Cast your vote for for December’s Featured Product of the Month Contest!

Posted by | One Comment | Read More / Add Comment

CAST YOUR VOTE NOW!

Submissions for December’s Featured Product of the Month Contest are closed, and the B3 team has cast their ballots to determine the finalists…..which means it’s time for YOU to cast your vote to determine the winner. Folks this month were challenged to create a piece that featured our size H18 rings. The submissions truly speak to the versatility of this size with everything from necklaces to handflowers and even a dress!  Voting will close January 3rd at 10am CT.  Voting is only allowed once per computer so choose wisely!

To share the survey, we recommend you copy the link to this blog post and use that in any emails, blog posts, or social media posts you’d like to make about it (we’ve noticed some weirdness in the past with sharing the link directly – it sometimes like to bump people out of voting that haven’t already.)

Get a sneak peak at the all of our finalists below:


             

CAST YOUR VOTE NOW!

 

FEATURED PRODUCT FOR JANUARY – Enameled Copper Jump Rings


January’s featured product will be enameled copper jump rings – any size you choose! Show off how these brilliantly colored rings can really shine in your designs. We can’t wait to see what you invent.

Type “enameled copper” into our blog’s search bar to get all kinds of inspiration including weave ideas and our recent post featuring music-inspired color palettes!


NOTE: The submission process with be changing in January to use a more private format than Facebook.  We still encourage folks to show off on Facebook if they like, but we thought this might lower the intimidation factor and open up the contest to even more folks who are making cool stuff but just aren’t so sure about putting their creations out there yet.  Stay tuned for details!

A Personalized Chainmailling Sock Monkey?!? Awesome!

Posted by | 5 Comments | Read More / Add Comment

Here’s a little bit of Friday Fun that brightened up our chilly winter morning.

Which B3 staff member is this?

 

If you guessed Blue Buddha founder Rebeca, then you are correct!

She was thrilled when her dear friend Anna Goldberger presented her with this sock monkey, complete with mini Wubbers pliers and her cats Apollo and Zeela.  “I tied a piece a string on an angle here,” Anna explained, pointing to the chest area, “for you to take off and replace with a piece of chainmaille. I thought it would be appropriate that the chainmaille go over the heart since you love it so much.”  Awww!  :-)  Rebeca just about melted.

And of course, she whipped out her pliers and started making the mini Jens Pind necklace* right away. No doubt, this is one of the coolest gifts ever.

 

* Because someone is bound to ask – the necklace uses size B20 Niobium  (20ga AWG 3/32″  / 2.8 mm) :-)

Color Palettes that Rock!

Posted by | 10 Comments | Read More / Add Comment

 

 

Rebeca Mojica as SlashWe find color inspiration for our chainmaille jewelry projects everywhere – nature, fashion forecasts, our favorite paintings, and even music.  A diverse group with diverse tastes, we knew that challenging the B3 team to create color palettes based on their favorite bands and muscians would generate some pretty rockin’ inspiration.  In honor of our upcoming Featured Product Contest for January, every palette is created using enameled copper jump ring colors.  Enjoy and rock on!

(Photo: Rebeca as Guns N’ Roses rocker Slash for Halloween 2007 and yes, that’s her natural hair!)

Rebeca Mojica – B3 Owner & Founder
Favorite Musician/Band: Aerosmith
Music Genre: Rock
Colors: Black, Non-tarnish gold & Red








Why these colors? Black is the obvious choice for this band, since they wear a lot of black and many of their album covers have a lot of black. The other colors are used because they appear often on album colors … and on the flames of Steven’s Mama Kin tattoo, which of course, I also have as a tattoo. :-)

Nadja Aller – B3 General Operations Manager
Favorite Musician/Band: Hank Williams Sr.
Music Genre: Country
Colors: Gunmetal, Amber & Burgundy






Why these colors? Boot leather, Whiskey and Sorrow.   <——–  in like order.

 

Jenna Deidel – B3 Social Branding Coordinator & Marketing Assistant
Favorite Musician/Band: Red Hot Chili Peppers
Music Genre: Rock
Colors: Bright Blue, Orange & Amber






Why these colors? These are the colors used in my favorite album cover (for my favorite album of theirs) “Californication”. I played this CD until it died when it first came out.

Emily Fiks – B3 Quality Controller, Order Processor
Favorite Musician/Band: The Ramones
Music Genre: Rock n’ roll/Punk
Colors: Bright Blue, Black & Non-tarnish silver






Why these colors? Black and Non-Tarnish Silver to represent their emblem/ shield logo, and also had to throw in bright blue to represent their blue jeans. Black can represent their leather jackets too.

