Double Strand Helm Chain

Firstly, note that I had recently made a single strand of this out of bronze and my Mum liked it, but found it scratchy (this because I only made it out of boredom and snip cut the rings instead of saw cutting them, for the sake of getting to the assembly stage more quickly).

So then 2 Saturdays ago we popped into the Farm Market in New Glasgow where a) Mum bought a bunch of beets, and b) we bumped into a fellow chainmailler selling his wares. Included amongst his works were a couple of bracelets in one of my favorite weaves, Interwoven Byzantine Sheet. Mum also liked them, mostly because they were wider than the other bracelets I've made for her thus far, so.....

I made her this double stranded helm chain bracelet. It's 20ga copper; the larger rings made on a 3/16 mandrel, and the smaller on a 1/8 mandrel. Since Mum is has super sensitive skin, I filed the cut edges by hand. Yes, this was time consuming, as was cutting half the rings with a not-so-sharp saw blade.

Final Stats on this lovely piece:

• 18 grams of copper wire used (including scrap)
• about 10 and 1/4 hours labour over 3 days
• 1 band-aid (cut myself when the not-so-sharp saw blade slipped off the coil)
  
• multiple hand cramps

If I were to try to sell one, charging minimum wage for my labour, I'd be trying to charge over $80 CAD for an item that has less than $1 worth of copper in it. Good thing I made it for my Mum. :D