Featured Weave Contest, October 2013: Pet Costume Contest Winner!

Our Halloween wish was granted! Thank you to everyone who sent in pictures of your pets in chainmaille costumes. We are totally impressed by your creativity and your pets’ willingness to sit still long enough for a picture. This month, the winner was voted on by B3 staff. It was a tough call, but the winner of a $100 Blue Buddha gift certificate is …

Oscar the Knight by Mary S. Congratulations!

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Mary, please email us at [email protected] to claim your prize.

The cuteness can’t stop there. Two other submissions deserved an honorable mention. We loved Treats the Pumpkin Ferret from Julie W. and Royal Kitty from Wing N.

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FEATURED WEAVE FOR NOVEMBER

JensPind-700pxNovember is just around the corner (ok, ok, we know – it’s tomorrow already! ahhh!), so stay tuned for details on the November Featured Weave Contest.

We’ll be looking for items using Jens Pind Linkage, a repeating pattern of spiraling rings. It’s a tricky weave to learn, but once you master it, you’ve got yourself one very versatile weave.

Show Off Your Maille 2013: Thursday (Halloween Edition!)

For the last two years, we’ve held a special “Show Off Your Maille” week in October to celebrate the creativity of maillers in our community and raise awareness for our craft which, let’s face it, can still sometimes garner a strange look or raised eyebrow from folks not in the know. Each day this week, we’ll share pictures of the jewelry our team is sporting and we invite you to show off your pieces by posting them to our page on Facebook or sending them to us in an email at [email protected].

Come on, be a show off!



aimee-thursday



Today was an especially fun day for Show Off Your Maille week because it’s also Halloween!  Check out our decked out staff including Aimee (Customer Care Supervisor), April, Emily (Product Manager) and Omni.

Have a spooktacular Halloween everyone!







 

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Show Off Your Maille 2013: Wednesday

For the last two years, we’ve held a special “Show Off Your Maille” week in October to celebrate the creativity of maillers in our community and raise awareness for our craft which, let’s face it, can still sometimes garner a strange look or raised eyebrow from folks not in the know. Each day this week, we’ll share pictures of the jewelry our team is sporting and we invite you to show off your pieces by posting them to our page on Facebook or sending them to us in an email at [email protected].

Come on, be a show off!



April-Wednesday

 

April is our Full-Spectrum Filler & Inspectionista – she helps process and fill orders so they get to your mailbox quickly and accurately.  April is a multi-talented artist who creates paper crafts as well as statement jewelry and is a part of our new Artisan Market.

 


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These wrists belong to (from left to right) Darlene – Order Filler, Matt – Inventory Knight & Ring Sorting Specialist and Jason – Electic Wizard.  Each of these team members play an integral roll in making sure we’re in stock and orders are completed quickly so you can get weaving.  They also run the gamut when it comes to chainmaille experience from Darlene, an expert in the field, to Jason and Matt who we frequently see tinkering and learning away during our weekly employee mailling time “Weaving Wednesdays”.  Just goes to show you can’t work here long without getting sucked in!


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Last but not least, we had some necklace twins today (well, almost.) Rebeca and our General Manager, Nadja, each wore their own versions of our Tapered Mobius necklace today, of course in our unofficial uniform colors of black and red *wink*.


Show Off Your Maille 2013: Tuesday

For the last two years, we’ve held a special “Show Off Your Maille” week in October to celebrate the creativity of maillers in our community and raise awareness for our craft which, let’s face it, can still sometimes garner a strange look or raised eyebrow from folks not in the know. Each day this week, we’ll share pictures of the jewelry our team is sporting and we invite you to show off your pieces by posting them to our page on Facebook or sending them to us in an email at [email protected].

Come on, be a show off!



Betsy-tuesday

 

Betsy is our Social Media & Marketing Assistant which means, if you’re addicted to our page on Pinterest, she’s the one to blame. As one of our newest team members, she is also brand new to chainmaille and has quickly become addicted to the craft (we’re sure none of you could possibly relate to that). *wink* Today she’s showing off her Illusion Loops earrings which she made in a recent class.

Want to create your own pair?  Download the free tutorial right here on our website.


Omni-Tuesday

Omni is a B3 Customer Care Specialist, chainmaille expert, teacher, and designer. He’s well known for creating epic chainmaille garments including his dress “Violet Vestments” and “Penny Pincher” corset so it’s only logical that he’d accessorize his rockin’ leather jacket with maille.

