'Tis the Season

I am going to be making an order to TRL soon for a variety of metals. Nickel Silver, brass, bronze, stainless, and maybe sterling and one or two types of gold. Anodized titanium? perhaps...

If you have any ideas for holiday gifts to loved ones, friends, or yourself (hey, it's nice to splurge sometimes right?), let me know. If there is a specific commission you want, let me know. We can talk about it and I will include those materials into my order. I would rather buy a lot of shiny in one order and pay less in shipping/customs. Less cost for me = less cost for you! I am leaning away from aluminum, as I want to start making some classier stuff. Send me requests!

I will update on the Child's Play shirts on Friday. Hopefully more than the quick update I've had for the past two weeks. Life is slowing down a little, so I should be able to provide more.

Here's a little treat: some earrings I made for a Christmas gift last year. dark purple anodized aluminum and sterling silver shaggy loops (slightly modified) on french hooks. Can't remember the specs, but the silver rings are all doubled up and the purple rings are slightly larger.

Brief Glimpse at PAX 2008

Wow. just wow. Not WoW, although there was plenty of that. just. wow. From what I've heard this was one of the most difficult years to run. I only have last year to compare it to, but my feet were definitely telling me how much I'd worked by Sunday night. I loved every minute of it. I only wish I'd had business cards. I think that'll be my next side project to kill spare time. Cards for Knitted Steel. Why? Because I was showing off my best bling at PAX. If you clicked on the link to Kemper in my last post, you'll have seen this picture:



Those are my friends, Kemper and Haikon. Kemper worked in Line Management and Haikon is personal assistant to the Enforcer Prime, PRD. The photo was taken and provided by the lovely PlusOne. Not an Enforcer, YET. Kemper is also my most awesome customer/model. The vest is blue anodized aluminum scales with steel split rings. It weighs in at just over seven pounds, and took me 115 hours to make. My first shirt! His bracers were new for this year. 16g 5/16" blue anodized aluminum and black EPDM. I used a half-persian 3 in 1 sheet 5 weave for this. In retrospect, I should have used the sheet 6 weave. I think that would have prevented the ends from curling. I'm still very happy with the way they came out, and so is he. That combo plus the hat got him so many compliments over the course of the weekend. It's difficult to see in the picture, but Kemper got MC Frontalot to sign the front of the shirt! HOLY CRAP AWESOME! Since the photo was taken he's collected a few more autographs on the back and shoulders.

I had a few other pieces wandering around PAX as well. Like any good convention, we wear our badges proudly on lanyards. Well, before I found out that this year's lanyards were going to be all cool and glow in the dark, I made a few of my own to give out as birthday gifts. I've yet to find photos of the lanyards on their newfound owners, so here's the one I made for myself to use at work:



Stats: 16g 5/16" (again. I had a lot of leftovers from a previous order) half persian 4-in-1, connecting it at the bottom with 3 in 1 sheet 5. I picked up the badge clip in a 12-pack at Office Depot. It is very sturdy and very comfy. The ones I made for friends were all black, and half black half blue. They work pretty well for holding decorative buttons, too.

There were also some bracelets and other goodies of mine wandering around PAX, but the ones I included here were the ones I really care to show. It was an amazing weekend, and I still can't believe that it is over. I wish it wasn't.

Formal Attire

I will admit that I was 100% inspired by the 8-bit necktie when I decided to try some more scale maille work. Kemper's shirt (You can also see his new bracers) had come out beautifully, I had some blue leftover and The Ring Lord was experimenting with a new way of anodizing with the black. Well, how could I pass up an opportunity like this? Once I found a buyer, I was locked in for sure.

This took a LOT of experimenting to get just the right length, dimensions, and shape of the knot. For the neck band I used 16g 5/16" AA rings with rubber spaced evenly throughout for a bit of stretchy comfort. It's attached to the knot permanently on one end, and fixes with a hook on the other. More pics with closer detail can be found at my Flickr.

You take the high road

I was commissioned a while back to help a friend out with his sporran, and just recently got the chance and materials to complete it. The belt he has for it is nothing special - a simple chain attached to belt leather with a buckle in the back, and two clasps attaching to the pouch. Understandably, he wanted something with a little more personality.

I honestly do not remember the stats on these rings, so I am going to take a guess with BA 18ga 5/32" ID. The two clasps are taken from the old belt, and the weave is box chain with a few byzantine flourishes.