Can tab chainmail can be pretty cool

It's amazing how creative people can become when you give them a pile of something and let them see what they can do.  I've heard people compare it to chainmail, and when I found this photo at thebeerdrifter.com it seemed like a perfect comparison.  I don't understand the shorts/chaps choice, but whoever made this piece did a beautiful job on the logo on the front. Have any of you dabbled in the can tab arts?

How do you spell your chainmail?

There are 3 common choices of wording/spelling for what it is I do, and people constantly use different spellings.  There's a lot of different reasoning for choosing what you use, and I've always stood behind chainmail as the proper spelling.  Here's what I think about the different options.

Chainmail - To me, this is the only correct way to spell the word that means armor.  It's one word, simple and straightforward, doesn't have any unnecessary fluff, and you get exactly what you think.  Cool armor.  ...or a RPG from Gary Gygax where people wear chainmail armor.  Go with the Gygax.

Chain mail - Chain mail is what you get in your mailbox that tells you to forward a message to 45 of your closest friends or a thousand birds will fly over and poo on your car before midnight.  That's no fun.

Chainmaille - This word shouldn't exist.  Someone wanted to try to make chainmail fancy and put a fluffy extra 'le' on the end.  The only thing this is good for is making the word more difficult to spell.

That's my two cents on it at least.  What do you think? :)

More new projects

I'm always looking for new, fun things to try doing with chain and chainmail, and I'm really excited about the new one.  It's a bit less chainmail and a bit more chain, but involves a lot of processing, and fun!  Glass, chain, fire, sandblasting...  I want to get one piece completely finished before posting photos, but I'm hoping that by this time next week there's a new and super cool item for you to check out.

Customer chatter this week has been very clothing oriented.  Personally, I think it's really fun and cool to take something historical like chainmail and use it as modern clothing and accessories.  That said, I AM the person who does chainmail as a job.  What do you think about bringing 'old' and historical pieces back into modern fashion?

Any fun events going on in your area?

I think one of the hardest parts of the chainmail business has been finding places to show/exhibit in person that are chainmail friendly and don't cost a fortune.  There are tons of local venues to set up at with affordable fees, but chainmail doesn't mix well with flea markets and country kitchen crafts.  A large event like DragonCon or a big Renaissance faire would be great and tons of fun, but there's easily several thousand dollars in expenses tied up in those.  I need chainmail friendly geekery venues that don't cost a fortune!

So I ask you, my chainmail fans and fellow lovers of the art, to let me know if there's anything near you (and hopefully me) that could use a dose of chainmail.  Faires, festivals, whatever... if chainmail fits the venue I'll take a look at it.  I prefer things in the East TN/Western NC/SW VA areas as that's closer home, but will look at other areas as well.

Thank you everyone for following Marci's Chain Designs, and I hope to hear about more awesome events from you!

I make chainmail, but I don't make it like they used to.

I had lots of questions from patrons of the show last two weekends about armor and the Middle Ages, and while the process I use is similar to what was done historically my butted mail isn't what they used.  Butted mail is created when you close rings so that the ends are butted against each other. This picture is a good example of a piece of butted chainmail.

If you were wearing armor for defense, you wanted riveted mail.  The ends of these rings overlapped each other, were flattened, and a hole was punched through so each ring could be riveted together.  This made the piece stronger and much less likely for the rings to unintentionally come apart.

This site gives a simple and interesting explanation of different types of armor and how they were created.  It's amazing how labor intensive it was, and still is, just to make a single piece of armor.

Local shows the next two weekends.

I enjoy traveling, but sometimes it's nice to be working closer home.  There's a lot less driving and expense, which leaves me with more time to create.  Fun!

Coming up this weekend is Art in the Park at Memorial Park in downtown Johnson City.  I'll be there on Friday, Apr 10 from 1-7 and Saturday 10-6.  This is free for you to attend and all of the vendors are juried, so there should be a lot of quality work for you to check out.  If you're not familiar with a 'juried' show, that means each vendor had to submit an application with photos and be approved in order to participate.  Juried shows are where you'll find the really cool stuff.

Next weekend is the Old Oak Festival at Tusculum College in Greeneville, TN.  This event is also free to attend, starts on Friday Apr 17 at 1:00 and continues through the weekend until Sunday evening.  Normally I'm in my tent outside at this show, but after the crazy weather of the last few years I've moved indoors.  So come on in, take a break from the weather, and check out the new and awesome stuff I have for you.

If you come visit me at either of these venues and mention this blog post, I'll give you a free gift with any purchase!  Who doesn't love free stuff?

It's time for wardrobe!

Whenever I'm at an event and people realize chainmail is armor, there are always questions about what is involved with making it. Being a chain mail artist is tricky when it comes to making full pieces of armor, simply because there is so much time involved in the process.  I've had customers ask about the cost of having a piece custom-made and many of them balk when the price is a few hundred dollars. It isn't inexpensive, but most people don't realize that a handmade "shirt" can easily have over 30 hours of time put into it.

As a result, I don't make a lot of armor. Costumers can find machine made regalia online for a much lower price, and many of the truly hardcore armor lovers decide to get their hands dirty and take on the challenge themselves.  I'm completely fine with this, and enjoy talking with people who are new to the process. In fact, there has been so much interest from DIY people that I am going to start offering classes at conventions and venues that allow it.  So if you are interested in taking a class or are part of an event and would like to include a chainmail armor and jewelry making class, let me know!

Anyway… It's been a while since a larger piece has come across the workbench and decided that I wanted to make one for myself. The photograph above is the work in progress, and it definitely isn't traditional historical armor. The plan for the finished product is to have a shirt to wear to shows as a display piece, and I added the color to make it more fashionable. Because of the small ring size, it's taking quite a while to finish. If you want to check it out and get a closer look, come visit me at one of my upcoming shows. The next one will be on April 10–11 in Johnson City and you can find out more about it on my Facebook page.