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!

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!

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