When making a large piece of Chain Maille, you will need a combination of both open and closed rings. Though you will need the majority of the rings closed. When making the top part of a coif, the part that curves around the top of the head, you will need open ring.
You will need a couple of pliers. If you are making jewelry from jump rings you will want to make sure to buy some pliers which do not have "teeth". Flat or smooth pliers will not scrape the rings. For my project it does not matter quite so much. But I still want it to look as nice as possible, so I am using my smooth pliers. I am using two types, one normal style, and one pair of curved pliers.
Take one ring. Grasp it with two pliers, one on each side of the ring with the cut end of the ring at the top in-between the two pliers.
Gently bring one hand towards you while pushing the other hand away from you, which will open the ring. This is not the best picture example of it, but hopefully it will give an idea of what to do.
To make a closed ring it is the same process, but rather than twisting the ring open, bring both ends so that they meet up and close. Some times you will need to move one end just past the "closed" position. Then move it slightly back to give a completely closed look. There are times when you will close the ring, without going past the "closed" position. When you put the ring down it will still look like it is not completely closed. Bringing the ring just beyond the closed position, then back again to a true closed position will help the ring hold it's closed shape.
Picture of open rings:
Picture of closed rings:
Notice how the ends of each ring meet together to make a round flat ring.
Now that I have a good number of closed and open rings, it is time to start the construction of our coif!
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