We will return to regularly scheduled programming shortly.

Hi guys!

Sorry to have been MIA for so long, I have been in Europe for the past 5 weeks, right after I finished my final exams for the spring semester. I am currently in the process of getting back into the swing of things, and starting the arduous process of moving out of my current apartment. Please be patient with me while I get everything back in order.

That said, I do plan to make a post about general weaving technique, even though the poll was overwhelmingly in favor of pretty buttons, and I'll have it up as soon as I can. It will require a second set of hands to get all the photos done, so expect it to be a bit before I can post anything.

Fear not faithful readers! (all 3 of you) I will provide your chainmaille fix in the near future. :)

The People Have Spoken

The poll is closed, results are in:

I hope you're happy.

Weavin' 101: European 4-in-1

European 4-in-1 is the quintessential, basic, prolific, and most easily recognizable weave in chainmaille. It is the weave we immediately think of when someone talks about chainmaille. It is the weave most commonly used and seen in almost every application, and it is the first weave that is learned by just about every mailler. In this post, I'll give you a bit of information about this weave and some of the projects I've completed using it.

Weavin' 101: Byzantine

Weave-time~

Now we get to the delicious, gooey center of my blog, weaving! These posts will be interspersed with my projects, since the projects will make a great deal more sense when you see the weaves necessary to make them.

Head on past the jump for more about this neat chain weave!

Make vs. Buy Revisited

New Rings! Woo!

A short post before I get into the various weaves, I got my new rings in yesterday and I'm excited to get into the nitty gritty, but to tide you over while I get ready for my next long post, here's some more information about the make vs. buy argument.

The Basics: Tools

Sorry about the update gap. I thought I would have free time within the last day or two to write this post (I knew it was going to be a long one) but all of a sudden I had plans. Weird. Anyway, on to business.

This post will detail the various tools I use in making my chainmaille projects. I have a couple completed samples and projects I will show in future posts, and I will explain why I used certain pliers and not others for each project.

Head on past the jump for a description of all my various mailling tools!

The Basics: Rings

The most basic starting point of any chainmaille project is, of course, the rings. Simpler projects like jewelry average in the hundreds of rings,while bigger projects like armor can reach into the tens of thousands. So naturally, knowing what rings to select for what purpose is one of the most important aspects of starting any project.

This post will give a general overview of the types of rings and ring sizes which are used in making chainmaille, and why it is appropriate to use some types for certain projects and not others.

Welcome!

This is a blog meant to document my foray into learning how to weave chainmaille.

In my posts, I will be documenting my progress on current projects, trying new weaves, and generally giving my opinions and experiences about weaving chainmaille.

The basics:

For now, I do not make my own rings. All of the rings you see on this site will most likely have been purchased at The Ring Lord, which is a most excellent site for a company operating out of Canada.

I will try to be as thorough as possible, using lots of pictures and descriptions, but if you have any questions or comments about my work, please feel free to add them in the comments.

I hate reading blogs, stories, articles, etc. that use a lot of acronyms, but in some places it will be unavoidable. Because I know how irritating it can be, I offer this compromise: every post I make that includes acronyms will have a guide in the post, so you never have to go hunting thorugh my blog for what the acronym means. Most of what I use will be common throughout the mailling community as well, so the sites I link will most likely use the same abbreviations.

There are dozens of ways to do the same weave, and there are some that work better depending on materials, tools, personal preference, etc. I will, whenever possible, link to the source I found my instructions for whatever weaves I present so you can see how I made my various projects. This blog is not intended as instructional, but there are plenty of resources on the web to find out about learning to weave from scratch.

Posts will be tagged with the tools and rings sizes/types that I use or discuss in the post. As I said, I will try to be specific, but if you want more information I encourage you to ask in the comments.

I hope you enjoy reading about my experiences as I enter the world of chainmaille!