Tolkien once said there was "one ring to rule them all" and whilst I'm not saying a single jump ring will give you all the power you could ever want, it is pretty magical.
In the chainmaille world there are hundreds of ways in which different rings can be woven together, and some of the ones I love the most are single ring weaves. These are weaves that can all be done with just one size of ring.
For this blog I have looked at one of my favourite sizes of rings and that is the 18swg 7/32". It has a typical aspect ratio (AR) of 4.7. This is the magical number and as you go further into chainmaille you'll realise that AR is king. We'll go into aspect ratio in a different post, for now you can use this number on the Maille Artisans website to find which weaves you can make.
Start by putting in the aspect ratio - you'll find it shown on every listing and packet of rings you buy from us, because chainmaille should be accessible and even if you don't understand what aspect ratio is you can still use the information. Click on the single weaves option and then hit the 'show me some weaves' button. This will pull up a whole host of weaves that can be done with just that one size. I chose some of my favourites to make up as an example of what can be achieved.
Left to right - persian dragonscale, candy cane cord, jpl5, gsg and wave function
One of the major benefits to single size weaves is that it's cost effective, you don't need to buy lots of different sizes - ask any experienced mailler, we all have those random bags of rings we brought for a specific weave, only to use half a dozen rings and that was it.
Other examples of ring sizes that are great for single size weaves are :- 18swg 3/16" / 5mm with an AR of 4.1. These are great for European 4 in 1, elfsheet, sweetpea, jpl4, captive roundmaille and many more
18swg 5/32" / 4.1mm with an AR of 3.4. These are great for barrel, byzantine, vipera berus, hoodoo, turkish roundmaille and again, many more.