Chain Number One

I pretty much completed my first chain.  This isn't a very good photo, but here I am wearing it after I finished the clasp.  Since then I've blackened it (with Jax aluminum blackener) and used an abrasive polishing paper to brighten and remove some of the patina on couple of the links.  I'm waiting for my new tumbler to arrive and I'll be tossing the chain in there to see what kind of finish I might get.

While making these chains and learning about aluminum, I'm looking for efficient ways to saw, file and finish the metal, in which I am exerting the least amount of effort and creating as little dust as possible.  I would really like to avoid sanding because this creates really miniscule dust which I'd rather not breathe in, have all over my skin and clothes, nor wash down the drain.  I don't have a dust collector (nor do I have room nor $ for one at the moment).  So, since I'm not sanding much, I'm trying to be conscious of my file marks.  Perhaps I can live with them.  We'll see what kind of results I get with the tumbler.

Eventually, I will be using my small hydraulic press to stamp out jewelry components, such as these links, which will eliminate the dust created from sawing.  But I will still need to finish the edges.  I've jumped ahead...  But in the back of my mind, as I create these links, I imagine shapes being stamped out instead of sawed by hand.  My awareness of my hydraulic press is influencing my designs, for sure.

This first chain lays pretty nicely on the body, but when I wore it around, I found I didn't like the way a section of it would flip over.  I removed a couple of links and it now it doesn't flip so much.  But in my next chains, I'd like to accommodate for some flipping, design it so it looks good if it flips around on an active person.  I feel like this one would wear well on a composed person in a black dress, going somewhere fancy, not running around with a one-year old on a playground (which is how I wore it).  This is a pretty flat necklace and I'd like to make something with a bit more dimension.  Also, the shape and function of these links make for a more static necklace.  But as I was designing these links, I was really interested in how the links would line up and move.  I wanted to allow some movement, but limit it so they would fall in line and all be oriented in the same direction.  I was playing with the shape of the hole, and the shape of the connecting tab.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with this first chain and what I learned from it.  I don't know if I'll ever make these components again, but I'm sure I'll the make use of the information I gleaned from the process.