Last Day for One World One Heart!

Red Zone Stretchy Chainmaille Bracelet - You could design yours like this!

Unless you spend the whole day I doubt you'll get through all of the 911 bloggers giving away goodies, but you can make a nice dent!  At least go to THIS POST on my blog and enter mine, if you haven't, to win colorful stretchy chainmaille bracelets like the one above, your choice of colors!  I'm already over 200 entrants so I will probably give away 2 bracelets!  :)

Then go to the One World, One Heart website and check out some of the other fabulous giveaways.  You have 911 chances to win and the most entrants I've seen on one item was 360 or so, so you have an excellent chance to win something!

~oOo~

My Etsy Valentine: Hearts, Chocolates and Flowers #9
A daily feature till Valentine's Day



Medieval Studded Heart Ring by 3 Rexes Jewelry

We're getting down to crunch time here.  If you haven't ordered something for your valentine, it'd better be good.  So now we're getting to the good stuff.  The crap honey I forgot but look how awesome this is stuff.

There's not much in 3 Rexes' shop that my hubby could buy for me that I wouldn't absolutely adore.  Tons of it is Valentine-perfect, too, go look.  I think I'll probably be asking for tools for the next gazillion holidays, though, and making my own stuff.  So I might have to buy my own 3 Rexes ;)

Chainmaille: How We Got Here

Judith at Second Renaissance

Since I have a lot of people breezing through who might not be familiar with maille, I thought I'd say a word or two on the state of chainmaille in the world today.

Of course, in ancient times it was made of bronze, brass, or steel and worn as armor. It's much lighter than plate armor and much easier to fix if damaged.

Some time in the last couple of decades the Renaissance faire-going and SCA-attending crowd started making their own armor out of coiled rings. Usually steel. But steel's heavy, and if you're fighting with PVC swords, or not fighting at all, you don't really need all that much protection. Aluminum is one third the weight of steel, so it was a natural choice. From there it was a short step for the ladies of said geeky persuasions to start wearing bits of their own chainmaille... necklaces, headdresses, that sort of thing. The guys made themselves rings and bracelets. They experimented with the weaves and started inventing amazing new ones.

Along came the hobby jeweler (probably just behind scrapbooking in the hobbyist craze, to judge from the amount of inventory at my local Hobby Lobby). They were using a lot of wire anyway... I don't know who started it, but really, chainmaille is a natural fit here. It requires a minimum of tools, and done in silver is mesmerizing. Plus... if you've never had a piece of well made chainmaille in your hands you're missing out. The feel is extremely sensual and incredibly fun to fidget with if you've got restless hands. Chainmaille went from the bits of "geek" jewelry to sleek creations in glimmering precious metals. And the jewelers carried the experimentation even further, and added other jewelry making techniques and materials into the mix.

I guess I wouldn't call chainmaille "mainstream" yet, although it's made its appearance on the fashion runways in the past few years (wait... that's not mainstream, never mind). But that might be a good thing, because "unique" is the word I hear most often to describe my work, which I like. And you want to wear something unique, too, right?

So whether you're looking for something to wear with your Renfaire costume, a stretchy bracelet to wear to high school, a slinky choker to wear with that little black dress, a sturdy stainless steel bracelet to wear to your blue collar job, or armor against the mundane, you'll find it in chainmaille.

So here's my suggestion: head on over to Etsy and search "chainmaillers team" or go to our Etsy Chainmaillers' Guild blog, where you'll find an amazing array of styles and materials to fit your mood and your personal style. And of course, I'd love to work with you personally to make a custom item exactly the way you want it.

Retail

I'm happy to say You've Got Maille went "retail" today, as my hairdresser at Reflections Salon locally offered to let me put a few things in her store.  I took a carousel full of earrings and a treasure chest full of stretchies like the one above.  It's good for the soul to hear people oohing and ahhing over stuff you've made... a great fuss was made over everything and I think it'll actually do really well there.  In fact, I made a sale before I even left the store. :)

Holidays!!

Halloween Magic by Katerina Art

Okay, I'm psyched because I've been so busy that I suddenly realized... the holiday season kind of kicks off this weekend! I spent the years between teenagerhood and about six years ago not celebrating holidays so they kind of mean a lot to me now. I get a huge kick out of the whole holiday experience and I gotta tell you, the people (and I think they are in the majority) who are a huge drag on the holidays, I just don't get. Do you really hate them that much? Maybe you should think about why, and what you can do to make it better.

So I have two things to say to you.

One, don't stress this year. I mean it. If it means doing things ahead of time so you're not cramming at the last minute and hating all of this, DO IT. Do your shopping online, and start RIGHT NOW. I have a crazy suggestion... go to Etsy and start looking for presents. There's unique stuff in every price range that you'll NEVER find at Wal-Mart. You can skip the wretched experience of fighting holiday last minute shopping crowds and let your mailman bring YOU the stuff this year. My brother got caffeinated soap one year. I got my hackey sack loving friend a chainmaille one. Another friend loves Friday the 13th and I got him a Jason keychain. Make a list. Shop online. Do it now. A couple of other favorite sites for unique item shopping: ThinkGeek and CafePress. And -- I confess it, I won't sell there but I shop there for Christmas all the time -- Ebay. Go to Etsy first though.

Two, renew your holiday traditions this year. If you don't have kids, go kidnap a niece, nephew, even a neighbor kid. (Make cookies. Decorate a tree. Carve a pumpkin. Hang lights. Search for a simple online craft to do. Make pine cone ornaments, or a really pretty one thet commemorates this year. Decorate a tree outside with strung popcorn and pinecones with peanut butter and bird seed and celebrate with the birds and squirrels.) And remember what the holidays looked like when you were that little. They were magic. They still are, if you let them. I have a couple of really fun traditions that our family does that I'll be sharing over the next few weeks that I hope will make your family's holiday odyssey more fun.

Oh, and keep a journal or blog about what you're doing for the holidays and give me a yell here so I can share with you. :)