Thursdays Interview - The Chain Maille Lady!

Yesterday was the first episode of Thursday Spotlight on Artisan, my new radio show with my fabulous co-host Lily, of Tulips Treasure Box! Many thanks go out to Rod, the King Plugger Lugger, for giving us this wonderful opportunity!   Each Friday I'll be doing a short recap of the show, and featuring some of the lovely items from that week's artist :) To listen to yesterday's show go here. It was a blast!

This week's interview was Lauren, of The Chain Maille Lady, and she did a fabulous job!  Lauren creates gorgeous chain maille jewelry.  She's been doing so for about 4 years now, and creates an incredible variety of pieces!  Looking in her shop you'll find bracelets, necklaces, earrings, dream catchers, celtic stars, and more! Quality is key with Lauren, and she works hard to insure that none of her pieces will ever snag your skin or clothes. 

One thing that Lauren is doing that I think is awesome is she's raising money for research to cure Polycystic Kidney Disease.  Here's a little blurb she wrote about that: For
the month of November & December 10% of your purchase from my shop
will be donated to the PKD Foundation (Polycystic Kidney Disease) in
honor of my father and uncle who lost their lives to the disease (I
also have the disease). For more information on the foundation please
visit http://www.pkdcure.org/. Thank you in advance for your support. Donation to date: $71.80

Want to learn more about Lauren and see more of her work? You can find The Chain Maille Lady on Etsy, 1000 Markets, The Maille Market, and on her Blog!

Lauren would tell you that one the best ways to get your work known on etsy, and to find support, is to join teams. She's a part of the California Crafters Club of Etsy, the Etsy Chainmaillers' Guild, and the Fantasy Artists of Etsy. 

Here's a few of my favorite pieces from Lauren's shop!

Large Celtic Star in Pink, Dark Purple, and Silver



Mini coat of Arm(or) II Bracelet



Pink Passion Earrings

On a more personal note - I mentioned last night that I had a friend coming over to teach me some chain maille work.  Oh my goodness! I have so much more respect for chain maille artists - and I always was really impressed by them!  It's a lot of very finicky work.  I've started learning the basic 4 in 1 weave, but I've learned that I can't do it when my hands are shaking, and so I wasn't able to work on it for very long last night.  But I will keep working on it! Because it's fun, and I'm one of those crazy people who wants to learn everything :P

Quick view...

So here's a shot of my work area, it's kinda messy, but I decided not to clean it up for you guys because then it wouldn't be accurate!

As you can see my hubby and I are sharing a desk for our computers, but I get my own table for my jewelry! And all i have to do to go from laptop to jewelry creation is swivel my chair! Ahh bliss :)

All this stuff and there are sooo many more supplies I want to get! Anyway, I should have my internet back sometime in the next 24 hours and I'll be around more again.  Don't forget to come listen to my new radio show that I'm co-hosting with Lily of Tulips Treasure Box, tomorrow, 12pm EST. :) http://blockheadradiolive.com/

I'm pretty sure...

I'm pretty sure I managed to give myself a concussion yesterday. How did I do that? Well, I was over at my parents house, using their computer, and I had put my flash drive in their computer tower which is under the desk. We were getting ready to take off to run errands, so I bent over to pull out my jump drive, and smacked my head hard enough that I thought for a moment I was seeing stars! Tears sprang instantly to my eyes and I doubled over with my hand pressed tight to my head.

The general consensus is that the result was a concussion, considering I was dizzy, sick to my stomach, and had blurred vision, all on top of a blinding headache, I'd say it's probably a good guess. There's a reason why my family calls me the queen of klutzes, and my brother says that my super-hero power is the ability to hurt myself in new and entertaining ways... My husband certainly kept laughing the mental image of my banging my head against the table like a headbanger at a rock concert!

Despite the massive headache I still managed to get some beading done last night! I'm currently working on weaving my project for the November Team BDC challenge. Obviously, I'm running a bit late, but I'm determined to catch up! I'm having a lot of fun with the project. I took a pattern I was already comfortable with, and adjusted played with it based on a necklace I saw once. So far - it's working! I can't wait to see how it looks when it's done :) No previews of the project I'm working on, you'll just have to wait to see the final project! I'm so mean aren't I? I was going to show you a picture of my new workspace, but I completely forgot to snap a picture of it before I left the house. So instead I'll leave you with a picture and link to a piece of jewelry by Lauren, of The ChainMaille Lady. Tune in to http://blockheadradiolive.com Thursday at 12pm EST to hear her live interview! Click on the picture to go to the listing on etsy :)