This is by far the “fan favorite” out of all the maille I have made. It’s one of my favorites as well, and provided some surprising challenges!

The piece itself is made from bright aluminum with some tiny Czech glass drops attached. The connectors and enamelled butterfly pendant are set with Swarovski crystals. The clasp is a large floral-themed toggle, so the whole thing looks pretty from any angle.

But first I have to say that Brian has an amazing eye for findings and embellishments, to the point where I will often steer him towards an interesting collection of them and then ask him to make the final pick. Even when it comes to clasps, he will invariably choose something great that I either didn’t notice the first time or initially dismissed for one reason or another. He found the green butterfly on his own and said, “I’ll bet you could do something really amazing with this”.

Gee, no pressure there, right? *laughs*

The butterfly sat on the edge of my workspace for a solid month before I noticed that I had some tiny matching teardrop beads. I set these beside the butterfly and could feel the gears starting to turn in the back of my head, so I busied myself with some earrings while they spun.

I learned long ago that my subconscious is like an insubordinate engine. It only needs a little spark to get going, but a well-placed kick can do wonders! After that it’s best to just leave it alone and let it run.

Once I finished the earrings I remembered the green crystal links I had and put those next to rest of the parts – Perfect Match! Right then everything clicked. I was so happy and started right away on making the triangular sections. That part went relatively quickly (as chainmaille goes – the whole piece took about three days) but work ground to a halt once I hit the centerpiece. The pendant has two vertical bars in the back, with two holes going horizontally on each side. It was originally intended for beadwork, and probably specifically as a choker, given the configuration of everything on the back.

I remember thinking, “How am I supposed to connect this thing?”

First I tried making a large maille sheet and just using four rings to simply attach the butterfly to it, like setting a stone on a bezel. That didn’t work; it sat funny and seemed to want to flip over. After a few tries I realized that I had to separate the center chunk of maille in half and reshape it so that everything would be properly balanced. Aluminum is a lightweight metal, and the pendant itself made up the bulk of the necklace’s weight as it was, so getting the balance was tricky.

After a few tries I managed to get everything balanced and the butterfly set at just the right place, collar bone-wise. Luckily the clasp was an easy choice, so I was able to add that and the little green beads without any problems. Getting the pendant on right took a whole day, but I think it was worth it! Once the necklace was finished I just had to wait for a sunny enough day to take the photo you see here.

The current owner is a girl who bought it to match her green butterfly-themed prom dress. She asked me to add a few links to the back so that she could also wear it as a headdress, and it worked beautifully both ways. I was sad to see it go, but I’m sure she looked fabulous at the dance. ^_^