Ten years ago, on this day, I made my first piece of chainmaille.  *squee!*  At that time, I didn’t realize that my life would never be the same. I certainly didn’t imagine I would be where I am today.  It’s been an amazing journey, and I’ve learned so much from my students, customers, co-workers and fellow chainmaillers.

Here’s a little glimpse into how I fell down the rabbit hole 10 years ago:

I’d fallen in love with a chainmaille belt I saw someone wearing at a Renaissance Faire in Germany.  I couldn’t find any to purchase that I’d liked, either there, nor when I returned home. But I did find an eBay listing for “1,000+ rings! Make your own chain mail!“  I figured I didn’t have anything to lose, so I bought the rings.  They turned out to be 16ga galvanized steel.  Oy.  I am lucky those rings didn’t scare me away, but instead, somehow caused me to fall in love with this artform.

The very first piece of maille I made. I didn't follow any instructions; my fingers just instinctively knew what to do. My technique and speed, however, were a different story.

I had enough rings leftover to make a second belt. This one hasn't survived as well as the first one; somehow parts of it were cannibalized for other projects during the early parts of my mailling career.

With no proper pliers around, I improvised. Yep, the desire to create maille out of that first pack of jump rings was too great. I couldn't wait to get started, so I used these li'l guys!

Oy. I cringe looking at my first closures and non saw-cut rings.

Typical chainmaille insanity: I taught myself Dragonscale about 2 1/2 months after I started making maille, using, of course, 20ga rings! This is I20 SSTL with D20 ALUM/COPP — 20ga 13/64" (5.2 mm) stainless steel with 20ga 1/8 (3.2 mm) aluminum and copper.

Over the past 10 years, I’ve seen the industry really blossom. Maille seems to be everywhere these days, and there are some fiercely talented folks out there. I’ve seen some chainmaille artists, and even several suppliers, come and go (*sniff*). I’ve watched the number of known weaves documented on M.A.I.L. soar from 200(ish) to more than 1,100. I’ve spent more than 1,000 hours teaching thousands of students how to make maille.  And I gotta say – I still love what I do every bit as much as I loved making that first belt.

Thank you to everyone who’s helped me along the way: artists who’ve taught and/or inspired me, and stores and galleries who took a chance on a new artist/instructor—including Spider, Maillemaster, Emerald Dragon, Buddha, Zlosk, Sarah Chapman, Caravan Beads, Lillstreet Art Center, Aesthetic Eye — the Chicago Craft Mafia, the talented and hard-working crew of anyone who’s ever worked for B3, every single customer and student we’ve had, and many others. I am eternally grateful.

For more of my early work, see the post celebrating my 8-year anniversary of making maille.

beginning maille · chainmaille belt · dragonscale bracelet · first project

Rebeca’s posts about preparing for and surviving an I.R.S. audit have been getting a little more exposure lately thanks to the Chicago Artists Resource.  We’re really glad that CAR found these posts interesting and we hope that some local artists have found them useful.  Revisiting these posts, we found ourselves not only breathing another sigh of relief that the process is over and done with, but reminiscing about some of the lighter moments of the whole thing.

We were inspired to put together this post of audit bloopers to prove once and for all that the I.R.S. is in fact, human (and that you can find funny moments in almost any situation.)

You’re being audited … wait, not yet … nope, not yet either … maybe soon …

by Rebeca Mojica

The morning of the audit came. I had called the agent the day before to confirm, and hadn’t heard back, but didn’t think much of it.  I was ready! “Bring it, IRS!” I said (literally, out loud), as I gathered my paper files, USB flash drive, receipt books, and my handy-dandy spreadsheet that now had a new column indicating where each item was for quick retrieval during the audit (i.e., – whether the item was on the USB stick or if we had a hard copy, and what the file or folder name was). You can see my colorful spreadsheet in the photo here, just to the right of my laptop.

Here’s where my story became atypical. A woman came into the studio 30 minutes before the scheduled appointment, showed identification, introduced herself as someone from the IRS and asked …

“Did your agent call to cancel?”

Um … no …

Turns out my agent broke her wrist and was therefore unable to come in.  (See? What’s more human than a broken bone?) The woman who was here instead was her supervisor. She wasn’t sure if the agent had canceled or not, so she came by just in case. “As long as I’m here,” she said, “I can do some preliminary interview questions.” That was fine by me. She asked me many questions that she already knew the answer to (like my name, my business name, etc). I wondered if they are trained to ask baseline questions so that if you lie later, they might be better able to detect such deception. I was also fascinated by the fact that she took her notes longhand. Somehow, I figured the IRS folks would use those same tablet devices that the census folks use.

