Larger Chainmaille balls

These are the first things I learned to make from Chainmaille.

Intro

I'm assuming you've read my vague intro here

To make these balls, I actually wrapped the maille around a standard juggling ball. The ones I've used are green & black thuds made by beard, either 66mm around if you dig metric [weirdo], or about 2.7" if you're normal

I made these as two identical circles, that I then sew up [with links, obviously] around the edge of the ball. The ones I made so far are a very tight fit. I guess it's a matter of personal taste.

The Pattern

Basically, the pattern itself is this:

1. Start with a pair of rings in the center. The forces at work here, especially if you make the ball as tight as I do, are enough to bend one ring outta shape
2. Put twelve [12] rings around these two
3. Twelve more go around those
4. For the third row, put on the obvious twelve rings, and add trumpet rings to every other space, making a total of 18
5. Next row no trumpet rings
6. Fifth row, trumpet rinsg go every other space again, making up to a total of 27
7. On the Sixth row, trumpet rings go on every fourth space, making up to a total of 34. No, it's not perfect [one of them you have to put only 3 spaces apart - it'll be self-evident by the time you get all the way round]
8. On the seventh row, there are no trumpet rings at all - 34 rings all the way round this time, too

That's the first half. The second half is made in exactly the same way, except is handed the opposite way. Look at the following two pictures.
Notice how the first set of rings out from the center lies in opposite directions in the two photos.

If you don't do that, then when you come to sew the ball up, it won't work right [take it on good faith].

On the other hand, if you want the pattern to sit on the ball a little more loosely, the make the two circles the same handedness and add one extra row of rigs to one of them.

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This page last modified: 2004-03-04