Three Happy Surprise Features!

I just very happily discovered that Athena's Armoury is featured in not one, not two, but three different places over the course of the last few days!

First, I received a notice through Blog Catalog from FishHawk informing me that I was featured in his Five for Friday feature. FishHawk says: "FIVE FOR FRIDAY is a weekly feature on this blog that is meant for the SOLE purpose of calling attention unto sites that I think that many would find interesting." He featured my Euro 4-1 stainless steel bracelet with lovely lavender glass dangles:

Thank you FishHawk!!

I was just scrolling through the referring URL's of people who visited my blog and noticed that quite a few people were coming from two different places over the course of the last few days: Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories and The Scarlett Rose Garden.


The Scarlett Rose Garden is a totally charming blog featuring (among other things) fantastic vintage clothing. Nikki at Scarlett featured my blog post on Rosie the Riveter for her "How to look Rosie for the 4th!" blog post.

Thank you Scarlett Rose Garden!!

And lastly, Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories did a fantastic tutorial on how to make your own DIY d12 Handbag (of Holding) . In their intro, they linked back to my blog post featuring the alternative use of my Chain Maille Dice Bag as an evening purse.

Thank you Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories!!

Moving Right Along

My local Costco is now carrying Caravan Canopies! Yay! I will be able to make a tent purchase locally and be able to save on shipping. I'm so happy. Now, I only have to figure out how to decorate/disguise it. I have a few ideas that are very earthy and nature oriented, but need to think more about how to suit it to my metal. The thought of maille curtains crossed my mind.

I just recently finished one of my Crown Royal sized Dice Bags for a friend at work.

Now that that's done I'm moving on to bulking up my inventory with more armour. Coming soon: a Bishop's Mantle. I can't wait to start on a big project again. I actually enjoy them more than the smaller scale jewelry items. Work in progress pic's to come soon. First though, I have to coil and cut all of my rings.

Playing Catch Up in Pictures

Last week I received such a phenomenal wire order! All kinds of yummy stuff including a sampler of anodized aluminum rings, a sampler of scale maille, 2 pounds each of 16 gauge and 18 gauge bright aluminum (BA) wire, and 10 pounds* of 14 gauge BA wire. I already finished a custom dice bag with some of the anodized aluminum rings and am starting on an Uber bag (yup, that's the Crown Royal size) for a friend. Part of my mom's birthday present this year is a pouch for her iPod with the green (her favorite color) anodized aluminum rings. Then, I have so many plans for more armour and some production line jewelry. So much metal to play with!!

I've been talking about the fact that I'm working on the Fantasy Artists of Etsy Street Team's Round Robin for FOREVER now!! Come Hell or high water, I will finish my part for this doll! Here's a work in progress picture so you know I'm not lying. . .

<== Scott recently bought me this fabulous tool chest, I just had to share with you. It's beautiful!





On a side note, I'm so excited to finally have my taillight guards on my Jeep! I've had these things for probably a year and a half and have been searching for the correct hardware for them ever since. ==>

Lastly, Jack wanted to say hi. Here he is "overseeing" my maille work:

Athena's Armoury is Featured

The Fantasy Artists of Etsy Street Team's March Madness Exhibition is now live! It includes many different forms of art that contain themes of moons (for lunacy!), Alice in Wonderland (March Hare), dark fantasy, and more. Helen, from the Etsy shop krummenacker, explained where the phrase "March Madness" is derived:

"It began with Spring Fever and Mad as a March Hare-- the apparent insanity of animals and young people, even, eager to get outdoors, play, mate, and run wild. Rabbits in particular do incredibly dangerous things when their hormones are surging. And so the March Hare was at the Mad Hatter's tea party..."

Helen is just a font of information, especially stories of myth and legend.

Anyway, please check out our exhibition! There are many wonderful items and I'm sure you'll find something or someone that catches your fancy. Happy shopping!


