Thursday, January 28, 2010

New in Shop: Wolf Hunter Chain Maille Necklace

The Fantasy Artists of Etsy Street Team's 2010 monthly challenge is based on each month's name of the Full Moon. There are multiple names that the moon can go by according to different cultures and mythologies. For January, I chose to work with the Native American name: Wolf Moon.

I thought it would be easy to find lupine inspiration, if nothing else surely I could create something involving werewolves. A few weeks of no inspiration and mounting frustration, I approached my teammates with the question of what they do when they have a creative block. At the suggestion of one teammate I waded through a bag of supplies that I forgot I had. It was full of pendants, findings, gemstones, and a couple of Mahogany Obsidian arrowheads. In my wolf research, I read about Wolf's Bane which is an herb and one of the common names for Aconite. Several species of aconite are poisonous and have been used as arrow poisons to hunt ibex and bear as well as in warfare. It is also historically correct that Native Americans used Mahogany Obsidian for arrowheads. So my Wolf Moon chain maille piece is actually inspired by my herbal research (it's all connected).


I did a very simple wire wrap on an arrowhead and suspended it on a length of copper chain maille. This chain maille weave is most commonly known as Full Persian, but as with so many maille weaves goes by a few different names: one of them is Foxtail. I chose to work in copper because of how earthy a metal it is. It was turning out to be quite a substantial piece, so I didn't think just any clasp would do. I wanted to make something that could carry the bulk and toughness of the piece. I also wanted it to feel like the hunter made it himself to carry the prized arrowhead that caught the wolf that tormented his village. I wanted it to feel rustic.

The Wolf Hunter Chain Maille Necklace is available both in my Artfire Studio and Etsy Shop.

6 comments:

Charon said...

Ooh, pretty work Athena. The ruddy obsidian works very well with copper. I'm pretty fond of the single large ring interrupting the weave for your bail. I think it adds a lot to the focus and I bet it takes some of the stiff look out of of FP chains.

mermaiden said...

this is such a powerful and magnetic piece. it could tell story after story...

Athena's Armoury said...

Thank you both so much! I'm very excited about this piece. It's my first new piece of maille in a long time and I love how it all finally fell together.

M Dawson said...

Wow - a stunning and exciting piece. You have RRALLY been inspired! Well done.

Athena's Armoury said...

Thank you, Marjorie! I'm very pleased with it, too. =)

Anonymous said...

Wow, this looks amazing!