Enter December’s “Featured Product” Contest. Plus, “Mailler of the Year 2012” – coming soon!

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FEATURED PRODUCT FOR DECEMBER – Bright Aluminum Jump Rings


For December, we’re keeping it simple and looking for pieces created entirely from aluminum rings. No color. No mixed metals. Just this simple and affordable material. We know how versatile it can be and we can’t wait to see what you come up with to showcase how less can really be more sometimes.

December’s contest winner will also be the final one for the year to go on to the “Mailler of the Year 2012” contest! In January, all 2012 winning pieces will go head to head to determine who will be crowned our new “Mailler of the Year”, winning a $100 B3 Gift Certificate and, of course, bragging rights for the year *wink*!

HOW TO PARTICIPATE:




Make a project which primarily uses our featured product. The project can most definitely use other rings and components, but the featured product should really be the star of the piece. Please see the complete rules and details below for more information about qualifications.




Take a picture of your project and submit it using our official Featured Product Contest form (link below.) You may post the piece online somewhere and provide us with a link, or upload it directly in the form. You will be asked to provide your name and an email address we can use to contact you in case anything goes wrong with your submission—or if you are the winner of the contest!

GO TO THE SUBMISSION FORM

Submissions are closed at midnight CT on 15th of every month and are limited to 2 entry pieces per person.



Get Votes! Submissions will close on the 15th of each month at which point the B3 Staff will choose our favorites. The top entries will be eligible for voting through a survey which we will post to our blog. If you are one of the finalists, feel free to share the link with friends via email, Facebook, Twitter or any other means.

Voting will close on the last day of the month.

 


We will award the top voted finalist each month with a $25 B3 Gift Certificate and will feature YOUR project in a special blog post and possibly even future B3 ads to inspire fellow chainmaillers all over the world.



Complete contest rules and details: Submissions are limited to 2 per person and must use the featured product of the month as determined by Blue Buddha Boutique. The project is not required to be made from Blue Buddha Boutique rings, however any winning projects that use primarily rings from another supplier or rings made by the artist will not be eligible for posting on our blog or use in our ads to prevent false advertising. Pieces do not have to be specially created for the contest but should be no more than 12 months old. Current employees and interns of Blue Buddha Boutique are not eligible for this contest. Finalists are chosen by Blue Buddha Boutique and voted upon anonymously by the public to determine a winner. Submissions may be disqualified at the discretion of Blue Buddha Boutique if they are deemed inappropriate in any way. If a winner does not claim their prize within 15 days of notification, the second place winner will be awarded the prize.

Giveaway Winner + 24 Hour SALE on Chainmaille “Starter Packs”!

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Wow!  What a fun couple of weeks.  Thanks to all the awesome bloggers who participated in our “chainmaille blog hop” and congrats to all the giveaway winners we’ve had so far.  Now, without further ado, it’s time to announce our grand prize winner.  The “All-in-One, Easy Start to Chainmaille” starter pack goes to *drumroll*…

Annie R.!

Congratulations, Annie!  We’ve sent an email to the address you provided with your comment.  We’re excited to help you learn this craft we love so much and we hope you really enjoy your prize :)

We would also like to take a moment to say thank you to everyone (all 381 of you!!!) who left comments on our post to enter to win this prize.  We loved reading all your comments and were really reminded what it’s like for people who are so new to this craft – both how exciting it is to try it for the first time and also how intimidating it can be to figure out where to start.

We really wish we could give away starter packs to EVERYONE who left a comment (everyone we meet actually – we just want to spread the chainmaille love!) but that wouldn’t be such a good business model *grin*.  Instead, we decided to have a special 24 Hour SALE on ALL our Starter Packs to hopefully make it a little easier for folks to achieve their dreams of trying out this craft and/or sharing it with someone in their life.

 

Starting now and continuing through tomorrow, Friday Nov 30th @ noon CT, all our Starter Packs are 5% off, so if you’ve been dreaming of trying this craft, today’s the day to take the plunge!

Note to self: Never be confused about what is in your order again!

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Have you ever received an order of supplies, opened it and looked at some of the ring sizes in there like an alien placed the order for you?  We’ve all had those, “What was I going to do with these??” moments.  Well, some of you may have noticed that we added a new feature to our shopping cart recently to help with this exact problem.

Now you can add notes to yourself on items in your shopping cart and they will appear on your packing list (hooray!)  Simply click the space next to the yellow post-it icon that says “click to write a note to yourself about this product”, type your note (for example: “for Rondo a la Byzantine”), then hit your enter/return key to save the note on that item. You MUST hit the return key in order for the note to stick. Or, you can type in update notes for multiple items at once (without hitting return) and instead click the “Update Cart” button at the bottom of the page to save all the notes with one click. The moral of the story here is you must save your note in order for it to appear on your packing list!

