Leather Jacket Update #1

The left sleeve will be chain mail at least to the elbow.

I'm doing it from scratch. I want to spend as little as possible on this this thing. Anyhow I borrowed my father-in-law's electric drill and got a piece of scrap metal from the welding shop I worked at before I was a teacher:


Then I got some left over wire from when I built a Trumpeter Swan from paper mache and used the drill to make tightly coiled springs:


Next I cut all the 'coil loops' apart with a wire cutter:


Lastly, I weave the mail from the cut loops. Here is the start:


Notice my hands taped up with duct tape in those photos? My delicate hands began to blister after 15 minutes of cutting. Duct tape (and ingenuity) came to my rescue.