Just the thing for your rupees or your dice!
In this Instructable you're going to learn how to make a chainmaille dice bag with a Triforce on both sides of it. The bag you see is the finished item and can easily hold five standard sets of D&D dice, with room for more. It's holding 61 dice in the photo, to be exact. I have notes for ways to modify this pattern to suit your needs, too. Feel free to experiment!
This project assumes some basic knowledge of chainmaille but I'll be including tips throughout for those new to the craft, so don't let it intimidate you. As I always say, "Making chainmaille isn't hard. The hard part is actually finishing it."
In this Instructable you're going to learn how to make a chainmaille dice bag with a Triforce on both sides of it. The bag you see is the finished item and can easily hold five standard sets of D&D dice, with room for more. It's holding 61 dice in the photo, to be exact. I have notes for ways to modify this pattern to suit your needs, too. Feel free to experiment!
This project assumes some basic knowledge of chainmaille but I'll be including tips throughout for those new to the craft, so don't let it intimidate you. As I always say, "Making chainmaille isn't hard. The hard part is actually finishing it."
Remove these ads by
Signing UpStep 1: Tools & Materials
Tools:
2 Pairs of Pliers *
Not pictured - Scissors (to cut the drawstring later)
Materials:
1100 Green anodized aluminum rings - 16 ga. 1/4"
200 Gold anodized aluminum rings - 16 ga. 1/4"
Drawstring material - I use leather cord
Drawstring stopper - You can find these in the "Sewing Notions" area of most craft stores. You could also use a large-hole bead for a more rustic "period" look.
Not Pictured - PATIENCE
Optional:
A single 16 ga. 5/16" ring for the base. You could use one of the 1/4" rings, but it's kind of tricky to start and doesn't look as good.
Note: The ring amounts I give are rounded up to the nearest 100 to account for things like plier slippage, mis-cut rings, anodization goofs, etc. Better to have too many rings than too few!
* I strongly recommend bent nose pliers, but really any pair of pliers with smooth flat jaws will work. Don't use pliers with round jaws or those with teeth, as these will mar the surface of the rings and possibly scratch the anodization clean off.
2 Pairs of Pliers *
Not pictured - Scissors (to cut the drawstring later)
Materials:
1100 Green anodized aluminum rings - 16 ga. 1/4"
200 Gold anodized aluminum rings - 16 ga. 1/4"
Drawstring material - I use leather cord
Drawstring stopper - You can find these in the "Sewing Notions" area of most craft stores. You could also use a large-hole bead for a more rustic "period" look.
Not Pictured - PATIENCE
Optional:
A single 16 ga. 5/16" ring for the base. You could use one of the 1/4" rings, but it's kind of tricky to start and doesn't look as good.
Note: The ring amounts I give are rounded up to the nearest 100 to account for things like plier slippage, mis-cut rings, anodization goofs, etc. Better to have too many rings than too few!
* I strongly recommend bent nose pliers, but really any pair of pliers with smooth flat jaws will work. Don't use pliers with round jaws or those with teeth, as these will mar the surface of the rings and possibly scratch the anodization clean off.
Visit Our Store »
Go Pro Today »
Keep up the terrific work, BTW. :)
Laughed so much:P so going to do this right now!!!!
Aluminium is light + shiny, but go to the local hardware store and check all the metal wires you can find... they shouldn't be too flexible.
One more tip, ones you finished you're shirt, it'll get dirty. if you clean it with a brush, it'll get a nice shadow/ airbrush effect... if you want it shiny like new... put it in an old fashioned potato bag with clean dry sand. close the bag and move it around... or even better invite you're ring lord friends and play some games throwing the bag around... it'll be like new :-)
and lastly... if you are going to wear this shirt, make sure you have a padded shirt under it!!! it'll keep you safe from hundreds of little bruises.
PS Rabbit dance: brilliant design, loving it!!! I admit being a bit jealous I never thought about making gadgets like that!!
Anyway, that said, here's what I recommend:
If you're making your shirt for costume purposes, go with bright aluminum. My husband does stage combat with a local theatre troupe and the bright aluminum maille shirt he wears looks great on stage! It's also light enough that he can do all the cool stage moves in it with no problems. Aluminum is a lot easier on the hands and the whole shirt weighs about 10 pounds. The steel shirts that I've made average around 30 pounds.
As for how much you need, that depends on the final shirt size, the design (total length, sleeves/no sleeves, etc) and what size ring you want to use. The Ring Lord has kits available with instructions on making shirts. Look in their "Projects and Kits" section and have a look at their Chainmaille Armor kits. If you like the look of what they have up, I'd say just buy the kit and maille away! If you want something different (like longer sleeves, a pattern inlay, etc) you can use their ring sets as a guide and buy your rings accordingly. There are plenty of shirt patterns out there too, so look around. I recommend mailleartisans.org and deviantart.com for inspiration in that respect.
The rings you see here are the machine-cut ones. I like the depth of color better as opposed to the saw-cut. If you want some heavier contrast between the Triforces and the background, you can get machine-cut green rings (which are slightly matte) and gold saw-cut rings (which are really shiny) for the Triforces. But be aware that saw-cut rings can be trickier to close because they have a wider kerf. It's not any more difficult, but it does take more time to do.
But I do love the saw-cut rings, especially how seamless everything looks once they're put together. I only wish their colors were richer, else I would use them more. (They used to offer enamelled copper in 16 ga. Oh, how I miss those jewel tones!)
Marathon the Lord of the Rings extended editions and you'll probably be done (or very close to done) by the end of them! That's what I did. ^_^