To her credit, she did spend a lot of time apologizing for the unexpected rescheduling. “Well,” I said, “you probably know that the IRS doesn’t have a very good reputation. And stuff like this doesn’t help. Because, of course, you know I’m going to go blog all about my experiences.” Yes, I really did say that. But I said it politely, not with snark. And then she apologized some more. She was actually quite nice, and I did call her later with a question about my personal taxes (unrelated to the audit), and she went above and beyond to take care of the issue.  (Human again.)

Toward the beginning of our interview, the supervisor looked right at me and said, “So I should tell you the reason why you are being audited is that our agent is going through training and you are her training case.” !!! “Now of course,” she hurried to add, probably in an attempt to reassure me after watching my eyes open in disbelief, “the IRS randomly selects a certain number of businesses to be audited each year, so you would’ve been part of that pool anyway.” But yep – that’s right, my agent was in training. I was briefly worried that this might make my audit even tougher. I know from leading training sessions in a few industries that sometimes trainees try to really prove they know their stuff, so I thought she might dig super-hard to triumphantly pull something out to show her boss. Hmm, this was an unexpected twist. Several of my friends pointed out that the IRS should be paying me for the audit, since I was essentially helping them with their training program. I didn’t disagree, but I wasn’t going to bring it up with the IRS.

My original agent called a few days later, also apologized, and we rescheduled for a couple weeks later, Monday, July 25. I went back to my life, until Friday the 22nd, during which I pulled out the file bin and the USB stick and reviewed where everything was again.

And then, around 3:30 that Friday, I got a call from the agent. Her wrist hadn’t healed properly, so she was going in for surgery. On Monday. Therefore the audit was postponed. Again. She said she would call me after Labor Day to reschedule.

Labor Day—and in fact, the whole month of September—came and went with no call. I certainly wasn’t going to call the IRS to remind them, so I just laid low. Finally, in October, I received a letter addressed to “Ms. Mojito” apologizing for the delay and requesting that I call to reschedule. My last name is Mojica, and actually, I have accidentally been called Mojito before (possibly due to the awesomeness of auto-correct), but receiving an official letter from the IRS with this salutation was pretty hilarious. (Human moment #301, right?)

After all this craziness, we set the audit for October 26, confirmed the day before, and … third time was the charm.  Phew.

funny · I.R.S. audit

In honor of all things warm, fluffy and loving on Valentine’s Day, we thought we’d give some love to some of our sweethearts – our pets!  The B3 staff is a big group of animal lovers and many of us have pets that share our homes and give us love everyday.  What better way to celebrate a holiday all about love than to celebrate these animals that bring so much of it into our lives.  Sit back and get ready to say, “Awwww.”

Have a pet you’d like to honor for Valentine’s Day?  Leave your message to them in the comments section below!

Pet Name: Marley
Animal/Breed Info: He is a cat of the feline nature.
Pet Age: 6 Years old
Belongs to: Dan (B3 Quality Controller)



My pet and I are alike because…. we both sit in chairs the same way and we both like Monster Energy Drinks. Well he likes the box at least.
This Valentines day, I’d like to tell my pet…. if he loves me he’ll stop snuggling my feet while I’m walking up the stairs.

Pet Name: Jasper, many nicknames Pinchy, Boo, Moo, PeePee, MOMMA! ,Rum Baba Goo, Goo-Boo, Jabby (nickname given by B3 co-workers!)
Animal/Breed Info: Jasper is a beautiful young lady who is a Black Lab/ Dachshund mix
Pet Age: 6 Years old
Belongs to: Lisa (B3 Order Processor)

My pet and I are alike because…. we both like naps, long walks and cookies..
This Valentines day, I’d like to tell my pet…. “I ROVE YOU!” we will be friends FUR-ever!”

Pet Names: Apollosaurus Aleksandr & Zeela Simone
Animal/Breed Info: Domestic shorthair
Pet Age: Apollo = 3, Zeela is 2 1/2 (And yes, these kitties are an unusual father-daughter pair.)
Belongs to: Rebeca (B3 Owner + Founder)

My pet and I are alike because….
Apollo and I are alike because we both love hanging out with people.
Zeela and I are alike because we both can be really hyper at times.
This Valentines day, I’d like to tell my pets…. if only you knew how lucky you really have it, you little boogers.

Pet Name: Sesame
Animal/Breed Info: Afghan Hound
Pet Age: 5 Years old
Belongs to: Kat (B3 Product Developer + Order Processor)



My pet and I are alike because…. we both are fussy, can’t get comfortable when sitting or laying down and love watching animal TV shows.
This Valentines day, I’d like to tell my pet…. that it would be nice if she let me sleep in past 6:30am sometimes, because I am tired from working so hard to make her life easy.

