Chainmaille for Good

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B3 has always had the desire to give back and raise awareness through our art-making.  For the past several years we have sold countless awareness bracelets supporting organizations that raise awareness about Pulmonary Fibrosis and Chronic Babe, an organization that supports young women with chronic health issues.  We have also been selling this beautiful dreamcatcher created by Alison Carpenter to honor and support those who have faced cancer.  B3 artist and instructor Vanessa Walilko has been flexing her awareness-raising muscles as well selling this bracelet through her Etsy shop to benefit breast cancer.

Breast Cancer Awareness Bracelet by Kali Butterfly

It was for these reasons and more than we here at B3 were delighted to help Janine Vanderhoff of Athena’s Armoury in her quest to raise money to fight breast cancer and use chainmaille to do it.  Janine will be participating in the Susan G. Komen 3 Day for the Cure and has taken on the impressive goal of raising $3,000 to go to the fight against breast cancer…and she is REALLY impressively close to reaching her goal.  One way you can help push her fundraising over the edge is by purchasing and item from her her Pink Warrior Collection available for purchase on Etsy.  We had the great honor of donating all the pink rings used to create the pieces and ALL proceeds from the purchase of each item from the collection goes straight to her fundraising.

Pink Warrior Collection by Athena’s Armoury

Buying any one of these awareness pieces means you’re not only walking away with a well-made, beautiful piece of handmade jewelry but that you have a way to show your solidarity with the people facing these illnesses and those that struggle right along side them.  Know someone else making a difference through chainmaille?  Tell us about it.  We are happy to share their story on our page on Facebook and through our Twitter feed.

Also, find out how you can cheer on Janine and all the other dedicate 3-Day participants by checking out the Spectator Info on the 3-Day website.  This is an empowering yet grueling experience for the walkers and they have already been working hard to prepare for it – check out what Janine told us about it earlier today:

Some people think it’s just a walk: you’re right that it’s a walk, but we are walking 60 miles. There is a lot of training that goes into preparing for an endurance event. I walk 3-4 times a week with my teammates, often setting my alarm as early as 4:00am on the weekend in order to get in some miles before the sun comes up with our dreaded Florida summertime heat. My cross training happens twice a week and has been yoga and pilates to stretch and strengthen my muscles. Since I started training for this event, I’ve already walked 448 miles!!

I still have to get an air mattress and pick up a duffel bag with wheels (after walking 60 miles, I’m not going to want to carry it!). The air mattress is because not only am I walking 60 miles, but I’ll be staying at camp with 2,000 other walkers over the course of those three days. They will provide me with a hot pink tent to sleep in and we’ll be showering in semi’s (yup, inside a truck).

Find out when the walkers will be passing through your neck of the woods and give them a holler to let them know you’re proud of them!  We sure will be.

Through chainmaille, I have found my patience.

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Clothes are a representation of our culture:  an expression of an industrialized society where repetition is used in the service of the assembly line.  In my pieces, the intensive handwork makes the process the most important part and gives me my inspiration.  Chainmaille has been the catalyst to every other medium I excel in.  All of the mediums I enjoy are obsessive and have repetitive patterns.

Through chainmaille, I have found my patience.

– Sky Cubacub

Above: Sky Cubacub models her own work for a show at Swimming Pool Project Space in Chicago, IL

It feels like we here at B3 have watched strikingly original Chicago artist Sky Cubacub grow up right before our eyes.  A radical thinker and maker, Sky uses the ancient art of chainmaille and other traditional crafts including scherenschnitte (traditional paper cutting) and embroidery to explore contemporary subject matter and create modern (think futuristic) “body sculpture”.  Oh, and did we mention she is barely old enough to vote?

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Your work is so strikingly sophisticated I always forget you just finished high school!  Where do you think this impetus for such thoughtful creativity came from for you?

Both my parents are multi media artists, so I didn’t really have a choice, I was just born with it.

How did you have time to make the work you make and still keep up with school?

