Tuesday, June 23, 2009

New in Shop: Alienmaille Bracelet & Hana Gusari Chakra Anklet

This past weekend, there was a heat advisory going on in FL. Seems strange since it's always insanely hot here over the summer, but I went along with it and tried to stay in inside. Having the tail end of my head cold actually made me want to stay inside anyway: the air was so thick, I could hardly breathe. I wanted to do something for Athena's Armoury, but I wasn't necessarily feeling up to mailling (a sinus headache and looking at little jump rings just doesn't work so well for me). It's been a long time since I had a maille photo shoot for a couple of reasons:

1. Picture taking, editing, and listing is not one of my favorite parts of selling online so I tend to procrastinate doing it.

2. Things have been somewhat quiet in the shop, so it seemed a little silly to me to keep listing new items. I'd have a ton of inventory in the shop and I firmly believe that people only look at the first couple of pages anyway.

I did read at some point, though that new items get more love and attention that renewed ones, so I guess we'll see how true that is because I spent some time taking pictures, editing, and creating listings. I already shared with you my Aeracura Necklace which I listed over the weekend. Here are a couple more new items in both my Etsy shop and Artfire studio:

Alienmaille Bracelet available in Etsy Shop and Artfire Studio

One of the reasons why I love the classic Euro 4-1 chain maille weave so much is because of all of the variations that can be done with it or using it as a base. Alienmaille is one of those. It is simply two layers of Euro 4-1 woven together on top of each other making it look like a much more complex weave than it truly is.

Hana Gusari Chakra Anklet available in Etsy shop and Artfire Studio

The word chakra is Sanskrit for wheel or disk and signifies one of seven basic energy centers in the body that run from the base of the spine to the crown of the head. Each of these energy centers has a specific color and symbol and control different aspects of the body and being.

Japanese chain maille was more often than not used as a decorative element or in combination with padded steel plates or to connect plated armor. It is not as strong as it's European maille cousins, but this flexibility gives this type of maille a beautiful flow to be used as jewelry.

6 comments:

Cris said...

I love your jewelry. I had never heard of chain maille. It is very interesting. I also enjoyed your cooking blog. That is another passion of mine! Yummy! Your stuff is much more exotic, I will have to give it a try!

Athena's Armoury said...

Thank you very much! Chain maille is the ancient art of weaving metal rings together to make armor. But, as you can see, it can be adapted to make jewelry, bags, sculpture, just about anything really.

I'm a little confused though. I don't have a cooking blog. In reality, I'm really not that great a cook. I think you have me confused with someone else.

Meri Greenleaf said...

I definitely procrastinate the picture taking, editing, and listing, too. I don't like that step much.

Oh! And I heard back from AF admin about your question about listings not going live- they said "Phase II of the studios should have a preview option where items could be saved but not taken live. Kyle will be starting on Phase II in July."

So it looks like that will be possible sometime soon. :)

Athena's Armoury said...

Meri, thank you so much for finding out about that!! That's exciting.

Meri Greenleaf said...

You're welcome! Glad I could help! :D

Amanda Conger said...

I'm going to have to disagree with you that people only look at the first few pages...that's what categories are great for! I can't tell you how many times I find and artist that I LOVE, but leave their shop empty handed because they only have one or two (for example) necklaces. And then I have to stalk their shop and hope I remember to look for them when I next have money again. I say the more the merrier as long as they are organized!