A Chainmaille Flower

A chainmaille flower (or scalemaille flower, or scale flower, or two scale flower, or chainmail flower, whichever search term you're using). It seems like instructions for these aren't easy to come across, so I'm deciding to fill that gap. Uses large and small chainmaille scales, 16 and 18 gauge SWG rings (1.3 and 1.0mm), and some 12 gauge (2.0mm) wire for the stem. Let's get into it.

You will need two pairs of pliers to work chainmaille, and a strong wire cutter or saw to cut the stem wire. I prefer bent nose needlenose pliers, but linesman pliers work well too. For scales and rings, you will need:

5 large scales of any colour

5 small scales of any colour

7 large scales green for leaves

10 x 16 gauge SWG 3/8" inner diameter rings (1.3x10.2mm)

1 x 16ga 1/4" ring (1.3x6.4mm)

20 x 18ga 1/4" rings (1.0x6.4mm)

OR 15 x 18ga 1/4" rings (1.0x6.4mm)

AND 5 x 18ga 15/64" rings (1.0x6.0mm)

5 x 18ga 3/8" rings (1.0x10.2mm)

1 x 12ga 1.5" support ring (2.0x35mm) (optional)

2 more 18ga 1/4" rings for the leaves (1.0x6.4mm)

2 x 18ga 3/16" rings for the leaves (1.0x5mm)

And finally 40" of dead soft 12ga wire (1 meter x 2.0mm)

Layer the small petal scales over the large petal scales, and attach each of them with two 18ga 1/4" rings each.

Put the one 16ga 1/4" ring through each of those 18 gauge rings to become the center of the flower.

Take five of the 16ga 3/8" rings, and attach them through two 1/4" rings each from the front of the petals, making sure to get one ring each from two adjacent petals.

This is what it looks like from the back at this stage. Get another five 16ga 3/8" rings ready by opening them.

Attach the remaining 16ga 3/8" rings in the same way, going through one 1/4" ring each from adjacent petals.

This is where it gets a bit tricky. Take an open 18ga 1/4" ring, connect it through the front 3/8" ring, put the ENTIRE ring through the hole of the green scale (the ring can be ovalled slightly to make this easier, or use 15/64" rings if available), and connect to the back 3/8" ring. The front and back 3/8" rings should now be connected together, with this connecting ring going through the hole of the green scale.

At this point the back of the flower should look like this, however the leaves can rotate side to side somewhat, and the flower may have a tendency to try to curl backwards. The next steps are to prevent that.

You want to take the 18ga 3/8" rings, and connect them through one side of the green scale, and then through the 16ga 3/8" ring from earlier, somewhat firming up the leaves from moving. It should look like this when complete. This may also be tight enough for you, at which point skip to step 11.

If the petal leaves are still moving around, take the 18ga 1/4" rings, and connect one through the other side of the green scale, and then through the nearest 18ga 3/8" ring that we just put in. Do that for all five green scales.

This is what the back should now look like, and hopefully the petal leaves are staying in place well enough. If not, the last two ring sizes may need to be adjusted, and some trial and error might be needed, but hopefully things are holding together and I did the trial and error for you ^_^

If you want a stem, you can create a 1.5" loop at the end of your 12 gauge wire, or if you have that optional support ring, make it the same size as that as best you can. You definitely want to make it as round as possible before trying to put it in.

At this point, weave the ring you just created (or the support ring) through each of the 18ga 3/8" rings on the back. You may be able to go through the 1/4" rings as well, but it's not necessary if it's fighting too much, just the 3/8" rings will do. This is just to hold the flower up, and keep the entire flower from curling backwards.

This is where it's important to have dead soft wire, because you'll need to bend the tip of the wire inwards towards the center of the flower to keep it from turning out, and bend the stem straight down. The bottom 18ga 3/8" ring can also be re-opened and re-closed to put the downstem through.

Now you get to decide where you want your stem leaves! Make a double-loop in the stem anywhere and in any direction that you want a leaf to be, just don't clip the wire from the main spool if you want to make more than two leaves. The 1 meter estimate accounts for two leaves in the stem.

Open up the double-loop slightly so you can slip the leaf scale inbetween, and put an 18ga 1/4" ring through the scale hole where it's closest to where the stem wire is tripled, and the 18ga 3/16" ring on the other side of the scale at the bottom of the double-loop. The leaf can still be moved of course, but the double-loop can be squeezed to hold it in place.

And finally, gently curve off the stem into the base stand, which will be a large double-loop, and make a smaller loop at the very end around the bottom of the stem before ending it elegantly back into the base. You can spend as much time as you want on this part, making it a custom shape, size, you can wrap a fabric tape around the base loops, wrap brown or green pipe cleaners to simulate earth, however you like. This is the home stretch, now is when you can tweak it as you like, and enjoy your incredible chainmaille flower!

Build time for me is about 1 hour, being well familiar with chainmailling in general, though that one hour time was when making only my third flower. Attaching the petal leaves was the trickiest part, and securing them from the back isn't set in stone, and you can tweak and adjust that part as you like.