Heidi Klum wears chainmaille

So there I was watching the latest episode of Project Runway on the DVR with my wife before I left to work when I had a chainmaille siting. There Heidi Klum was as the runway show was about to start wearing a Byzantine necklace. (Sorry about the poor picture quality, but this is just a poor photo of my TV screen as the show was playing.) I'm not entirely sure what the material is; it's almost black, but really shiny almost silver-looking in spots, which could just be lights from the set. My initial thought was a sterling silver treating in liver of sulfur, but perhaps this is something a bit more unusual. The size also appears quite larger than what I've done, I'm guessing it's about 14ga.

MASSIVE Chainmaille Project

UPDATE 4/8/10: Haven't really put to much time into this project due to my work schedule the last 2 weeks, but I'm up to 50-something inches of JPL chain which is approximately 800 rings.
UPDATE 3/26/10: Created a Flickr set to keep a photographic record of the "Massive Chainmaille Project" "Massive Chainmaille Project"
UPDATE 3/17/10: Happy St. Patrick's Day! I recieved my TRL order for the "Massive Chainmaille Project" today! Let the chainmailling begin!
UPDATE 3/6/10: Just ordered my rings for the "Massive Chainmaille Project"; over 3lbs and some clasp and more wire for other things! Now I have to sit around and wait for about 2 weeks until they get here :-( 

Original post 3/2/10: I've been doing a lot of planning lately for a very massive chainmaille project. By massive I'm talking about close to 25,000 rings! I'm not going to tell you what it is I'm making yet, but I will tell you that it will be comprised of 4 different weaves:
1. Japanese 8-in-2 Cube
2. Full Persian
3. Jens Pind Linkage
4. Dragonscale
I will be using bright aluminum rings for this project and given my current estimates it will weigh in at over 3 pounds!

I've gotten about 300 rings done on this project, but I ran out of wire. Now I'm just waiting for some black anodized aluminum rings to be back in stock so I can complete my US Navy ribbon inlay and I'll be ordering the rings for the massive project too.

Not really chainmaille....

I came across this line of pop-tab and crochet purses and handbags from Escama Studio. While I know these items aren't chainmaille, I know there are chainmaillers out there who have worked with pop-tabs to make some amazing things. Escama Studio is a member of Fair Trade Federation (FTF) and each bag is signed by the individual who made it. Each of these bags are hand made using post-consumer recycled aluminum pop-tabs. One of my favorites is the Leda.

Tiffany & Co. + Elsa Peretti = great jewelry

With all this chainmaille popping up in my wife's magazines lately I've been compelled to dig thru my favorites folder where I have bookmarked things to blog about. I while back I came across a pair of earrings and a necklace that Elsa Peretti designed for Tiffany & Co.Both of these pieces are made from 18K gold and cultured freshwater pearls.

ECG: Meet our Members ----> ME!

I am a member of the Etsy Chainmaillers Guild. The blog is being maintained by Jill at Liv'nGood Jewelry and she recently started featuring members of the guild in a blog post. Today is the day where I am featured. Check out the interview here.

Elle magazine + Chainmaille = great fashion (again)

Yet again my wife was flipping thru her fashion mags today and came across a chainmaille fashion trend spread (pictured at left, click for larger image). Almost all of the pieces included chainmaille in them! One of the designers is Eddie Borgo and she has quite a wonderful set of chainmaille pieces. Along with the necklace featured in Elle magazine there are also several other versions of the same necklace, another necklace in 3 styles, and a bracelet in 4 styles.
Another designer featured is Jen Kao who had a chainmaille tankdress in her collection. Several of the models wore sandals by Tania Spinelli for Jen Kao and also carried the lucite clutch with chainmaille detail (all 3 pictured at left).
One last notable piece featured in Elle is the black suede and chainmaille bag by Versus.

Here's to hoping chainmaille keeps popping up in these magazines for me to share with you all.

Chainmaille for auction...

One of my 4 brothers is a freshman at St. Louis University High School this year. Every year the school holds a charity auction event called Cashbah. The theme for this years auction is "Welcome Aboard" and will be held on March 20, 2010.

For more details (as they become available) go to the Cashbah 2010 webpage.




For this event I created a chainmaille necklace that I donated for the auction. The necklace is made using my current favorite weave, Jens Pind Linkage. I made the necklace from bright aluminum, coiling over 150 ft of wire and cutting the coil down to over 250 individual rings, all by hand. The clasp for the necklace is a sterling silver "S" clasp. Then anchor pendant has several small Swarovski crystals and a blue glass bead dangling below it. The winner of this item at the auction will also receive a gift certificate to my shop. View another photo on Flickr here.

Blog mention

Thanks to Vanessa from CrochetMyBaby for adding my shop to her favorite recently. She wrote a blog post about her top tens favorite shops and I'm one of them!

Check out the blog post here.

nOir Jewelry + Chainmaille = great fashion

My wife was flipping thru her fashion mags today and came across this necklace from nOir Jewelry (pictured here). So this got me looking around their site at some pretty awesome pieces. I also found a bracelet in similar design.

After some further digging thru the site I came across a blog entry detailing the creation of the spiky gold dress that Rihanna wore to her album release party. I caught a glimpse of the dress on TV at some point and remember I should write something about it, but as with some many things on here I never got around to it. Read the blog entry and enjoy all the photos here.

Necklace copyright © nOir Inc.

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day to you all.
My wife got me this card (picture coming) for Valentine's Day. She said it caught her eye in the store, but it wasn't until I opened it and saw it that she realized why. I guess all my chainmaille stuff all over the house is really beginning to contaminate her mind. :-)