Learn these weaves yourself! Full Persian (shown left) and European 4-in-1/Mesh (shown right)


Happy 3rd Anniversary, CHAINED!

The traditional third anniversary gift is leather, which goes quite nicely with chainmaille, don’t you think?

CHAINED_cover-lo1We can’t believe that Rebeca has been creating and enabling chainmaille addicts through her book CHAINED for three years already! Since 2010, more than 30k copies of the book have been sold worldwide.

Writing a book is tough enough, but with a detailed instructional book like CHAINED, Rebeca needed to not only write a narrative, but also step-by-step instructions, then weave several versions of a sample item (about 100 of them!), and have it all photographed. She worked for more than a year on this labor of love – resulting in 144 pages, more than 30 projects and variations, mailling tips and tricks, and the ability for people to make their own chainmaille jewelry!

Kits from the book are still some of the best selling items here at Blue Buddha Boutique – and to celebrate, we’ve recently updated some of the color combinations.

A Look Back

For a look at the publishing process of CHAINED, revisit this blog post from February 2010, where Rebeca wrote about putting the finishing touches on the manuscript.

And then there were photoshoots. Images are especially important in a book that is teaching the reader to DIY. Bad photos = confused readers. Rebeca put this task in the capable hands of Blue Buddha’s Marketing Maven Jenna Deidel. Rebeca and Jenna spent hours upon hours under hot lights, shooting and reshooting the pieces.

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Ring of Philanthropy

A portion of CHAINED’s sales – ultimately, $1,000 – was donated to Friends of Franklin Fine Arts Center, a non-profit organization whose mission is to raise funds and provide community resources and support for Franklin Fine Arts Center, a Chicago Public Magnet elementary school in Chicago’s Old Town neighborhood, focused on the visual and performing arts. Franklin Fine Arts Center is especially close to our hearts however because Rebeca’s first formative encounter with the arts was as a student there. B3_FOFFAC_white

Rebeca said, “I wanted to give back to the school that fostered my creativity and taught me to express human emotion through the arts. I want other people to know about the success of Franklin, and I want parents and teachers everywhere to brainstorm ways to bring the arts to more students.”

Just for Fun

Rebeca embarked on “gueurrila marketing” mission in an LA Barnes & Noble. She may have given a copy of CHAINED a more prominent shelf location, and it may *cough* have resulted in a small spike in sales. :)

A Star is Born

Rebeca proudly showed off the fruits of her labor at the CHAINED launch party on December 11, 2010, at the Lillstreet Art Center in Chicago.

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And the Reviews are in …

 Via the Blue Buddha Boutique Online Guestbook:
I have just received my copy of CHAINED and love it. I am only new to chainmaille but after viewing your website and looking through your wonderful book my head is so full of ideas! Do I really need to waste time sleeping? Thank you so much!” – Camille L., AU, 9/6/12

I learned how to make chainmaille jewelry with Rebeca’s book CHAINED and from the very first piece I made I was hooked! The instructions are very clear and easy to follow, the pieces are beautiful, and the rings are the best quality I’ve found. Thanks to everyone at B3!” – Amy K., US, 8/31/12

Via Amazon.com:

This has to be the best instructional guide for maille that I’ve read yet. The detailed close-up pictures of actually working with the rings has been very helpful. There is a lot of detail to show exactly how a weave works for beginners, and shows a fast track to refresh your memory if you’re doing it again or if you have a lot of experience weaving. I highly recommend this book to people of all skill levels. And the projects are fantastic, too.” – Rod Westwood, 11/23/10

This book has got to be added to the library of every mailler or wannabe mailler out there! The pictures are outstanding – you can see each step. The detailed instructions make even the hardest of weaves understandable. For the beginning student, each section starts with an easy weave and then progresses to intermediate, advanced and expert. The beauty of this is that you are able to learn each weave (or review it) then go on to more difficult, intricate variations. You’ll feel like an expert in no time! The first chapter provides so much useful information for people who are new to chainmaille or to those who have been weaving for a while. By far, this is the best chainmaille book I have ever seen.” – Christa K., 11/29/13

In this book Rebeca brings chainmaille out of the “dark ages” with color and flare! She takes ancient weaves and updates them for the 21st Century by adding color. Then she adds movement and depth by going beyond the norm and jazzing up age-old designs. As other reviewers have said, someone new to chainmaille could get this book and master these weaves in no time at all, the directions are amazing with step by step pictures. Someone like myself, who already knows the art, will revel in the new ways to do their art.” – Maureen Martinek, 12/14/10