New stuff on sale every week on Facebook!

My totes are heavy.  Too heavy.  Every time I travel to a show I take two huge totes stuffed with chainmail and tree art, and if I keep that up I'll be spending a fortune at the masseuse and chiropractor just so I can stand up straight.  That means it's cleaning time, so I'm having a sale!  Each week on Facebook I'm posting a small lot of items for 30-50% off.  Some pieces are styles in the store, and others are unique and truly one of a kind pieces that have never been posted.  You need to follow my Facebook link on the right and Like Marci's Chain Designs so you always know what's on sale.  Each lot of items is only on sale for the week it's posted, so if you see something you like you'll need to grab it quickly!

What is your favorite item that you would like to see posted in a sale?

Be safe on the fourth. Don't wear chainmail.

Sometimes people make assumptions that aren't true.  We've all done it before and will probably do it again, but be careful to check out things regarding your personal safety.  Chainmail was excellent armor in the middle ages when sword battles were the norm, but wearing it doesn't mean you're safe from everything.  Chainmail will not protect you from the following things.

Bullets
Acid
A grill
Water
Squishy Food
Mosquitos
The IRS
Fireworks

I hope you have a good, long 4th of July weekend.  Please do us all the favor of not protecting yourself from fireworks with chainmail.

It's almost WNC Celtic weekend

Next weekend, June 19-21, is the WNC Celtic Festival in Asheville NC. This show is great, and are a few reasons why you should be there. 

Marci's Chain Designs will be there, along with other vendors who have all sorts of Celtic goodness. 

You'll see great bands with Rathkeltair, Cutthroat Shamrock and more. 

It's at Highland Brewing Company, so there will be beer!

It's going on all weekend, so you'll have three days worth of entertainment. 

Check out the Highland Brewing Company website for details, and mention seeing this post at my booth for a free gift with your chainmail purchase. 

Chain candle holders

This week's post is taking a step away from chainmail and into another chain based project.  I love finding practical ways to upcycle things and these new new wine bottle candle holders are (in my ever so humble opinion) a really beautiful way to do that.  They're usable outdoors, as the bottle protects the candle from breezes and misty rain.  It's a bit difficult to see in the photo, but on the left side you can see a bit of a decorative etching.  I'll have these for sale in a few different designs at the WNC Celtic Festival in Asheville and am looking forward to making as many of these as I can manage without drinking myself into oblivion. 

If you want to come out to the WNC Celtic Festival, which is free to attend on Friday and Sunday,  check out the Marci's Chain Designs facebook Events page for more information.  

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?