Simple Joy Sunday

Try and find your simple joys. It helps. Really.

This week, my simple joys...

~After a really long day and late night at work, I was driving home over a bridge and there was a light show going on all around me. There was no rain where I was driving, but apparently all of the areas around me were getting hit. The lightening was stunning.

~Earlier the same day, Scott and I were desperate for cookies for some reason. I got home that night, exhausted, to find that he baked us some chocolate chip cookies. He even picked up a bottle of wine for me. He loves me. =)

~My mom sent me a little surprise present in the mail. Happy surprise!

~My pussy cat, Jack, who squirms like a little kid when I try to cuddle with him, voluntarily cuddled with me a couple times this week. So cute!

~I unexpectedly received lesson one of Rosemary Gladstar's The Science & Art of Herbalism this week. I am so excited to begin my journey!!

~Loose leaf tea. There's serenity, health, and happiness in that.

As always, check out more Simple Joy Sundays over at Cool Zebras.

Friday Finds is Postponed This Week

Instead of Friday Finds for today's blog post, Athena's Armoury will be offering Free Shipping! I recently decided to take the beginning steps in a change of career which included ordering Lesson One of Rosemary Gladstar's The Art and Science of Herbalism. Much to my surprise, I was excited to find it in my mailbox today. I opened up the envelope and was so excited that I could barely focus long enough to read the intoductory letter.

In celebration of my new endeavor, Athena's Armoury will be offering free shipping from now until midnight on Sunday, September 27, 2009 with coupon code: anewbeginning.

Thanks & happy shopping!!

Custom Chain Maille Purse

This post has been a long time in coming..

I love doing custom work. I love taking inspiration from someone and working with them to create a piece perfect just for them.

I was approached by a woman to make a custom purse for her. She had an idea of the shape and feel that she wanted, so that's where we started. Because of the size of the bag, I wanted to keep it as low weight as possible so we decided to use bright aluminum since it is 1/3 the weight of steel. I hand coiled and cut the thousands of rings that were used. She wanted it to be reminiscent of the days of Camelot, so I suggested weaves in the European family. The picture above is the weave that we used: Gridlock.


This second picture will give you some idea of the depth of the bag. It was honkin'.

In the pictures below, you will see some of the details that were incorporated in to the design. The shot of the left shows a corner of the bag to give it structure. The shot on the right shows how the strap (a simple Euro 4-1) continued into the body of the bag for strength.

She also and her heart set on using dags (or daggers), so I used that element on the flap of the bag and a snowflake charm was the finishing touch.


I love the way this piece came out, but more importantly, my customer was thrilled. Have an idea for a custom piece? Let me know!

Simple Joy Sunday

My weekly simple joys have been alluding me lately. I usually make a point of taking note of my simple joys throughout the week, but things have either been busy or stupid a lot lately.

Here are a few joys thanks to Athena's Armoury:
**I finished a custom order for a chain maille finger ring this for a co-worker. I'll show it off with another blog post, but was thrilled to see how happy she was with it! Half an hour after giving it to her, she came by and said that she had already passed on my card to someone, is going to show off her ring to her cousins, and was thinking about ordering a necklace. Woohoo!
**Another coworker asked me to make a necklace for her husband's birthday present. It will be a thick Full Persian chain. So sweet that she asked me to do it for her!
**I sold a custom cuff bracelet to an old friend and a pair of breast cancer awareness earrings, too!

As always, check out more Simple Joy Sundays over at Cool Zebras.