The Japanese 12-in-2 Purse, A Beginning

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Hello everyone, welcome to Blog Day #1! I find myself in the midst of another chain maille purse at the moment and I'm so thrilled with how it is coming out! I've added some pictures here of the beginning. The pattern is Japanese 12-in-2. (I started out doing Japanese 12-in-1, but the weave needed further stabilization so 12-in-2 it became!) That's the nature of chain maille though -- you often start out with one thing in mind and find that you need to make an adaptation of some sort. Chain maille is very flexible that way and that's likely one of the reasons I've fallen in love with the art form.

The purse will eventually be 8" wide and since it is a cylindrical shape, will be somewhere around 5 - 6" deep. This one doesn't have a strap and the front flap will be edged in the Stepping Stones pattern. I will add pictures of that once I get there. There will also be Swarovski crystals (4mm faceted rounds) sprinkled throughout the bag. I am really excited to show off how that looks, but I've got to get more of the purse woven first. This bag will also be fully lined, and I'll show some of those techniques on this blog when I get to that point.

When all is said and done, this purse will be somewhere around 8,000 rings of work (I hand coil and cut every ring I use). Not the most rings I've done in a purse, but plenty! I get such pleasure from making these bags, which is somewhat surprising considering that I don't usually like a long project. The purses usually take between 35 - 40 hours to complete, and that IS a long-term project in my book... but it doesn't feel like it when I'm weaving one up. I guess that means I found one of the things, aside from my children, that's worth my patience :)