Pet Names: Nacho (Orange) & Lloyd (Grey)
Animal/Breed Info: Tabby cats
Pet Age: Both are 10 Years old
Belongs to: Kat (B3 Product Developer + Order Processor)



My pet and I are alike because…. we both like to talk a lot, miss each other when not in the same room and love to cuddle.
This Valentines day, I’d like to tell my pets…. I love both of your soft, furry bodies, stinky breath and cute meows. You make me very happy.

Pet Name: Roscoe
Animal/Breed Info: Tabby cat
Pet Age: 2 Years old
Belongs to: Emily (B3 Quality Controller + Order Processor)



My pet and I are alike because…. we both love naps and snacks.
This Valentines day, I’d like to tell my pet…. that he is my one and only.

Pet Name: Isis
Animal/Breed Info: Turkish Angora
Pet Age: 4 Years old
Belongs to: Aimee (B3 Customer Service Specialist)



My pet and I are alike because…. we both like to cuddle.
This Valentines day, I’d like to tell my pet…. I wuv you ms. fuzzy muffins!

Pet Name: Bat, aka Batty Bat (named after this)
Animal/Breed Info: Demon
Pet Age: less than 1 Year old
Belongs to: Artie (B3 Quality Controller + Order Processor)



My pet and I are alike because…. we are both in love with the humidifier.
This Valentines day, I’d like to tell my pet…. “I love you, but I think you’re secretly plotting to take over the world.”

Pet Names: Stimpy, Pepper and Squishy
Animal/Breed Info: Stimpy and Pepper are Tortoiseshells and Squishy is an Orange Tabby.
Pet Age: Stimpy is 10. Squishy and Pepper are both 9.
Belongs to: Nadja (B3 General Operations Manager)



My pet and I are alike because…. we both like to lounge incessantly and talk back.
This Valentines day, I’d like to tell my pets…. that I wish I could clone them.

And last but not least, the managerie that lives at B3′s Inventory Coordinator, Jen‘s house!

Pet Names, breeds and ages:



Stanley, tabby, 8.5 years old







Dell, tabby, 8.5 years old






Lil’ Blackie, um…black cat? Not sure of the breed – she was a stray that decided to waltz right into the house one day and she didn’t bring her papers, a year old







Mation, German Shorthair, 6.5 years old







Dougie, part terrier, part I don’t know…another stray that won us over, 4 years old





My pet and I are alike because…. we both practice good oral hygiene.

This Valentines day, I’d like to tell my pets…. that they better be good because if another stray comes along, one of them has to go. Just kidding, of course. I would tell them that if they can understand what I’m saying, stop waking me up before my alarm goes off. I work, so I definitely need more sleep than you. And finally, I would tell them that I wouldn’t know what to do without a single one of them. You guys rule.

B3 Employees · cats · dogs · pets · valentine's day

2011 was a year of ups, downs, and lots of firsts for Blue Buddha Boutique.  Taking a look back as some of our most memorable moments and accomplishments, we feel really great about where 2011 took us and can’t wait to start tackling new plans in 2012.  Here’s our list of 2011 moments – feel free to share your biggest chainmaille accomplishments and/or memorable B3 experiences in the comments below.

B3 Recognized as an Innovative Retailer

In 2011, the Craft & Hobby Association asked retailers to describe their innovations in customer service.  We told them all about our innovative customer service practices (from chainmaille advice to notes in our customer database) and were recognized alongside four other outstanding retailers at their winter conference in LA.  Read more about this honor…

Happy 8th Birthday B3 + Blue Velvet Cupcakes

In February, B3 turned 8 and celebrated with what else but BLUE velvet cupcakes!  We loved all the birthday wishes you guys sent in and shared Nadja’s recipe on our blog (which we know some of your tried out and enjoyed at home!)

Funny Cat Video Contest

In February, we asked you to submit your favorite funny cat videos for you chance to win an adorable Evil Kitty t-shirt.  Your videos were endlessly entertaining to our office full of cat lovers, but in the end there could be only one winner – Mikaela E. and Maru.

First ever B3 snow day

The giant blizzard Chicago experienced in 2011 earned many names (Snowpocalypse. Snowmageddon, and Snowtorious B.I.G. just to name a few) but for B3, we called it a snow day!  For the first time ever, we had to close the shop for a snow day.  (Special note from Jenna: The snow was so extreme that I actually had snow IN my kitchen – and of course snowmen in my kitchen sink.)

Rebeca’s first international publication!