Jen Hohe – B3 Inventory Coordinator & Weaver
Favorite Musician/Band: I have never been able to choose because I like so many different types of music. So, I am going to go with a genre that I really like – the 80’s.  I’m really nostalgic so this music reminds me of being a kid.
Music Genre: 80’s rock
Colors: Fuchsia, Orange & Lime






Why these colors? It is always bold, neon or fluorescent colors that come to mind when I think of this decade.

Artie Keefe – B3 Quality Controller, Order Processor
Favorite Musician/Band: Against Me!
Music Genre: Punk/Rock
Colors: Black, Red & Yellow





Against Me! - New Wave
Why these colors? They stuck to a limited set of colors for a long time – when you’re copying inserts and silk screening record covers by hand, one or two colors are a lot more affordable. Their older records are simple and gritty, but sometimes you don’t need more than a few chords or colors to make something feel timeless.

Aimee Leang – B3 Customer Service Specialist
Favorite Musician/Band: Queens Of The Stone Age
Music Genre: Rock
Colors: Fuchsia, Lime & Yellow







Queens of the Stone Age - Era Vulgaris
Why these colors? These were the colors used on their last album cover Era Vulgaris.

Lisa Rosenberg – B3 Order Processor
Favorite Musician/Band: Björk
Music Genre: Many including pop, alternative rock, electronic, classical folk and more
Colors: Sea foam, Peacock Blue, Lavender, and Pink. (I know you said 3 colors but I neeeeed 4 or I will die.)






Why these colors? The reson behind my color choices are based on the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) that are a big part of her life being from Iceland and all. I also based these colors on the “Vespertine” album, my personal favorite and features the song “Aurora.” Listen to the song and you can see the colors swirl around you. *sigh*

Kat Wisniewski – B3 Product Developer, Order Processor
Favorite Musician/Band: The White Stripes
Music Genre: Heavy Blues Rock
Colors: Red, Black & Non-Tarnish Silver






Why these colors? That is their colors that appear on every album cover, every concert, every appearance.  The band retired last year and is no longer  together :(

We also posed the question to our fans on Facebook and they had some great responses (pasted below.)  Have a palette idea inspired by your favorite musician?  Post it in the comments below!


Frann R. – Red, White and black for the guitar that I first saw Eddie Van Halen play back in 1984 on the Diver Down tour.

Darlene O. – Black and Non-tarnish silver for VNV Nation – though really they are more of an iridescent gunmetal.

Lisa S. – I have no one top fav, but Madonna would be a light blue, gold and sliver. Flogging Molly would be black, gold and green. Black Keys would be a fire mix. I could go on but…

Diane B. – I love the Fleetwood Mac song, Blue Letter (with silver words): so dark blue and silver!

Jaime M. – Blue, sliver and black for some blue suede shoes; pink, black, and red for those bricks in the wall; green, silver and gold with some sparkly crystals for Sir Elton himself, lol. I’m sure I can keep going!

Chainmaille Weave Ideas posts – your own little library!

Posted by | No Comments | Read More / Add Comment

Our Chainmaille Weave Ideas posts are a great reason to bookmark our blog right now.  We recently added posts for all the sizes we carry in anodized aluminum, enameled copper, and niobium jump rings and will continue to add to these posts and create new ones to cover even more sizes.

By using our blog’s search bar, you can use these posts like your own little weave library.  Here are a few suggestions for how to find just what you’re looking for.


Search by Weave

Need ring size suggestions for a common chainmaille weave?  Type the name of the weave into the search bar and voila – you’ll be presented with the weave ideas posts that include that weave.  Let’s say you want to make a dragonscale bracelet.  Typing “dragonscale” into the search bar results in several posts that include images, ring counts, and links to instructions for this weave in a variety of sizes.



Search by Ring Size

Have a certain ring size hanging around that you’re not sure what to do with?  Typing the ring size into our search bar will pull up the weave ideas posts for that size filled with suggested uses.  You can type in the size using our ring names (letter and number such as F20) or type in the wire gauge and inner diameter in either inches or mm (i.e. 20ga 5/32″ or 20ga 4.0 mm).



Search by Aspect Ratio

Finally, you can search these posts by aspect ratio by typing in “aspect ratio” followed by the number (i.e. aspect ratio 4.7).  This means that even if we don’t have a post for the exact ring size you’re looking for, we might still have weave ideas that will work for your rings.  Learn more about aspect ratio and how chainmaillers use AR by visiting our FAQ.



Looking for weave ideas for a certain size that we haven’t covered yet?  Request a post by sending us an email at [email protected] and letting us know the ring size or weave you are looking for.  If we get lots of requests for a certain size or weave, we’ll know to make it a priority!