What I have been up to. . .

What I have done. . . 

So I know I have not posted anything for some time now. Life and a few other reasons have prohibited me from doing so. 

ANYWHO. . . here is my latest update!

Finished commissions:

PICTURE TIME!

I have done quite a bit of work! Here we see multiple chain maille bags. Some new full persian copper bracelets. There is also a Half Persian 4 in 1 copper and brass 32" Knights chain. 

What's new?

Well I now make my own rings! . . . (wait for it). . . 

YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

Ok all serious now. 

Now that I make my own rings I am able to do some AMAZING weaves sooner then I would normally. This also allows me to actually make some stock!

New card reader?!

I have a card reader! YES! (fist pumps) Now I can actually accept most major credit cards. . . lets see where that picture is. . . 

Now that I have a card reader I will have to have a lil disclaimer stating that I will not use card numbers for any use but the transaction that you get a receipt for. Punishable by law of course.

What I have done since the commissions:

Here are more pictures of some of my latest work. Here we will see some Byzantine, Full Persian mini chains (can be made into earrings, charms, and such)

Yes that is a penguin in chain maille armor. What now!!!

On a side note, thanks to a friend, I now have a white seal plushie that I plan to put in armor and make a chain maille saddle for him to clip on at times. Then I want to get a lil Halbred, a Shield, and a Helmet.

Sexy I know!


Well that is all for me right now!

Remember to check out Majestic Maille on facebook!

Whats New. . . Portland Wizardworld Comic Con O.o

Comic Con

I have got the go ahead from the managers from the Wizard World Comic Con that is coming to Portlandfor the FIRST TIME! Great balls of FIRE this is HUGE! 

Here the link to their website
Wizard World Portland Comic Con Website

This is a big event for me! I have so far 2 other firends of mine putting in the money for the booth! They will help me sell and talk to people since those that know me, knows that I am not that great on this.

Together the three of us have come up with a lot of good ideas for what to make and what colors to use. I am always open to new ideas and would love feedback!

What would you like to see color wise?

I am planning about $300 of supplies! Now I am going to be getting a ton of mixed sets of rings of different sizes so I can make many many different things!

The booth ispaid for already but I could use help paying for the materials! For those that wish to assist with the materials, let me know! I have some good ideas on paying you back for the assist as well as some products that you will get for free depending on your donation. Think of it like a kickstarter without being directly on kickstarter.

Something new~!

I will be doing something new. A Candy Cande Cord with a flower to make a complete bracelet.

Overlapping Scale Flower with a Candy Cane Cord Bracelet back

Front of the Flower CCC Bracelet

Overlapping Scale Flower

The flowers are relitively quick to make which is GREAT! I will be making some more of the Candy Cane Cord (CCC) in different colors!

Well let me know what you think! I will be posting pictures of the event and such!

SCA Commissions!

So at the end of Heavy Armor fighter practice on the 10th I showed a few of theguys there my Full Persian 18g 1/4" 8" bracelet. (here is a pic of it)

Full Persian Bracelet in the center!

Now afew of them were REALLY excited about the prospect of a custom made Knights Chain! They had asked me to get them some prices and pictures of what it will look like etc. One of them asked for a Copper and either brass or Bronze mix. He wanted a picture and since Facebook gives me trouble I figured I will kill all the birds with a single stone and post this up here.

Now lets look at some bracelets and the costs. I am going to focus on full persian for the beginning and move on to half persian at the end.

Full Persian:

First let us see some pics of differnt materials and FP!

Aged Brass with Copper lines

Stainless Steel and Copper

Another pic of the aged Brass and Copper

These look great huh!

Now at 18g like my bright aluminium bracelet is only 8" long and the chain will be roughly 3-4 times that length. This makes materials with shipping come to about $20 for the 18g. 

Now because bronze, copper, and brass are somewhat softer material to deal with, I have to increase my hourly price because Ihave to be careful with them, now that does not increase my time, thankfully. 

Now when looking at a BIGGER version of this in Copper (14g) Material costs come out to be $60! That includes the shipping. The reason it costs so much is the place I order my rings from (since being homeless robs my capability to make my own rings) sell by the Ounce. So smaller gauge wire is thicker so heavier which means less in a ounce, not to mention that shipping gets higher. Thankfully  I do not need as many rings though. I still want about 800 rings for saftey purposes (have more than enough rings and you make sure that you do not need to order more!)

Half Persian:

Here is a picture of mixed half persian

Copper and Stainless steel (gives you the feel of how it alternates)

This is a square ring Brass and copper HP

Prices are about a 3rd to a quarter less than FP. So the costs for materials for a 18g is $15 and the 14g is $40.

Thoughts? Just let me know I do know other weaves such as Byzantine, Viperscale, and even Dragonback.

Pricing breakdown

How I price:

Ok some of you are wondering why I have the prices I do. Well this is simple really. I use the prices I do based on a simplistic equation. This equation has what I consider my hourly wage to be ($10 an hour for the time being) cost of materials, and a 40% profit margin.

A lot of you saw the 40% and are freaking out! Why so high! you ask. Also simple. I am a new business, I need to get my name out there, I need to attend events so that I can sell more product, and I need to acquire more materials.

Now 40% is actually on the low end of most peoples pricing guides that do this for a living. I have seen 55% and up as the norm here.

Also some of you are thinking that I am getting more money then what my items and products are worth. So let me ask you a question and this concerns why I have a wage and a profit to my equation.

If I chose to do a different job that paid me $10 an hour instead of chainmaille then that would be my wage right? That is what the job considered my time worth to them. Same is true for this job. $10 an hour is what my time is worth to be doing this. The profit is as I stated to help expand my business!

