Blue Buddha Boutique -- Chainmaille Links and Resources

Here are plenty of websites to keep you busy. Whether you want to make chainmaille yourself, or prefer to admire what other artists have done, you should find something of interest below. Happy surfing!

jump to:
Instructions - Reference - Suppliers - Forums - Artists - General Crafty Sites

Chainmaille Weave Instructions

Websites

M.A.I.L. (Maille Artisans International League) – Images for hundreds of chain mail weaves, and the largest tutorial collection on the Internet.

Derakon's Library – Clear 3-D renderings for dozens of maille weaves, plus an introduction to soldering and some loop-in-loop work.

Maile of the Dreamseeker – Hard-to-find instructions for projects such as candle holders and wrapped pendants.

Phong's Chainmaille Tutorials – Impressively cool CGI tutorials for many weaves. Site by Jeffrey Olin.

Books

Chain Mail Jewelry, Terry Taylor and Dylon Whyte – This 144 page, full-color book features 30 projects at all skill levels. The photos, illustrations and instructions are remarkably clear. Purchase this book in the Supplies section.

Art of Chainmail, Dylon Whyte – This colorful book is great if you want to make a chainmaille shirt. Very easy to understand instructions, and the illustrations are incredibly clear. Even if you don't want to make armor, this is a great place to learn the basic European weaves. The author plans on making a series of these books. Purchase this book in Supplies.

Chain Making Link by Link, Jeanne Jerousek–McAninch – A newer book. There aren't as many illustrations as we'd like, but some students have found this book to be extremely useful. Purchase through Rio Grande.

Reference, Calculators/Converters and other helpful sites

Zlosk's Website – Known to many in the maille world as the Aspect Ratio King, Zlosk is also creator of a great inlay program, the IGP (Irregular Grid Painter). It's a fast and accurate way to convert an image into a maille pattern so you can make an inlay using colored rings.

Mailleworks Graph Paper – Another way to plan an inlay is to use colored pencils on a maille graph. Designed by Maillemaster, more than 30 patterns are available for download.

Venom's Pit – Several useful charts are here, including Recommended Ring Size and the invaluable Gauge Conversion chart.

Science Made Simple Conversions – Ah, no more having to convert inches to millimeters by hand. This site does it for you, and has a jillion other conversion tools as well.

Eni's Jewelry Price Calculator for Excel (US$5) – Pricing handcrafted pieces can be nerve wracking, and many jewelers undervalue their work. This nifty calculator helps take the headache out of pricing. Read more about pricing and taxes.

Jump Ring and Jewelry Suppliers

Locally - Chicago

Caravan Beads – Tens of thousands of Blue Buddha Boutique jump rings for you to browse and purchase. Additionally, this store has one of the largest and best selections of beads in the city. In addition to beads of all sorts, they have a variety of findings, bead kits, jump rings, books and even sterling silver chains by the foot.
3361 N. Lincoln Ave
Chicago IL 60657
773.248.9555

Ayla's Original Bead Bazaar – An amazing selection of beads, including Furnace Glass and Philippine Metal Strands. Also the only local place we know of that has soldered-closed gold-fill jump rings (perfect for finishing off those gold-fill pieces), plus a wide selection of gold-fill jump rings.
1511 Sherman Ave
Evanston, IL 60201
847.328.4040

Internet/Catalog While Blue Buddha Boutique has a large selection of chainmaille supplies, you might be looking for something very specific that we don't carry. In that case, we heartily recommend buying from any of the suppliers below. Yes they are our competitors, but we like these guys. :-) Good folks with great products.

Spiderchain – Beautiful, silky and smooth rings in more than 70 sizes. You can also purchase gold-fill and anodized niobium rings from Spider. She prices her silver by the ounce, and you save a substantial amount of money by ordering 100 oz at a time (you can mix and match sizes; so long as you order in ounce batches, you still qualify for the price breaks).

Metal Designz – This company sells jump rings in a TON of different metals, including rubber rings. They are located in Canada, but ship many orders each day to the US and other countries.

Silver-Maille – An Australian supplier of sterling siver rings, kits and findings. They also have gold-fill and copper jump rings, and some cabachons, gemstones and watch faces.

C&T Designs – An US supplier from Colorado. They stock jump rings made from square wire, nifty multi-colored niobium rings, and lots of other goodies. They sell finished jewelry as well.

Rio Grande or call 800.545.6566 for a catalog, as their catalogs are not available online. A variety of tolols and findings, and more beads than we know what to do with. They have several catalogs, including Tools & Equipment, Gems & Findings and Display & Packaging.

Fire Mountain Gems or 800.355.2137 to order a catalog. Talk about more beads than we know what to do with! FMG has some of the best, and their prices are very good.

Rings 'n' Things or 800.366.2156 to or order a catalog. Want to add a pendant to your necklace? This is the place. Hundreds of charms and other items. They may have a $50 minimum (if your order is less, you'll have to pay a small-order fee).