In March, Rebeca appeared in her first ever international publication with Perlen Poesie, a German magazine.  This was especially exciting because Rebeca lived for a year in Germany when she was younger.  Read more about this very cool accomplishment…

Bead&Button – Bead Dreams domination, fire breathing cats + Jason mugging for camera

The Bead&Button Show is always a major event for us and 2011 was no different.  We especially loved how B3 ambassadors dominated the wirework category of the Bead Dreams competition!  See more by visiting our Bead&Button 2011 photo album on our page on Facebook.

First Ever B3 Talent show

As part of our annual employee retreat, B3 had its first ever talent show!  Talents ranged from monologues to tap dancing and even baking and nail art.  Check out this post for photos and videos of all the talents that were shown off.

B3′s retail space sadness & the overwhelming support and good wishes from customers about it

As we mentioned, 2011 was full of ups….and downs.  In August we made the difficult decision to walk away from the retail space we had been trying to move into after a number of roadblocks made it clear it wasn’t the right place for us.  Lucky for us, we didn’t stay down for long.  The outpouring of support we received from all of you was so appreciated and helped us be even more motivated to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and find a new dream space.  Read more about this decision…

First ever Featured Product contest

In September we introduced our Feature Product of the Month contest and awarded Lia H. with the first win for her beautiful necklace that featured our size X12 rings.  We have run the contest every month since and continue to be inspired by your creativity.  We can’t wait to see what you create in 2012 – and who will be crowned our first ever Mailler of the Year in January!  Visit the Featured Product of the Month category for more details about this contest.

Show off your Maille Week

We named the week of October 21st official “Show Off Your Maille” week.  We asked you guys to show off what you were wearing and making each day (and we did too) in an effort to increase the visibility of the craft we all love.  Check out the posts we made that featured all the great jewelry made by you and the B3 team.

First Maillers’ Choice kit

In November we launched our Maillers’ Choice kit promotion – inviting you all to design a custom kit by voting for your favorite color and metal choices and then making a limited number of them for sale at a discount on our website.  The first round was a shocking success (the kits sold out in minutes!)  Your overwhelming response to this fun promotion has made it a keeper for 2012.  Read more about this promotion…

We survived an audit!

Those of you who follow us on our page on Facebook heard all the trials and tribulations that lead up to our audit (including rescheduling the appointment umpteen times and receiving a notice addressed to Ms. Rebeca “Mojito”!)  Well, we survived and decided to share how we got through it on our blog.  Read more about how we prepared for and survived the audit…

DIY: Rebeca’s first show as her own brand + youngest mailler ever

We wrapped up the year with some of our favorite shows including The DIY Trunk Show and One of a Kind.  This year, Rebeca branched out and sold her handmade jewelry for the first time under her own Rebeca Mojica brand.  We also got the warm fuzzies at the DIY Trunk Show when we had our youngest chainmaille student ever (about 6 years old!) at our Make + Take station.

B3 accomplishments · memorable moments 2011

The words “audit” and “IRS” can strike terror in the hearts of many Americans—individuals and business owners alike.  It’s hard not to have visions of a monstrous institution filled with agents dressed like characters in a Dick Tracy comic, waiting in rooms with interrogation lamps and you with your box of crumpled receipts.

The reality however, is that if you’re being audited, you’re not up against a big headless institution.  Ultimately, you’re going to be dealing with one person (this became very apparent to us when our one person had to cancel because they had broken their wrist – I.R.S. agents really are human!)  It becomes your job to make that person’s life as easy as possible (and avoiding annoying them at any cost.)  The best way to do this?  Do what is asked of you in the preparation stage (see my previous post Preparing For an I.R.S. Audit.)  Yes, it’s a lot of work—although, by keeping really good records, it doesn’t have to be that bad—but it’s worth it.  We know from experience!  Continue reading to learn more about the actual audit and what we learned from the entire ordeal.

The Audit

The morning of the audit came.  I was ready! “Bring it, IRS!” I said, as I gathered my paper files, USB flash drive, receipt books, and my handy-dandy spreadsheet that now had a new column indicating where each item was for quick retrieval during the audit (i.e., – whether the item was on the USB stick or if we had a hard copy, and what the file or folder name was). You can see my colorful spreadsheet in the photo here, just to the right of my laptop.   Despite my enthusiasm, the audit was not to be had that first day, the next, or even the next….but that’s a story for another post.

When it did finally happen, the audit was fairly straightforward – really.  My CPA had told me the agent would probably be surprised that I’d pulled together everything on the list and sure enough, she did seem surprised that I had everything (Operation Make-Their-Lives-Easy-And-Don’t-Annoy-Them = complete!)  “Wow,” she said, “You’re so organized!”  (This sentiment was repeated a few times throughout the audit, particularly when she took a tour of our facilities and saw our shelves of inventory *grin*.)