Last year was easy to make time for my work because I had a senior project, which was 3 out of the 6 periods, and I had sculpture, drawing/painting and shakespeare lit outside of that. I basically never stop working, even during passing periods I will be chainmailling, and when I walk, I just embroider.

Have you always been interesting in making fashion and wearable art?

I have always loved wearing costumes and since I could dress myself I always wore two different colored socks, but I didn’t start adding found object to clothes until the 7th grade, and it wasn’t until freshman year that I really got into it making garments, but it was more of an interest in making bigger chainmaille projects.

Above: Sky Models Chainmaille dress, 2008-2009, Byzantine weave with aluminum rings (Left) and previews her Wayang Kulit Collection at Redmoon Theaters J.O.E. 2010 (Right)

Why make wearable art instead of more traditional fashion or sculpture?

Traditional fashion has been done to death and I do make sculpture as well.  I actually prefer to call what I make “body sculpture”

What inspired you start working with chainmaille?

At Caravan Beads, I always saw the samples of projects made in the classes they offered, and I loved the chainmaille ones the best, but they always said I was too young to take the class, so I finally got to take it with my mother when I turned 13.


Above: A piece from Sky’s “Repetitive Motions” collection/show

The chainmaille couture world is pretty small (meaning you are certainly a pioneer).  Who do look to for inspiration?

I don’t look to other fashion designers, instead I get my inspiration from people like Buckminster Fuller and his geodesic domes, and I also get a lot of inspiration from the chainmaille weaves themselves.

What other materials do you enjoy working with?

I also specialize in traditional paper cutting called scherenschnitte. Embroidery, cardboard, wax, found object (washers, scissors, pop tops, army men)

Above: Sky Models a wearable piece that use two specific scherenschnitte patterns (Left) and her work Army Man Dress, 2008, melted army men, plastic tanks (Right)

Sadly, we missed your show in June due to Bead & Button show craziness, what do you have coming up that we should keep our eyes peeled for?

I am working on my next collection, but it will not have any chainmaille in it.  I have some pictures on my fanpage on facebook– under preview of Wayang Kulit collection. It will be a collection of life sized wearable shadow puppets.

You recently previewed one of the pieces from that collection at Redmoon Theater’s first ever J.O.E. at Belmont Harbor.  How did you get involved with Redmoon?

My friend from working with Dzine got me in contact with the people from Redmoon. I interned with Redmoon over the summer, helping with coloring and puppet mechanics for their show, The Astronaut’s Birthday at the MCA. I was originally going to make costumes, but they ended up cutting that part out of the show.  I am currently working for Redmoon on their annual Winter Pageant, making costumes for a family of puppets and  I definitly would love to continue working for them, but I think I will limit myself to working during the summers to make time for my own work as well.

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See Sky’s work in Redmoon‘s Winter Pageant and visit her page on facebook and her website to stay in the loop about the release of her new collection.

Words To Weave By

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Rebeca, myself, and everyone at B3 are working hard in preparation for the release of her first book, Chained (and all the goodies that go along with it!)  I had the great pleasure to be the photographer for the book and as such, had a great view of the countless tips and tricks Rebeca has up her sleeve when it comes to chainmailling.  The good news for you is that when she wrote her book, she made sure to include as many tips and tricks as she could possibly cram in there.  Inspired by this, I asked our fans on Facebook to share some of the best tips and tricks they have learned from others or discovered on their own.  The answers ranged from the practical to the poetic and I have deemed them totally worth sharing.  Enjoy.

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Aimee Berger: Wait until the kids (mine are 6 and 3 1/2) go to bed.

Teri Williams: Take it easy on the coffee before starting.

Dion Brodeur: Never put the piece down, unless you have to visit the loo. If you’re just starting out, never give up. Just take a break, if you get frustrated, go outside get some fresh air, count to 10 then dive back in.

Danielle Chase: I always have in mind what I’m going to play with and I only play with it for a couple of hours. That way I don’t get tired of playing with chain maille. I’m always looking for the next challenge.

Tania Moody Kitchin: Dip your tools before starting.

