Alright so considering I have over 20 weaves I've decided to condense these into 4 separate categories, and just run through the steps in each variant. Note feel free to visit my site: http://thatsalotofgiraffes.com/tabmail-2/ for HQ instructions and more individualized tutorials. There's also a gallery page and an about page talking about how my Soda Can Chain Mail came about. For reference all my weaves are original and I've only seen 1-2 styles that are close to mine on the internet, and I felt it would be better to show off my work and inspire others to make their own soda can chain mail.
This category is centered around TabMail as it focuses on combining tabs and rings (all the same size until you get to the specialty category which is another tutorial. This differs from TabScale as these weaves are more 'flat' and don't move like regular Scale Mail.
Things needed.
Tabs - A whole lot of them, see each step for Sq Ft. per weave, but note it varies from 300-800 per sq. ft.
Rings - The rings used here are 16 ga 1/4 AR 4.2 (Machine Cut) Bright Aluminum Rings I purchase mine from TheRingLord most weaves you need just about as many rings as you have tabs.
Pliers - Again I use the RingLord's plier set - it's cheap and for over 4 years of use they've been perfect in every way. You can use your own pliers though.
Time - This is harder than the ChainTab as it usually requires more focus - I can do ChainTab blindfolded.
I'll cover a couple different styles here each in it's own "step"
This category is centered around TabMail as it focuses on combining tabs and rings (all the same size until you get to the specialty category which is another tutorial. This differs from TabScale as these weaves are more 'flat' and don't move like regular Scale Mail.
Things needed.
Tabs - A whole lot of them, see each step for Sq Ft. per weave, but note it varies from 300-800 per sq. ft.
Rings - The rings used here are 16 ga 1/4 AR 4.2 (Machine Cut) Bright Aluminum Rings I purchase mine from TheRingLord most weaves you need just about as many rings as you have tabs.
Pliers - Again I use the RingLord's plier set - it's cheap and for over 4 years of use they've been perfect in every way. You can use your own pliers though.
Time - This is harder than the ChainTab as it usually requires more focus - I can do ChainTab blindfolded.
I'll cover a couple different styles here each in it's own "step"
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Signing UpStep 1: Flat TabMail
A simple weave made alongside TabScale Inverse as a combo of the 2 Flat TabScale variants. This is incredibly flexible especially compared to the Reinforced ver, but overall it feels bleak.
Difficulty: 1/5 – This is very easy to do.
Flexibility: 5/5 – It bends any way you want it.
Tabs per sq. ft: ~450
Rings per sq. ft: ~325
1. Lay the tabs out with the second row on top of the 1st and 3rd.
2. Put a ring through the 2nd rows upper and lower half.
3. Continue out width-wise as you wish.
4. Lay a 4th row ontop of the 3rd row’s upper half.
5. Connect with a ring.
6. This is basically the same as 4 but you go underneath.
7. And connect.
8. Continue this out as you wish for swatch size.
Difficulty: 1/5 – This is very easy to do.
Flexibility: 5/5 – It bends any way you want it.
Tabs per sq. ft: ~450
Rings per sq. ft: ~325
1. Lay the tabs out with the second row on top of the 1st and 3rd.
2. Put a ring through the 2nd rows upper and lower half.
3. Continue out width-wise as you wish.
4. Lay a 4th row ontop of the 3rd row’s upper half.
5. Connect with a ring.
6. This is basically the same as 4 but you go underneath.
7. And connect.
8. Continue this out as you wish for swatch size.
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I have a lot of poptabs, I use ribbon or plastic strips to thread, when i get rings i'll try those ones.