The beauty of jewelry directly depends on the skill of the master and the sophistication of the patterns chosen for decoration. Because of this, authoring works are rapidly gaining popularity, containing much more personality through the use of original techniques and ornaments.
However, this applies only to products such as rings and earrings. In the choice of chains and bracelets, people tend to prefer jewelry made in a more traditional style. This is due to the fact that such categories of products appeal not only to the fair sex, but also to men who are more inclined to wear discreet, but high-quality things. So, fox tail weaving, used to create large chains and bracelets, is considered one of the most popular types of jewelry work.
Appearance story
The beginning of the manufacture of products made using a similar link-to-link method falls on the Bronze Age. The first examples of chains were found during excavations of royal graves in the city of Ur in the territory of the present Middle East.
However, it is impossible to reliably determine where the fox tail weaving comes from. Many attribute its appearance to the merits of Byzantine jewelers, which is fundamentally wrong, but quite understandable: in the 7th century, this technology was improved by Greek and Roman masters. They created methods for joining several rows of links in one strip. As a result, weaving "fox tail" is widespread in European countries and Russia.
Today, masters resort to its use to obtain copies of antique jewelry, create independent products, and also as an additional element in the author's work.
Features of weaving
The Fox Tail is often called Byzantine, but this is not entirely true. In fact, these species are somewhat different. Byzantine weaving is a kind of "Bismarck", and it is based on the combination of elements of different sizes, randomly directed into one link, which is why the jewelry has a rather massive appearance. In the "fox tail" all the rings are laid in one direction, which makes it more elegant.
However, today very few people know about this difference, as a result of which even the masters themselves sometimes combine both of these varieties into one, calling the “fox tail” weaving Byzantine.
Kinds
Thanks to the processing of links, the masters achieve various effects that add an originality to the product when creating jewelry using the fox tail technique. Weaving a chain or bracelet has several possible types that differ in the shape of the elements:
- The assembled "fox tail" consists of spirals twisted in different directions. Each link is assembled from six thin rings, manually connected by wire, which allows you to create a unique pattern. The cost of such a product will be extremely high.
- The circle is a variety famous for its durability. Due to the uniform distribution of the internal ligaments, the rounded spirals of the links cannot be broken.
- Semicircular weaving has a smaller bending radius of the element.
- The latter form has a square section and consists of rings, wire and links-bundles, which makes it ideal for creating massive chains and bracelets.
Moreover, such a chain ( fox tail weaving in any of the above modifications) has a good density, allowing you to put on additional pendants. Their number is not limited, however, they must have less than the total weight of the product, mass.
The benefits of weaving
The main advantage of this technique for creating jewelry is the variability of the materials used. The fox tail weave (gold, silver or brass - it doesn’t matter) always looks profitable and elegant. Note that the most popular chains and bracelets made of precious alloys, which affects the already high cost inherent in handmade items.
Also, this type of weaving has high strength and reliability during operation, since a complex system of connecting links does not allow tearing the product with bare hands, and the universal appearance makes it possible to wear jewelry daily without removing it.