Inside you'll find a mix of traditional chainmaille jewelry and
striking contemporary designs. Everything you see is lovingly handcrafted—ring
by ring—by some of the top weavers in this industry.
Enjoy the beauty of maille that is colorful, creative and very alive.
23 July
We just moved our website to a new server. If you experience any issues with the site—pages look funny (ie, super wide, like the enameled copper page, which is kind of out of control right now!), PDF downloads are troublesome, or any other problems—please let us know by sending email to orders@bluebuddhaboutique.com.
22 July
I just found out that someone raved about Kat on yelp.com. Though Kat is an avid chainmailler, she is also passionate about beading and works part-time at Caravan Beads. A Caravan customer praised Kat in her review: "Caravan offered warm and welcoming people who were eager to assist in every way, especially from one star employee: Kat. ÊShe offered to show us how to complete our projects and ... she made sure we left the store satisfied with everything." Yay, Kat!
17 July
We've just added enameled copper jump rings to our inventory. These rings come in 26 gorgeous colors, and we look forward to selling using them in new designs and kits. Enjoy!
3 July
Yesterday was a crazy technology day, with our phones and Internet/email going down at various points during the day. Everything seems to be mostly working, but the phone may still cut out periodically. We hope everything will be fixed soon, but in the meantime, we are off to enjoy the holiday weekend! We will have someone here to process Internet orders over the weekend (assuming our Internet is stable), so we don't expect to fall behind in shipping orders. We'll post here if anything changes.
In the meantime, you can check out our announcement for more details on our weekend schedule. Have a good holiday!
24 June
Hmmm, it seems as though PayPal's site is having trouble. Or more specifically, folks trying to check out on our site using the PayPal shopping cart can't check out. My apologies for this. If you're looking to place an order and have trouble with PayPal, please give us a call on our toll-free number and we'll process your order over the phone: 866.602.RING (7464). Sorry for any inconvenience, and we'll keep our fingers crossed that the error is fixed quickly!
20 June
We've added a few new products for supplies customers over the past few days (see supplies updates for details), and by far what we are most excited about are the anodized niobium rings. These rings come from Spiderchain, who has discontinued packs of 250 and is only selling niobium by the ounce. So, if you just want to make a pack of earrings and don't need 700 B20s, then hop on over to our niobium section and get a small pack. Lots of beautiful colors and mixes available in packs of 50, 100 and 250. Enjoy!
11 June
We're back! The Bead&Button show was great! Vanessa, Kat and I are still a bit exhausted, but we had a great time. We met so many people, and have a few new chainmaille converts. One person at a time, the whole world will be converted. *grin*
Back at the studio, I've got about 300 non-spam emails to sort through, so if you sent me email while I was gone, please know it'll take a few days for me to get back to everyone...but I will try to get it done as soon as possible. We'll also be posting photos and getting some new products (like niobium jump rings!) online very soon. We are pretty much all caught up with orders, and expect to be completely caught up by Friday. Thanks for your patience!
2 June
And we're off to the Bead&Button show! We hope to see some of you there.
Chicago folk - note that the Amtrak stops just a few blocks from the show...so if you're thinking about going, but are dreading the drive (and the gas price!), consider the train. A $21 ticket takes you from downtown Chicago to Milwaukee. Bring some friends, and chainmaille or play cards on the train. :-)
29 May
The final stretch toward Bead&Button!
We are now closed until June 4. We'll check email and voicemail periodically, but will not be processing any new orders. Most orders placed by midnight, May 28, should ship by Friday, May 30, thought a few of the larger ones ($100+) may not ship until Monday, June 2.
We'll resume order processing and shipping on Wednesday, June 4, and will begin shipping the earliest-placed orders first. Please allow several extra days for order processing, as Rebeca, Kat and Vanessa will all be at the show, taking a great deal of inventory with them. Most of our silver inventory will be at the show, so if you order sterling, please note that shipping of your order could be delayed until June 11 or later. If you want to know if the items you would like to order are in stock, please send an email to orders@bluebuddhaboutique.com BEFORE you order, and we'll let you know as soon as we can. Thanks for your patience!
We're looking forward to meeting some of you at the show! And now...back to endless bagging of loose rings and kits.... :-)
22 May
More email woes! Yesterday, I destroyed my email client by trying to send too many large files in a short period of time. (You know it's bad, when your IT guy checks out your computer, raises his eyebrows and says, "Wow. When you crash a program, you really crash a program!" Yikes!) This only affects my computer, a.k.a. "rebeca@blueb...". The general email, "orders@blueb...", works just fine. At any rate, I can still check my email from the web, but it is extremely slow, awkward, and difficult to flag and file emails, so a few emails might fall through the cracks. If you've sent me an email and haven't heard back, please try resending. Everything should be back to normal by late tonight.
18 May
Our mail server went down for a bit over the weekend (we think mostly Sunday). We have retrieved all the online/PayPal orders, but if you sent us an email with an address or item change, please call our toll-free number as soon as possible: 866.602.RING (7464). If you sent a non-urgent email, but don't hear back from us by the end of Monday, please send your email again, because it was probably lost in cyberspace. So sorry for any inconvenience!