The agent wanted to review the classified items, so I pulled up my ledger and told her exactly how the money in those categories was spent.  She took notes on the breakdowns of each category. After thoroughly reviewing the classified items, which took all of about 20 minutes, the agent was satisfied with the responses and said everything was in order.  I answered a few other questions (How do you count your inventory? How often do you count your inventory? How much of your orders are paid for in advance? etc).  None of the questions were particularly intrusive, and none of them surprised me.   We took a tour of the facilities so she could see some of the day-to-day operations. Finally, the agent requested a copy of my QB file on a USB stick as well as hard copies of my business and personal tax returns for the years requested.

And that was it. I had been warned that the audit could take up to four hours, and I’d set aside my entire day just in case, but we were finished in about an hour and a half!  Yipee!

(I secretly hoped that the IRS agent would write some note in my file that read something like, “This business is so organized and on top of things, that we should never audit them again because it is just going to be a waste of taxpayer resources.”  Well, I can hope, right?)

The Verdict

The agent told me she’d be recommending “no change” to my tax return, but there were still a few levels of people who needed to review the QB file, so it could be several weeks or even a couple of months before we’d know for sure what the final verdict was.  She said she would be in touch if they had any questions once they’d reviewed the files.  I decided to keep separate all the papers and files I’d pulled just in case they were needed again.

A few days later, I received a confirmation letter with the “no change” recommendation, and then the real waiting game began.  Finally, about 6 weeks later, on December 12, I received the official letter from the Powers that Be:

Our recent examination of your returns for the above years shows no change is ncessary in the information reported. We have accepted the returns as filed.  This is the final notice you will receive regarding the examination.

Yay!  Seven months after receiving the initial notification letter, we were done.

Lessons Learned

All in all, we’d probably spent about $500 in accounting/bookkeeping fees and about 15 hours of staff time to prep for the audit.  It was an irrecoverable expense, but definitely a manageable one for a business our size.  And I think it’s made our business be in even better shape for the future.  My main takeaways:

Good records are crucial.

When my accountant sent back my file, out of the thousands of entries, there were only a couple that she’d flagged for me to double check (perhaps the memo field had a question mark in it, or one company that we typically bought inventory from had a charge in a different category, because we bought office supplies that one time, etc.).  If we didn’t keep good books, I probably would’ve spent dozens of hours going through our file, instead of just about 6 or 8.  My goal is to have even more solid numbers going forward. For the past few years, I’ve been sending my Quickbooks file to my CPA three times a year (not including tax time) for review. I am now asking her to look at everything with the same eagle-eye we did during the audit. This way, if something, no matter how small, doesn’t make sense, we can catch it right away, instead of trying to remember all the details two years later.

Stay on top of the numbers regularly.

Even though our books were good, they weren’t perfect.  There were a handful of items that I realized had been miscategorized. I used to enter all the data in myself, but I’ve since delegated this responsibility, and I realized that some information slipped through the cracks.  For instance, even though I know that two separate charges from the same vendor might be in two different categories because we purchase different types of items from that vendor, my bookkeeper who only comes in twice a week will not know that by just looking at the bank and credit card statements.  So I vowed to look more closely at the line items after data is entered into our Quickbooks file.

Be prepared on audit day. 

I made sure to have every single piece of documentation the IRS requested either in hard copy or digital format, and knew exactly where to find it.  This meant that when the agent asked me a question about a specific charge, I could pull up a spreadsheet and locate the relevant information within seconds. Because I knew exactly what was going to be asked, nothing was a surprise.  It was kind of like taking a final exam when you’ve gotten the questions a few days before.  Having said that, however, I do acknowledge that finding a few of the items in the first place, to prepare for audit day, took much longer than it should’ve.  And if I had been incapacitated or something, I’m sure it would’ve taken the manager three times as long to locate some of the items. So, we’re revising parts of our filing system to make finding certain items more intuitive. And I’m making sure that someone other than myself knows where all of these important documents and digital files are!

I highly recommend that all business owners keep records as though they are going to be audited.  This might seem like overkill, but it’s really not (you need to know where all your company’s money is really going anyway, right?)  I also recommend thinking about keeping records and other crucial company information in such a way that, if one day you disappeared, someone else in the company would know where everything was and be able to make sense of it without you.  Taking these actions ensures security for your business which is always good … and if you happen to be audited, you’ll be ready.

being audited · Internal Revenue Service · irs audit · small business taxes