Plans for my business:

Now for those of you who are looking at this and thinking that I may be a bit ambitious. . . well you are RIGHT! Lets start off at the current situation shall we.

For those that do not know I am a Homeless 23 year old in Portland Or. Now do not take this as a way to garner sympathy, I do not say this for that. Rather I would like you to see more of what I am trying to accomplish.

Currently I am working towards making over $300 a month in profit for at lest 2 consecutive months,  so that I can get a place to live. When you do the math the profit of $300 means that I have sold upwards of $1200 which should cover rent with roommates, and increasing my business.

I am also working on setting up several consignments and such with some very high end names in the Portland area.

Within a year I plan on hitting some major events in Portland and Washington. These include Ren Fairs, SCA events, and many many Cons.

I plan in the next 2 years to hit 2 MAJOR events in the US. 1 of them is a Ren Fair in Texas. There I am looking at sending roughly $12,000 worth of product and coming back with 2-3 times that (Not all of it will sell. . . ) The second event will be PENNSIC which is a HUGE SCA event (roughly 10,000 people at a slow PENNSIC) Here I will be taking as much product as I did to the Ren Fair in Texas and I plan on having a blast. I will also be bringing 2 of my models with me if the Texas Ren Fair pays off and it will be an all expenses paid trip for them.

Now a lot of you are wondering "Why the frack is he telling us this!" Well I believe that if you know my goals and what i am trying to accomplish, as well as from where I am coming from you will want to be apart of this and get your own Majestic Maille Custom piece done. This is no marketing ad or anything like that.

This is a simple show of how far I want to go with this. I have the ambition, the capability, the tools, the imagination, and the will to learn.

What else I do with chain maille

What else is there?

Alright, so some of you may be asking yourselves; 

"So you can do earrings, bracelets, neckalces, and wallet chains. . . Is that all!?" 

The answer to this is "No, that is ONLY the beginnning!"

In this post I will show you some of my FAVORITE things! 

Please keep in mind that these photos are not mine (for now) and I will replace the photos with my own as I get them in.

At the end I will have some more pictures that I think are fantastic!

Dragonscale!

Now some of you will remember this weave, I have shown it MANY times! (also if you look at the background it is 3 bracelets of Dragonscale)

Here are some examples. 

A 5 ring slide connector, connecting a Blue Silver Dragonscale 7 wide bracelet

The other side of that bracelet

3 Dragonscale bracelets shoing the color versatility and the majestic beauty of Dragonscale

A small 4 wide Gold and Black Dragonscale bracelet

MICROMAILLE! THis is about a 22 or high gauge Dragonscale. . . Will!!!! I shall get you!

Here is a BEAUTIFUL 4 wide Black, Gold, and Silver bracelet

Here is an ODD one. A 3 wide BUT the outside rings are small! This is not a normal Dragonscale but a GREAT idea!

Dragonscale Tie. This is a Micromaille version.

Bright Silver and Orange Full bracelet, no connector

 So now we have seen some GREAT examples of Dragonscale. It encompasses everthing chainmaille has to offer and MORE! Not only does it look great but it can take a BEATING! I have seen pieces that are 6+ years old and have never had to bbe repaired even after kids tugging and pulling, things getting caught in it etc.

About Dragonscale:

Dragonscale is a 2 sized ring weave. This DOES increase the cost so beware! Now with the 2 ring sizes one has to be VERY careful on picking the Aspect Ration of EACH ring size. ( one reason I commented on the odd one with a different ring on the big ring slot. . . ) Dragonscale is a silky sort of weave behaving like almost having a snake in your hands (same movements) This weave is also called the snake weave or Fishscales.

Dragonscale as you hav seem can be done in MANY sizes and colors. It also looks AMAZING in most any combination. This weave is actually what GOT me to start chain maille in the first place!

Ok lets more on to Scale Maille!

Scale Maille

Scale maille is a weave that does not use rings to make it up. The rings are just a SMALL portion of what is there and you usually do not even see them!

Lets get some examples!

Flower Hairclips Underside

Flower Hairclips Topview

3 colored Scale Bracelet. 3 wide

Alternating 1 wide Blue scale bracelet

Pink Hand Flower

Blue and white (Azure and Argent) 3 wide Necklace

Scale Scrunchy

In action!

Butterflies

Extended Scale Chocker with costom Leather

Scale Dicebags (Crocheted, Mine will be knitted with rings instead of yarn)

Scale Tie (try going to a meeting in this! The looks are AMAZING!)

Scale Wrist Flower 

So here we have seen some AMAZING styles of scale use! Now thankfully scales are not expensive (about $4 for 100 of the small ones) and thankfully scales cover a DECENT area (300 small ones for a sq foot of item) so they are not OUTRAGEOUS! Which is great. Take for instance the Alternating Blue 1 Wide bracelet up there, that would go for like $20! That thing is almost 50 scales LONG! But it would not take long to make! Which is GREAT!

Now something like that scale chocker and you are looking at about 6+ hours of time at max and that piece would run about $120ish at best!

Scale is a great median, and I can work most ANYTHING into either scale OR chain. All you have to do is ask!

Well that is all for me tonight! Next time I will be doing a little price explanation so everyone understands just HOW I do this and why I am not pulling numbers from odd places!

Great Pictures!

Dragonscale Pendents. Great for Keychains, phone clips, etc and cheap to! $5 a piece! 

Dragonscale Earring! OH MY! These are a treat. Now almost ANY weave can become  an earring (looking at you JPL) but these ones look GREAT!

Purple and silver version

Dragonscale Bracelet with speciality clasp