Scale Mail Halter Top - Part 3

Linking all those scales together can be a chore, but the result is so lovely, it's hard to complain.

Updates this week will be light and I'm building up inventory for Madison, but I'm looking forward to jumping into this project again when I get back.  Look at those cap sleeves!  I just want to spend all day working on this.

But for now, I'm making plenty of new designs, like little star earrings:

Belly dance

I recently started taking belly dancing classes at Arabesque Dance & Fitness in Chicago.  After a long, cold winter, I wanted to start moving again.  After seeing a friend perform at one of their haflas, I decided to sign up.

I absolutely love the classes so far, so much so that I decided to design a chainmail belly dance belt.  I had disks, rings, and chain, and when I got an idea, I quickly doodled it on a scrap of paper.

I started working obsessively on it immediately.  I finished it last night, and I'm so thrilled with how it turned out.

Now that it's done, I guess I'll go back to knitting that sweater I started a couple weeks ago.  If I finish it soon, I might be able to wear it once before it gets too warm.

Vanessa
Aluminum chainmail jewelry
Handmade jewelry

Night at the Musem 3 chainmail

Last year around this time, a friend and colleague contacted me about doing a huge commission on a really tight deadline.  As soon as he said it was for Night at the Museum 3, well, I was in.

The next thing I knew, I was getting an overnight delivery for 20 pounds of rings that I had to link together and then overnight to Hollywood in a week.  I had some help, thankfully, or it wouldn't have gotten done.

Did I mention that this happened right before the One of a Kind show last year?  I still can't believe I got it all done while making inventory for the show.

Anyway, despite the rush, I had sense enough to take some photos.  They aren't the best quality, but I'm publishing them for posterity.

I wish I had taken a photo of the two HUGE bags of rings I received in the mail.  We all have regrets.  However, I did take pictures of the rectangles.  Here's the first one.

Then I took photos as I made more strips that I linked together into rectangles:

Finally, I had to get everything in the mail the same day I was setting up my booth for the One of a Kind show.  So I took a blurry photo at the book showing all of the pieces.

The most fun part of the whole experience was taking the package downstairs to FedEx.  When the guy at the counter saw that it was addressed to "Night at the Museum 3 - Costume Department" he asked, "Really?"  When I said yes, he then called over the other staff members and we all had a fun chat about chainmail and costumes.

So, go see Night at the Museum 3 and tell your friends you know who made some of the chainmail for the movie.

Vanessa Walilko
Aluminum chainmail jewelry
Aluminum costumes for stage and screen

Chainmail for Pippin--recap of the week's work

When I got an email from the people at Pippin to order a new chainmail tunic for their new lead actor, I was happy to take on the project.  Making chainmail for a Tony-award-winning show is one of the highlights of my career. 

So after sending the invoice, I ordered 22,000 rings and got started.

Starting a huge project is daunting, especially when you're working with that many rings.  There were enough rings to fill more than a 14" x 11" x 3.25" bin. 

From working on the chainmail wedding dress, I learned that the only want to get through a huge project was by making lots of little squares and then linking them together.  As soon as the rings arrived in the mail, I got working.  After 2 days, I had made 45 little squares.

After day 3, I had linked 70 squares:

After day 4, I had linked together 95 squares:

 Posting lots of little squares doesn't really give a sense of scope of the piece, so I made another 25 squares and started linking them together into sheets.  (The pliers are for scale.)

Tonight or tomorrow I'll start linking all the sheets together and work on the shaping.  It's amazing how a piece like this comes together.

Vanessa

Handmade aluminum jewelry
Aluminum chainmail jewelry