16 May
I make a living doing what I love, and want others to do the same. (Or at least have a hobby that brings in some extra income!) As a member of the Chicago Craft Mafia, I'm pleased to help present the Craft Racket, a networking night for crafters. Whether you've been making maille for only a few weeks, or for a few years, (or if you have other crafty passions), the Mafia would love for you to join us at our quarterly informal gathering. Meet fellow crafters, ask questions, network, snack, and of course, have fun!
12 May
The latest issue of the Mailler's Newsletter is now online, found in the Classes section. Happy reading! The Classes section has also been updated to include our upcoming classes.
Supplies customers will want to read the update to the March 25 entry in the Latest Changes section. We'll keep you posted on the size standardization progress!
7 May
Supplies customers: We will soon be selling anodized niobium from Spiderchain. Spider has restructured her niobium packs and will be selling them by the ounce. Here at Blue Buddha Boutique, we'll offer packs of 50, 100 and 250 for those who don't necessarily want a full ounce at once. Our price for 250 will be just about exactly what Spider's price for 250 was. We will start with Spider's sizes 6:20 and 8:20 (our B20 and D20) and will gradually add the new sizes she's just added in 18 and 16g. We expect to have rings available for sale shortly after the Bead&Button show ends in mid-June. However, if there's a particular size/color you absolutely need right away, give us a call and we'll see if we have it bagged and ready to go for you.
Additionally, we are also looking into carrying Enameled Copper rings, especially in 20g, since the anodized aluminum is so finicky at such a thin gauge. Stay tuned!
29 April
Yesterday, I did a presentation for a group of girls at a local public high school. The event was coordinated by Women in Leadership at Loyola (WILL), an organization that strives to improve the economic, political and social status of women everywhere, especially underprivileged women. I worked with 15 students and helped them make a couple of pairs of chainmaille earrings. After the presentation, we spoke a little about women entrepreneurs and how I got into business. But mostly, the gals wanted to make more chainmaile!
The presentation was suprizingly fun. I realize that I am one of the lucky few who is making a living doing something I love, and I want to inspire other folks to follow their dreams, too. In particular, I want to encourage young women to become finanically literate and be successful investors. I look forward to doing more events like this.
And lastly, just a quick reminder about my next art fair: the Chicago Craft Mafia's Hand May-ed show this Saturday, May 3rd. Hope to see you there!
21 April
Chicago supplies customers: Sadly, Caravan Beads and Briolette Beads are discontinuing jump ring packs (though they may bring them back at some point in the future). If you need to see/touch jump rings before you buy, or if you have questions, you can pick up rings from our studio. We are only open to the public by appointment, so give us a day's notice, and we'll be happy to pull together whatever items you need. For all pickup orders, we are now offering 5% off sterling rings & kits and 10% off base metal rings & kits.
18 April
New eye candy posted in the gallery: a bracelet, and a few pendants. Yummy!
17 April
Vanessa is going to begin teaching chainmaille classes at the Discovery Center in Chicago. I'll update the classes page here, but in the meantime, you can view her blog entry about the classes. Very exciting!
7 April
We're back and are able to process telephone orders again! Thanks for your patience. The sale items have also been restored. We'll be posting more updates and products as soon as we'll all settled in again.
25 March
Until April 7, we are only accepting standard PayPal orders. (Wholesale orders will need to wait until April 7 as well.) We will be checking messages periodically, but are not able to accept phone orders at this time. Allow 1-2 extra days for shipping of most orders. Thanks for your patience!
Additionally, supplies customers may want to check out the supplies updates for the latest information on the transition to our new, standardized base metal sizes.
21 March
For those of you local folk who have been asking about my next finished jewelry show, the wait is nearly over! I'll be showing new wares plus old favorites at the Chicago Craft Mafia's Hand May-ed show on Saturday May 3rd. There's something for everyone: in addition to some new high-end sterling silver designs, I will also have a sale bin of inventory that is more than 3 years old. My fellow Mafia sisters will have plenty of other crafty goodies to tickle your fancy. More info is available on the Shows page.
18 March
Half the staff will be away from the studio at various points from March 26 - April 6 (I'll actually be out of town that entire time), so we will only be processing standard PayPal orders. We will be checking messages periodically, but are not able to accept phone orders during this time. If you have a phone order you've been considering, please get your order in before March 26! Thanks for your patience!
17 March
I am excited to announce that we will be selling chainmaille supplies at the Bead&Button Show in Milwaukee, Wisconsin this June. Last year, so many of my students commented that no one was selling jump rings on the show floor, so I decided to beg and plead with the show organizers to let Blue Buddha Boutique come on in and meet this need. It worked! We're in! We'll be in booth number #1254 (all the way at the end of the right-hand aisle). June will be here before we know it, so we've already started planning what we're going to be bringing.