I am honored to share with you that Cathy from AllChic has featured my Chain Maille Dice Bag on her blog. The post is called Medieval Look and features a dress by Stella McCartney. Cathy recommends using my Dice Bag as a purse (I actually have had a customer do the very thing once!). Also featured is a killer knit collar by Ellita's Flying Snail. Thank you so much for featuring me, Cathy, and in such amazing company. To think, I was in the same article as Stella McCartney. . . Glorious!

I Love My Tools

However, I don't know what's going on with them lately. A few weeks back, I was weaving bright aluminum with my lovely Lindstrom flat nose pliers. All of a sudden, there was a snap and then something hit me (hard) in the shoulder. I just thought that a ring snapped, so I went to pick up another one and noticed that half of the jaw on one of my pairs of pliers was gone! After the initial confusion, I went into shock, and then got very upset. That never, ever should have happened with those pliers: they are known to last for decades. Luckily, they are covered by a lifetime guarantee and I'm expecting a brand new pair to arrive in the mail this week. Yay!


Over the weekend, I had quite a few projects going on. One of which is filling an order for an Uber Chain Maille Dice Bag (it's the size of a Crown Royal bag!). I coiled and cut rings until I ran out of wire and then had to tumble them to remove any burrs and make them nice and shiny. I walked away and when I came back, the barrel on my tumbler had stopped rotating. I opened it up and the belt finally broke on the thing. In not one, but three places! So, I got out my mini screwdrivers and went at it. Eager to get my hands dirty and fix my tumbler, I forgot to unplug it and suffered a mild electrocution. Sigh. All was well after that: I got the new belt in place, screwed it all back together, and finished tumbling my rings!

Apparently, the tumbler available from Harbor Freight has a reputation of easily breaking belts. I've had mine for two years and this is the first time it's happened. That said, if you experience belt problems with your Harbor Freight tumbler there is a cheaper alternative to purchasing a new belt. An experienced mailler I know recommended using the heavy duty rubber bands from broccoli. Apparently, he's been doing that for years to much success! Happy tumbling!

More Dice Bag Options Coming Soon!

So, Dice Bags have been quite the belle of the ball in my shop. This past week, I got orders for all three different varieties that I currently have available! In the future, I look forward to being able to offer more color and metal options to meet this growing market!

Traditionally, Dice Bags have been used by gamer geeks who play Dungeons and Dragons. A comment made by Krummenacker (a fellow Fantasy Artists of Etsy Street Team member) made me start thinking about the characters in D&D and tailoring these bags specifically to them. Keep your eyes out for dice bags with inlays.

Hey all of you bloggers: check out these great tips from Timothy Adams Designs for getting some traffic to your blog. I've been really horrible about updating, so I need to work on that one. BlogRush sounds like a fun idea: I'll have to check it out! Also, I keep thinking about find more groups through Ring Surf for armourers, so that is on my list now, too!

Bags, Bags Everywhere

I'm excited to announce the addition of more styles of Dice Bags in my Etsy shop: Athena's Armoury. During December, I was in a Dice Bag making frenzy: both standard as well as some custom orders.

My standard Dice Bag was quite the craze as a Christmas present to many a geeky significant other (I say that with lots of love since I have one of my own: self-proclaimed no less!).

One of the custom orders I did was for the same size as my standard bag, but with copper cinch rings instead.

When someone saw me working on a Dice Bag at work, I got a custom order for a Crown Royal size Dice Bag.

All of these styles are now available at Athena's Armoury!

Please note that the two standard size style bags both ship within three business days of payment, however, the Uber Dice Bag (Crown Royal size) will be made when I receive your payment and will ship out in approximately two weeks. If time is a concern, contact me first.

I've Been MIA: Here's What I've Been Up To

I've been horrible about updating lately!! The last few weeks have been insane. I'm not sure how it happened, but I was still rushing to wrap and ship Christmas presents even though I started shopping in October.

