ZS Art Jewelry & Glass: New for Spring: "Duality" chainmaille designs

I've spent some time lately thinking about what sets my chainmaille apart from the chainmaille made by others, and one of the things that came to mind is my ability to put different finishes on the metals, either pre or post-weaving. Over the past few years, I have spent an almost inordinate amount of time trying to figure out how to refine the surface of the rather rough titanium I start with, so that I can achieve a higher quality polished look on the finished pieces, and in that process, I discovered how to do some other things. For one, I figured out how to put an absolutely amazing shine on almost any kind of metal (titanium is STILL difficult), but also I discovered how to get a very nice satin finish as well. It isn't quite sandblasting, but it's close enough!

In light of this little epiphany that I had, I have come up with a new set of chainmaille designs for this Spring. I call them "duality". These designs will feature not just multiple metals, but also multiple FINISHES on those metals.

The first piece I made like this was for a custom order for a customer who asked for a steel and titanium full persian chain (continuous). He wanted it with satin finished titanium and polished steel to help make the two similarly colored metals contrast more. The results were not bad, but with the color of steel & titanium so close, that was to be expected.

Steel & titanium continuous full persian

A closeup of the test chain shows the difference a little better:

Polished steel & satin titanium full persian, close up

I took this concept a little further with the first of my new Duality pieces. To start, I opted to work with some polished steel, polished copper and polished bronze along with satin titanium and satin brass.