Pictures

Just wanted to post a picture of the banner's progress as of today (then I went and added another couple hundred rings afterward. Heh.). 

Closeup of the inlay:

And a wide shot to show the whole banner: 

So that's it.  about 1/6 of the way done and just starting into the good stuff. :-)

Projects Galore

Well, it's summer time here in Virginia Beach and dang is it hot!  Too hot for this northwestern gal.  Ergo, I'm spending a lot of time indoors with the AC on.  Not so great for my weight loss efforts but pretty fantastic for my mailling.  I'm never at a loss for projects but I have a few major ones right now.  The first is my Slytherin House banner which, when finished, will contain 55,000 rings and will measure about 35" x 40".  As of this post I'm about 9000 rings into the project. 

The day before yesterday I got several bags of anodized aluminum punched rings with the intention of making a purse out of them.  They were a bit smaller than I thought they'd be so now I get to do some experimentation to figure out the best way to utilize them.  I inadvertantly discovered the way to make a diamond-shaped earring out of them so that was pretty cool!  I will make a pair and post them to my shop soon, to be sure. 

Other projects include a purse made of glow-in-the-dark EDPM and black anodized aluminum rings that is pretty well done - I'm just finishing up the strap, a chainmail pencil cup made of stainless steel and brass, and making a light box so that I can start getting better pictures.  For the latest competition on the maille artisans international league message board, I really want to make a chainmail sculpture of the TARDIS from Doctor Who but I don't know if I'll be able to tackle that project.  We'll see!

A new beginning

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