For The Love Of Maille

Why do I love Chainmaille so much? Good question, especially since I'm not really into the whole Renaissance Fair scene. Only ever went to one once when I was about 10. I really don't have any desire to make a Hauberk (a shirt made of mail - see Wikipedia) or any other clothing of mail. Although a belt would be pretty cool. I do have great admiration for those Maillers who do such projects. No I just like jewelry made of Maille. I love the idea of taking a pile of jumprings and weaving them into something pretty.

Some of the weaves are so old and that fascinates me but there are new ones that are gorgeous too and someone has just sat down with a bunch of rings and played around to come up with something completely new that is based on this ancient art.
Then, of course, you can add beads to a piece to add variation. I don't just mean adding them in between sections of a weave. I'm talking about "capturing" the beads as in the above photo. This bracelet (Sea Sprite) is from Nicole Hill who makes some beautiful pieces, check out her Etsy shop here http://nicolehill.etsy.com/. On top of using beads in Maille, a change of metal can alter the look. Sure you have the usual suspects of Stainless Steel, Silver, Gold or Copper but what about some Anodized Aluminum or Niobium to add some color. Or how about using some Stretchy (EPDM) rings.

My personal fave at the moment is the Rainbow Anodized Niobium from CandTDesigns. Curt over at CandT manages to get at least 2 colors on each ring which makes for some stunning pieces. He also has started a line of rings made with square wire, which are on my shopping list. So really, you can see why I love Maille. With so many possibilities the world is your oyster. I personally end up sticking with the "standards" but I do everything I can to make sure they are far from standard. If you want to see more Maille then stop by our Etsy Group Blog, AKA Chainmailler's Anonymous.