Chainmaille and Jewelry Forums — there are a lot of groups and forums, but these are our favorites!

Maillers Worldwide – For all those who create maille and other metal work.

M.A.I.L. – Maille Artisans International League is an international group of artisans dedicated to the advancement of maille art. Their aim is to create new techniques, weaves, and patterns, expanding the knowledge of both novice and master, and to increase public awareness of the art and industry of maille.

JewelryGeeks.com – A place for jewelers working in diverse media to connect; there's beaders, maillers, wire workers, high-end goldsmiths...lots of good stuff here. Forums with information, and a great gallery of eye candy.

Wet Canvas! Wearable Art – A forum for wearable art creators of all type. WC! is a huge community, with forums on many art media as well as forums devoted to the business and technological aspects of art.

Artist Websites

Chicago Area

Rapt in Maille – Melissa Banks is a fellow jeweler who specializes in stainless steel chainmail and exhibits her work throughout the Midwest. Stunning designs.

Cat Chow – Cat Chow is a nationally renowned artist who makes wearable art from nontraditional fabrics and materials. She has designed several dresses using chainmaille techniques.

National and International

Silverweaver – Spider excels at the art of maille. Her sterling and gold-fill creations have inspired Rebeca since the day she first picked up her pliers.

Chain Mail Basket – Dave Austin is a widely respected maille veteran. He is particularly known for his unbelievable maille sculptures. Check out the chess set!

Mailleworks – You haven't seen micromaille until you've seen Maillemaster's work. His pens (yes, maille pens!) are simply amazing.

Wire Art and Jewelry by Chuck Doyle – Incredible inlays. His chainmail mosaic portraits use thousands upon thousands of rings in many different colors. From afar, they look more like paintings than metal creations.

Ravenspearl Creations – Rebeca stumbled upon this site one day and was blown away by some of her jewelry designs and artwork (most especially the dragonscale halter top.

Davidchain Jewelry – Author of Handcrafting Chain and Bead Jewelry, Scott David Plumlee has been making chain for more than a decade and teaching since 2001. Rebeca has taken a class, and can attest to his excellent teaching skills! Enjoy the lovely designs on his site.

Chainmaillebymboi.com – Custom Chainmaille Jewelry specializing in sterling silver and other metals made using this ancient technique.

Rabbit Dance Designs – Jewelry, chainmaille and other accoutrements by a full-time femailler (and part-time mailler). Cool!

DCLA Designs – Handmade jewelry; they specialize in chainmaille, wire working and Swarovski Crystal

Not Just Maille Jewelry

Stacey Lee Webber and The Coin Smith – A local metalsmith who specializes in jewelry and sculpture made from coins. Truly fantastic work; you have to see it to believe it.

Kathy Frey – A local wire artist who specializes in sculptural wire jewelry. Amazing designs, and a fabulous person to boot!

Lotus Lazuli - Sacred Geometry Jewelry Art – If you like the geometrical structures of chainmaille, you will appreciate Gretchen McPherson's work. Fascinating designs. Rebeca could stare at the Platonic and Archimedean Solids all day.

Gems by Jewell – Formerly from Chicago, Jewell recently moved to New York and has opened her own jewelry business, creating fabulous designs from sterling silver, genuine semi-precious stones, freshwater pearls and Swarovski crystals.

Chapman Metals – Sarah Chapman is a local metalsmith and one of Rebeca's inspirations to follow her dreams of being a jewelry artist. Not only is she a talented artist, but she is a great teacher as well. We recommend any of her classes.

Other Artful Media

Paintings by Charles Moesch – This hyper realist artist uses oil on canvas, and we are in absolute awe with what he can do in this medium.

Art by Sean Hopp – Sean's paintings appeal to the dark side of Rebeca's personality. His recent work is a study of an imaginary group of saints and their internal demons. Delightfully creepy, sometimes whimsical, but always very, very cool.

Crafty Websites

Chicago Crafty – Calendar and directory of Chicago craftiness.

Chicago Craft Mafia – Website for the local chapter of the Craft Mafia. The Chicago Craft Mafia proudly presents the DIY Trunk Show every November, and networking Craft Rackets a few times a year.

CraftRevolution.com - Redefining the World of Craft – Online indie shopping at its best, and a great resource for crafters.

jump to:
Instructions - Reference - Suppliers - Forums - Artists - General Crafty Sites

Acknowledgements

I am indebted to ...
...Matt Hucke of Graveyards.com for building an amazing back-end database and automating many of our reptitive computer tasks.
...Noel Jacob of Shadow Tactics for taking my vision of the Blue Buddha Boutique logo out of my head and onto paper.
...Jackie Sloane of Sloane Communications, Inc. for helping me clarify my business values and create successful, joyful and meaningful relationships with both clients and vendors.
Thank you!