Putting chainmail together into something other than
sheets seems to be hardest for many people. Indeed, I've
gotten many e-mails asking for detailed instructions. It is
disappointing to get the ones which demand that I write
instructions for them just because I have gone through
the effort of putting together this guide. Make no mistake,
this guide is done in my very limited personal time. It is
here for the purpose of showing those who have more time
than money how they might also own chainmail. I don't
make any profit from this guide. Please don't make me
feel obligated to do more than I am able.
No, I can't send you any instructions on how to make
this or that. I don't follow patterns myself. My process
is very intuitive. I find it very difficult to write or
draw up exactly how an item goes together, and sincerly
don't have time nor energy to do so.
The process of creating a new piece is called
designing, and it's the part that I enjoy most.
I will admit to feeling that designing should be the
more personal aspect of making chainmail. It shouldn't
be an exact process. When I started making maile,
I found it depressing to see the same exact things
again and again, just made by different people. It's
changing for the better now. More and more people are
learning to design in this medium. There are too many
possibilities to limit maile making to standardized designs.
The best advice I can give is just play with it.
Be creative and use your imagination. Have a general idea
of what you want to make at the beginning. Then link
the chainmail, maybe finding different ways of putting
patterns and pieces together as you go along. Hold
it up, try it on, just picture what might look good
or what you might do with that piece. Don't be afraid
of deviating from your original idea. I often start
out planning to make one item and end up with something
completely different.
Now that I've gone over that, I will point out that it
doesn't take much imagination to make a basic shirt or
coif. That's the main reason I tend to avoid taking
orders for things like that. I get bored, and making
chainmail as a full time job can be boring enough
without driving myself crazy doing the same exact
things for weeks on end. There are a few published instructions
explaining how to make some basic items. Here's
what I've managed to find on the web:
