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Sorry, I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask this much detail about heraldic blazons.

I'm curious if traditional heraldry allows you to place a charge on top of a variation on the field. The variation of the field needs to follow the rule of tincture, so it must be made of alternating color and metal, which means any charge you put on it, whether metal or color, will violate the rule of tincture.

For instance:

Bendy of six, or and sable. A chief argent.

Whatever tincture you make the chief, it will violate the rule of tincture either because it will overlay the or (metal), or because it will overlay the sable (color).

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    Not a Genealogy question and so not suitable for this site.
    – Colin
    Aug 20, 2013 at 7:49
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    @Colin As an auxiliary sciences of history, heraldry is an essential part of (European) genealogy.
    – lejonet
    Aug 20, 2013 at 9:07
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    @ColeValleyGirl: If heraldry is on-topic, then this question is on-topic as it is quite explicitly about heraldry. I think since this site is still in beta, we need to decide as a community whether questions about heraldry in general are on topic or off topic. Personally, I think the volume for site is low enough that it could stand to have one or two closely adjacent topics like heraldry included in it, especially since these topics themselves will likely be low volume and since this is by far the most relevant site on Stack Exchange for such question. Just my opinion =).
    – brianmearns
    Aug 20, 2013 at 12:00
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    I didn't say it was off-topic, although perhaps you could point out which of the on-topic bullet points at genealogy.stackexchange.com/help/on-topic you think this falls under. I said it could be improved by demonstrating some relevance to our core subject matter.
    – user104
    Aug 20, 2013 at 12:46
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    In matters heraldic, rec.heraldry (a usenet newsgroup) is the go-to place for expert advice.
    – Andy Hatchett
    Aug 20, 2013 at 15:17

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Per Wikipedia,

Where a charge overlies a partition of the field, the rule [of tincture] does not apply.

So, a charge can be either color or metal when it is above a variation. The page on tinctures also mentions

Heraldic furs (i.e. ermine, vair and their variants) as well as "proper" (a charge coloured as it normally is in nature) are exceptions to the rule of tincture.

[...]

The rule [of tincture] also does not apply to charges placed upon party-coloured (divided) or patterned fields; a field party or patterned of a colour and metal may have a charge of either colour, metal, or party or patterned, placed on it

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