I orignally opened this blog last year, intending it to be a hiking blog. I lived in the San Francisco bay area then and there were a lot of great places to visit and things to see. Now however, after a 3000 mile move and some readjusting, I decided that I wanted to blog about my other great love - making things out of chain mail.
Now, I guess the first thing I should address is what chain mail is. No, I am not referring to the annoying habit of sending unsolicited emails or snail mail to unsuspecting people and telling them to pass it on to fifteen thousand of their closest friends or they will have 20 years of bad luck. Chain mail - also referred to as chainmail, chain maille or just maille - is the process of knitting together circular rings to form a pattern. The most obvious example is the armor used during the middle ages and stretching back to the time of the Roman Empire.
In my case, I've made jewelry, banners, bags, purses, keychains, Christmas ornaments, odds-and-ends type items, Barbie armor and I've started on a mail shirt made of Titanium. However, since this metal is pretty expensive to work in, it is a very long-term project. I picked up the hobby by chance in 2006 and in the intervening five years, I've worked to hone my technique, improve my tools and learn new weaves. I'm finally getting serious about setting up a new web presence and marketing my work so watch this space over the next few months. Things will move somewhat slowly because I'm working full time and taking classes toward my master's degree in entomology, but I hope to make steady progress.
Cheers!
Jax
