Chainmaille

[Inventor]

For those who don't know me, one of my hobbies is making chainmaille. After a year long hiatus from the hobby, I recently got excited about it again due to a contest being held by M.A.I.L. which is one of the main chainmaille sites.

If you have any interest in my chainmaille adventures and accomplishments, click on the www button below this post, then click on "Chainmaille" at the top of the page where the navigation links are. Then just let your mouse follow your whimsey as there is a good bit of stuff to see and read there.

As always I welcome your comments and suggestions.

Les

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TestPiece.jpg
Description:	Some chainmaille tools, rings, and a square of kingsmaille
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This image has been reduced to fit the page. Click on it to enlarge.

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[seraph]

[Oskar]

Dang, Les! Yer good at that stuff!

[Antimon]

You can ask me! I am a proud owner of one of Les's chainmaille bracelets. Hardcore stuff!

/Stefan

[Inventor]

Thanks guys, it's a lot of work but fun also, and I appreciate your comments!

Les

[droffset]

Cool stuff Les!

[mosc]

Just spotted this topic. I checked out your site and the M.A.I.L. site. There are some amazing things. Whoathunkit?

[Inventor]

Ty, ty, whodathunkit indeed! Just today I completed the basket I've been making for the contest. Attached is a photo of it and here is the link to the web page describing it:

http://www.freedomodds.com/Site/Maille_Basket.html

Les

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WithFruitSmall.jpg
Description:	The spherical basket with fruit in it. 2632 rings.
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[Antimon]

That's a nice basket - congratulations! I like the way you always have a coin around in your images for size reference.

/Stefan

[mosc]

Good luck in the contest.

[Inventor]

Ty Stefan and Howard. There were a lot of entries in the contest at the last minute. Some of the baskets are way better than mine in terms of bling-bling or features like a lid for the basket, though mine is the only large one. And what a big-ass basket it is - holds fruit and lots of it. The other entries are small and just hold eggs or pocket change or so forth.

I really like the use of large rings and many of them. I've made micromaille finger rings (one with 200 super-teeny rings) and macromaille with giant rings that will fit on your arm (3.5" inside diameter). I do find that largeish metal rings are pleasant to work with though.

In other news I have resurrected my chainmaille weave creation program from a year and a half ago with the help of net friends cshake and Aristabulus. The program has a genetic AI algorithm that attempts to find new weaves. Back a year and a half ago when I wrote it, it rediscovered some basic familiar weaves and now that it's born again, it found a good one, posted below.

Les

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HP-Tangle5.jpg
Description:	A possible new chainmaille weave created by Weavemaker
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[nobody]

Les, if you haven't yet, you should totally look into opening up online shops in places such as Artfire. You can even open up Redbubble and such accounts with links pointing back to a shop.

[Inventor]

[nobody]

Either way, it's neat stuff.

[Inventor]

Well the competition was tougher than i thought, the winner got 17 out of 70 total votes. I got two votes. I'm happy with that, though I'd like to win some day.

Les

[nobody]

Don't see why you shouldn't!

[Inventor]

Back to the other news, the new weave was accepted as a totallly new weave! Some folks helped expand the weave's possibilities and I ended up calling it "Half Persian Backbone". The weave has left and right handed versions, spirals when held on end, and can be made into a sheet in two ways.

Les

[nobody]

I love the name.