Sparklesweet said:
"I have made this chain for years using 14g/8mm rings.
http://derakon.chainmailstore.com/hp41.html
It makes a beautiful and satisfying chain to wear. When I learned to make it the teacher called it the Columbus chain. It was everyones favorite to make. It's well worth the effort to learn."
I think the more common name for this weave is Half Persian 4-1 (variants are Half Persian 3-1, 5-1 and even 6-1). Whilst I agree that this is a great looking chain, I would politely suggest that the Half Persians are NOT beginner weaves. Once you get going, Half Persians are fine but they're a beggar to get started and I'd hate to see you get discouraged.
If you're looking for a real beginner weave, I'd suggest Euro 4-1 or Byzantine. Here's a link to Zlosk's "recommended ARs" chart which also has a link to "everything you ever wanted to know about aspect ratio", just in case you need more info. on what aspect ratio means. http://home.comcast.net/~zlosk/maille/artable.html You'll note that Zlosk recommends an AR of around 3.5 for Byzantine and 4 for Euro 4-1. Personally, I like my Euro a little tighter for jewellery (for clothing you want it a bit looser so it moves a bit). I've made several Euro 4-1 pieces using rings with an AR of 3.6. In 14g, Byzantine is definitely gonna be on the chunky size and even Euro won't be a light, delicate piece but that's just the nature of 14g.
To be on the safe side, once you know what ring size you want to use, I'd strongly recommend that you do some extra math and figure out whether or not you have enough wire to make your project. Trust me, NOTHING is more frustrating than being 6 or so rings short!!! If you don't have enough wire, then I'd suggest you buy more, make all your rings from the two different batches of wire and mix them together. Wire is manufactured within certain tolerances and one batch may be very slightly thicker or thinner than another. If you make rings from this slightly different wire and mix them up, when you weave your chain, the difference won't be obvious. However, if you start with one kind of wire and then switch to another, the very slight different in wire thickness may be reflected in the weave and it could look odd.
Tatia - 7/16, 1/4 etc. can refer to a couple of things: it's either the mandrel used to make the rings, the inner diameter of the ring or the outer diameter of the ring. Many manufacturers use the mandrel size used to make their rings to refer to their ring sizes but the actual ring itself will be a teensy bit larger than the mandrel due to springback. Different metals have different springback so a fine silver ring made on a 1/4" mandrel will be smaller than a stainless steel ring made on the exact same mandrel. Most of the time, this isn't a big deal at all but if you're working with any of the more aspect-ratio (i.e. ring size) sensitive weaves such as Jens Pind or Dragonscale, springback can make the difference between your weave looking fabulous or being, quite literally, impossible to make at all.
Hope this helps and do post pics when you're done!