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Submitted by Big Vs Armory This tutorial will teach you the basics of the basic maille weave. European 4 in 1. This is a fairly simple weave that was used for centuries as armor. It can also be used for jewelry such as bracelets. I also think its a beautiful weave and there’s nothing quite like it when you sit down for a long evening of mailling. The yellow rings are the ones we are adding in the current step, the red rings are already there. Step One: Pretty simple. Close four rings, place them on an open rings, close that ring, and lay them out as shown. 
Step Two: Now, to make the chain longer, attach a new ring through the two rightmost rings like so: 
Step Three: To continue lengthening the chain, attach two rings to the ring you added in the previous step, and lay them out like this: 
Step Four: Keep repeating the last two steps until you get the correct length of chain. Working this way, when the chain is long enough, you can connect the ends and you have a bracelet. 
Step Five: But wait. You thought euro 4 in 1 was a sheet, right? Well it is. Once you have your chain, this is how you would add rings vertically to expand it into a sheet. Take the two leftmost rings on the bottom row, and add a new ring through them so it looks like this: 
Step Six: Continue adding rings like above, with the next one going through the 2nd and 3rd rings from the left, and so on. 
Note that for the next row below this, the rings on the edges will have to have a ring going through just them to have the same width, or you will have made a triangle. One more thing: This is the correct way for euro 4-1 to hang on a piece of armor or clothing. This way, it will expand right to left, which is important to a comfortably fitting garment. Here is an example of how it should NOT hang on a shirt: 
See the difference? You now know how to lengthen and widen a piece of euro 4-1. Now you can make sheets and in turn make those into armor or clothing. This however is not all there is to euro 4-1. I will cover other stuff like expansions, contractions, expanding circles, and sleeve seams in my next tutorials. Good luck and have fun! View Printable Version |
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M.A.I.L. (Maille Artisans International League) is an international community of artisans and volunteers dedicated to the advancement of the chainmaille artform. We aim to encourage the sharing and spreading of information, archiving as many techniques and weaves as possible. |