking for some accessories to round out your viking garb or you just want to make some cool looking jewelry this is fun and easy requiring a minimum of tools to accomplish. Here is a really simple piece that I made using some copper wire and a polished stone that I got from the aquarium section of walmart.

Ok so you only need a few things to do this. You need a pair of pliers, a dowel rod or tube, a board with a hole drilled through it, a roll of wire, safety glasses (highly recommended), some beads and/or decorative pieces to add to the wire.

Start by taking some wire and wrapping it around a credit card or gift card. Make six complete loops. Then remove the loops and make tight wrap around the bundle about a third of the way down.

Now spread the loops out into a flower pattern like this and put it over the end of the dowel rod. Make sure to get them evenly spaced then tape the jig in place so that it doesn't move.

Next start looping the wire like this.

You can estimate that the finished length of the chain will be around double the length what it is on the dowel rod. This may differ slightly depending on the size of the dowel that you use verses the size of hole that you use for pulling but you will figure it with a little experimentation.

Once you have the weave to the length that you desire then you feed it through the hole drilled in the board and pull it through with a pair of pliers. This narrows the weave down to the desired diameter and stretches it to length.

Wire types can be almost any wire but some wire will oxidize and turn colors on you. It is possible to find gold or silver plated wire. From craft stores you can find multiple colors of wire and copper wire can be found from most hardware stores. You can also find clasps and beads at craft stores to decorate  your jewelry. Feel free to alternate colors in the weave or you can add yarn, ribbon, beads, or stones to the inside of the tube before pulling it to give color contrast.

The weave can also be wrapped around stones like this to create a center piece or an amulet for the jewelry.

Cool amulets, end pieces, clasps, and beads can be found online or at craft stores. I like Fire Mountain Gems as a resource to get a lot of this stuff.

with a little imagination or some research on line for ideas you can come with a lot of really cool ways to utilize this ancient method for making fine jewelry. You can even experiment by mixing unconventional style together, changing up the number of loops, or doing extra wraps of wire instead of single loops to give a different look.

I hope that you enjoyed this tutorial.

Thorne the mercenary.

Humor

Christmas Tourney an SCA Event

I just came from Christmas Tourney and it was a blast. This is an SCA event and this year they held it indoors at the community center in Elizabethtown, KY. That is just a short drive from Louisville, KY and well worth it. It only cost me $5 to get in and lunch was $5 in the kitchen. They had beef stew, berry tarts, and biscuits. Believe me I ate so much that I had to loosen my belt up a notch. The fighting was action packed and non stop all day. They tournaments of heavy armored fighting like in the fierce battle that I filmed below

They also have Fencing competitions with multiple styles of fencing like single rapier, rapier and main gauche (dagger), and rapier and buckler. I have been told that they do fencing with rapier and cape but unfortunately I didn't see anyone doing this style. It would be interesting to watch.

The real reason to attend one of these events is for the merchants. There are a lot of merchants at SCA events, even a small local event like Christmas Tourney. It is a great opportunity to find high quality and hard to find garb, leather work, crafts, armor, etc. Much of this stuff is one of a kind and the prices are reasonable. I walked away with a nice new pouch for $40 and I found some wool fabric for $5 a yard that I just couldn't pass up. I've been wanting to have a piece of winter garb made for some time and this stuff will be perfect.

Daily Rant

Ok tell me if this bothers anyone else as much as it bothers me. You go to a busy store and they only have one or two registers open so you have huge lines waiting to check out. Then they want you to give them your bonus card or loyalty card or whatever the frack they are calling it but you don't have it with you. So they try to look it up but they can't find it in their system so they try to talk you into filling another one out. You get through that conversation then they try to get you to donate to whatever cause they are supporting, and then to add insult to injury they try to get you to apply for a store specific credit card that you don't want. I really hate that and it seems like so many store chains are going to this extremely annoying and frustrating business model. I makes me loath shopping.