I finally finished up my custom orders. I had one order for two Dice Bags, one of my standard and the second with copper cinch rings:

I was spotted working on a Dice Bag while at work and got a custom order on the spot for a Crown Royal size bag:

I don't have any in shop at the moment, but if you want a Dice Bag just drop me a Convo through my Etsy shop and I will get back to you with an estimate of how soon one can be ready (usually 3-4 days).

I got to go to the Atomic Holiday Bazaar in Sarasota recently and walked away with all kinds of awesome booty. You can see some it in my flickr Customer Appreciation Set. Also, I finally upgraded to a Pro flickr account! Ooooh, the organization possibilities!

I recently hit 150 Hearts! THANK YOU!


The folks over at Real Simple gave Etsy an awesome shoutout in their December issue:


Need a last minute handmade gift? Check out Etsy's fantastic new feature called Shop Local. It will show you all of the Etsy shops in your neighborhood.

The Fantasy Artists of Etsy (FAE) Street Team's December Newsletter is out! You can sign up to receive our once monthly newsletter here.

You have just 11 more days to check out the FAE Christmas Exhibition. There are many wonderful items here from our members.

We've got another wonderful feature over at our FAE website called the Magic Door. Every single day, it is updated to take you to a different member shop. It's a little happy surprise to go through that door!

Busy, Busy, Busy

Lately, I've been a Dice Bag making machine! Who knew there would be such a draw for them on Etsy?! It's quite fantastic, really. I've sold five on Etsy already, am working on a custom order for multiple bags for a fellow Etsian, have had two requests for bags for two other Etsians which I'm in the process of making, as well as a custom job for a Crown Royal size bag for someone outside of Etsy that saw me working on one. Whew! It's awesome! I currently have a Dice Bag disclaimer in my shop announcement, too. Due to the high demand of Dice Bags, there is not one currently listed in my shop. However, if you're interested, please drop me a convo through my shop and I'll give you an estimated time of when one can be ready.

I also just listed the final entry to my Snowflake Collection section in my shop: a Snowflake Ornament.

The Snowflake Collection was inspired by the FAE Street Team contest theme Snowflake Fantasy. My entry into the contest is the Snowflake Necklace.

Contest voting will start soon, so I'm counting on all of you!! I'll be sure to post the link to the voting page as soon as it's available. Thanks!!

Dice Bag as Evening Purse

I was hanging out in the Etsy forums (I do that a lot at work) and ran across a Promotions thread for a purse. Turns out the woman posting the thread has a formal event coming up (some kind of military dinner) and she was planning on wearing burgundy and silver and wanted a matching bag small enough for her cell, some money, etc. On a whim, I posted my dice bag and she went for it! Woohoo! People tend to think that posting in the forums, particularly the promo section, doesn't work. I tend to agree with that comment, but it sure worked for me this time! As a special little something for her I added this embellishment:

She plans on adding some beads to it that match the jewelry she's making to wear that night too. I asked to see pic's when she's done. I bet it will look fantastic.

On a side note, I caught my new family member drinking water our of one of the fish bowls last night. She didn't seem to be going for the fish, just drinking. We had noticed that the water was getting low very fast lately, but this is the first time we caught her in the act. Looks like I'll have to find another bowl for the fish.

Angel / Devil

Dice Bags!!

I'm excited to be adding Dice Bags to Athena's Armoury! They are so fun to make. Don't get me wrong, I love the shiny metal jewelry, but I also really enjoy working on a decent sized project, too. I love the way the metal feels in my hands as I weave it with my pliers. With a project like this the metal turns into a mesh fabric, a feeling you would never expect from metal.

These wondrously versatile little pouches aren't just for dice, either! Going out for a night on the town? Throw your essentials into the pouch, tie it to your belt loop, and watch everyone stare at the shiny metal sparkling from your hip.

Guys: don't feel like loading up your pockets or carrying a man purse? Check this baby out: room for your wallet, cell phone, keys.

But, I can't forget you gamer geeks out there since my man is one, too. Of course this bag is for you and your dice for your next D&D session!!