You can edit your notes at any time before completing your order so no worries if you make a mistake or change your mind, just hit enter each time after making changes (or click the big UPDATE CART button at the bottom).  If you save your cart and come back later, all your saved notes will still be there.  Pretty cool, huh?

click for larger view

These notes are just for your own personal use.  Make sure if you have a question, concern or comment that one of our customer care folks needs to know about, you still contact us.  We hope this feature will lead to a lot less head scratching and a many more opportunities for seeing your ideas through to completion!

Ask an Artist: More tips for making chainmaille clothing

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We asked B3 Ambassadors and chainmaille experts Omni Mee and Kat Wisniewski for tips on creating chainmaille clothing back in August. Today we’re adding to the knowledge they provided with even more tips from Vanessa Walilko, another B3 Ambassador and recent 3rd place winner in the Wirework category of the British Bead Awards (among many other honors for her epic creations.)

Check our her answers to your burning questions below and stay tuned to our blog for more “Ask an Artist” posts in 2013!

Do you have experience making clothing with tradition materials? Do you think it’s important to be familiar with the skills needed to do so before attempting to make mail clothing?


I’ve been sewing since I was a kid, first tiny stuffed toys and then clothes. That being said, it is absolutely not necessary to have any of the experience before making chainmaille clothing. It’s a different beast and a completely different spatial skill set is necessary to make it work. I can design mail clothes with ease. I still haven’t cracked pattern drafting for fabric clothes.

How do you determine which weave(s) will work best for your project?


It depends on the piece. European 4-in-1 is my go-to because it’s the most versatile. It’s the only way you can do darts effectively–and that’s necessary for really good shaping. The question I usually have is, “What size ring?” and that’s usually dependent on how I want the piece to lay. I’ve done everything from D20s to T16s. So much of what I do is based on the texture I want the piece to have. Also, for the kimono, I used a Japanese weave because, well, it’s Japanese! What else was I going to do? But I had to play around with which variation to make sure that the metal fabric draped properly.

How do you approach figuring out how many rings your project will need?


I’ll do a test swatch, figure out how many rings will go in a square foot, estimate the square feet of the project based on my measurements and then add about 10% because I always need more. Do you hear that maillers? You will ALWAYS need more rings than you think.

For any of your projects, did you start with a pattern? Is it possible to adapt patterns found in sewing stores for maille?

No patterns. I build the pieces to my body. As a result, they take forever. I feel good about making a truly unique piece that way, though.

What kinds of closures do you recommend using for clothing pieces?


There are plenty of beautiful toggles on the market. I try to use pieces that seem like a natural extension of the piece itself. It’s cringe inducing when I see a well-constructed piece finished off poorly.

Learn more about Vanessa Walilko
Website: www.kalibutterfly.com




Rush Processing now available for all orders!

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Need your supplies before Christmas?  Place your order by noon CT on December 10th to ensure it will arrive before the holidays.  Visit USPS.com for detailed information on holiday shipping cutoff dates.

We will be closed DEC 22 through JAN 6 for holidays, inventory and moving.  Read more about how this will effect orders at the end of this post.

It’s that time of year.  The time for chainmaille emergencies.  We’ve probably all had one (or more) of those moments, when you look at the calendar and realize time has flown and you need your supplies…well….yesterday!  While we’re still working out that whole going back in time thing *grin*, we are pleased to announce the next best thing – Rush Processing. 

Now, if you are in a bind and need your order quickly, you can elect to add a Rush Processing service to your order for a small fee (the fee varies based on the size of your order.)  Adding this service bumps your order to the front of the queue so it will be processed and filled ahead of all regular orders.

Select "Rush Processing" and click the "Update Cart" button

The Rush Processing fee will appear below the Subtotal in your cart

One important thing to note is that choosing Rush Processing does not effect your shipping speed.  If you need your order super-duper fast, you should also select the Express shipping option.  Likewise, choosing Express shipping does not effect your order processing time. 

Please refer to the processing time listed on our Shipping page or contact us for a more exact guess at when we will be able to ship your order.  As a reminder….

Processing Time + Shipping/Transit Time = Total Time to receive your order

We are always happy to talk to you to give you a more exact estimate of how long it will take you to receive your order at any given time.  There are many factors to consider and the processing and transit times listed on our website are guesses based on average orders and common locations.

We will be closed December 22nd through January 6th.

We will continue to process and ship orders received by noon CT on December 17th and then will be closed for the holidays, end-of-the-year inventory and moving through January 6th. Orders place after the cutoff time will begin processing and shipping when we reopen on January 7th.