JoAnn Brallier Johnson: Take breaks, drink water, flex your hands, follow directions (I’m a beginner)…

Christa Krasneck: READ THE DIRECTIONS THOROUGHLY; several times, if necessary. But the newest trick I learned with Dragonscale (besides rule #1) was use the piece of wire included in the kit to nudge the rings into place. Worked like a charm!

Danielle Chase: Here’s a suggestion to learn how to do a pattern. Go buy you some shower rings from the dollar store and use the rings as jump rings and teach yourself the pattern before you use rings. I find this very helpful in learning new patterns and helping some one to learn how to do chain maille.

Diana Ferguson: Invest in ergonomic pliers; e.g. Lindstrom RX.  Don’t give up, ever. In addition to sight, your sense of touch can tell you a lot about whether you’ve achieved a clean, invisible closure on a ring. Don’t forget to PLAY!

Frann Ramales: Remember to BREATHE…. If you can’t ‘get’ a weave right away, set it aside and come back to it when you don’t have so many distractions or stress. Maille with stress and/or distractions leads to holes in the wall from thrown pliers. LOVE your pliers and love yourself… just BREATHE :)

Dylon Whyte: Hmmm, well, I guess to me, the most important thing never being afraid to experiment. There are no mistakes, just new opportunities for learning.  What I really like to do is pin my experiments to… the wall, so I can regard them over time. All my best ideas have come from the process of experimentation, examination and (when ready) refinement or (if appropriate and more often) evolution into something completely different.

Leayn Tabili: Make and use a starter chain for HP4-in-1.

Curtis Rondeau: 1) I must also echo the never give up part.  2) Get good with your closures before you get quick. Proper closures are key to a quality product.  3) Don’t be afraid to try to copy what you see but give credit where it’s due.  And lastly 4) Mistakes are nothing more than an experiment gone in a different direction.

Paul Madchatr: Best trick I have found so far is to be friends with B3 they always rescue me :-) thanks always Reb and Kat

(*Blush* Thanks Paul!)
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Thanks to everyone who contributed a tip or trick and who made us smile.  What are your favorite tips and tricks?

The Jewelry of Alexander Calder

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As an artist guide at the Museum of Contemporary Art here in Chicago, I has been my delight to tour the magnificent work of Alexander Calder throughout the summer.  If you are not familiar with his work, Calder is a modern artist who made work between the 1930’s and 1970’s.  He is most well known for his mobiles: delicate, playful hanging structures inspired by everything from trees to spiders to outer space that move on a whim with the passing air.

Calder was a very prolific artist and throughout his career, worked primarily with sheet metal and wire.  Knowing his fascination with the delicate, playful, approachable and beautiful as well as his love for metal and wire, it should come as no surprise that he also spent some time early in his career making jewelry.

His jewelry maintains the organic, fluid, handmade lines and shapes that are so recognizably “Calder”.  Unfortunately, the jewelry is rarely shown in institutions alongside his more traditional artwork.  The line between “art” and “crafts” is such a fine one and Calder’s work hugs that line more consistently than most modern artists.  A tinkerer by nature, his art-making process really looks more like that of a craftsman perhaps and than a “fine-artist”.  Perhaps it is also the lack of lofty concepts and ideas behind his work which is meant to be taken at face value and – brace yourself – just enjoyed that sets him apart from many other modern artists.

The resurgence of Calder as an influence in the contemporary art world may speak to a desire to revitalize craftsmanship, refinement, and beauty in the art world.  I for one hope that might be the case.  After all, what’s more engaging that a really well made object that maintains the identity of the artist and is made with love?

B3 featured on iChainMaille app

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As announced on our page on Facebook last week, Blue Buddha Boutique is excited to be featured on the newest version of the iChainMaille application for the iPhone. (Also works on iPad, according to one loyal customer.)

B3 is listed as a resource for jump rings in the new “Suppliers” tab of the app. The Aspect Ratio tool has got to be the best part of this app! If you purchase iChainMaille please let us know what you think and we’ll pass your comments on to the software designer, TouchQuick Software LLC.

Screenshots from iChainMaille app by TouchQuick Software, LLC. Used with permission.