Well, new stuff is going up, anyway 🙂 We’re doing our absolute best to get good pictures that show off the amazing colors and really hope they give you a good sense of the item itself.
And, just because we’re that nice and we know some folk have been waiting oh so patiently, we’re putting up a coupon code for this next week… you know, just in case you need that little extra nudge.
https://www.etsy.com/shop/RicksChainmail?coupon=TH4NKYOU
Enjoy, and as always, thank you for your support!
After last week’s Celtic Fest, we’re winding down the in person sales season. The good news is that we’ll be refreshing our online store this weekend… and of course, settling in to the peace of winter and applying all of the feedback we got over the spring and summer to create new and hopefully interesting products for next year.
Hope to see you on Etsy!
It’s hard to believe that we’ve been doing this for the number of years that we have- and every year is a little bit different. There’s new events that come and go, new products that we try out, new people to meet.
Right now, we’re looking at the calendar and trying to decide which events to do. We had a great time at Edgewood Celtic Festival last year, so that’s a definite. There’s also a new holiday artists festival at the New Mexico Fairgrounds in December that we were considering, and the same group is doing an outdoor Albuquerque Renaissance Fair in late March.
Late March + Outside + 32 hours of sales time is a lot to think about. We’ve been snowed on during the Albuquerque Ren Faire hosted by the city at Balloon Fiesta park at the end of April, so not really sure we want to sign up for 3 days in March.
Add in that we don’t want to shortchange our customers by not having enough fresh stock to support all these events… typically winter is a time for us to cogitate, brainstorm, and work with new materials and come up with new ideas. And maybe some members of the shop are writing books, too 😉
Decisions, decisions… any feedback from our local fans about which events they’d be more likely to go to?
We’re heading up to Santa Fe this weekend with all kinds of goodies- from aromatherapy jewelry to our popular water bottle carriers to dice bags and dragon tails! Hope to see you there!
Albuquerque Renaissance Faire at Balloon Fiesta Park- starts at 10am… we’ve been working feverishly through the winter, plotting and planning.. and, yes, mailing. And yes, as usual, we’ll be working on mail on site, too.
Lots of new designs and pieces- we’re also partnering with Abitha’s Apothecary to bring you some truly special aromatherapy wearables.
Please feel free to reach out with any questions- hoping to see lots and lots of our local folk tomorrow!
APRIL 27TH!!!! Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta Park- we really hope to see tons and tons of folk… we’ve been working very hard on new, unique designs and we think that there will truly be something for everyone!
What kinds of somethings?
Weeeelllllllllll….
Remember we said that there were new items coming? We weren’t kidding! As promised, our new bottlecarriers will be making their debut at the Albuquerque Ren Faire in April!
We’re also working with Abitha’s Apothecary to offer aromatherapy jewelry and oils this year. Super excited about this new way to make chainmail useful in day to day life with a series of fine bracelets and lariat necklaces with a choice of charms.
Also in progress- dragon tails!
So just got our new business cards ordered.. which yes, we kind of love. Huggy Murder Bear is prominently featured, cause.. I mean really, how cute IS he???
As always, we got a lot of great feedback from the events that we did over the course of the past year. One of the biggies was that with only slight size modification, our chainmail dice bags also work to hold things like water bottles and flasks. A quick search of our findings suppliers showed us that we could easily make longer cords happen for cross body bottle and ecig holders. Pretty excited about THAT, even when thinking of our own uses.. how many times have we been at an event with a lot of walking and really, really wished we had something easy and lightweight to carry a bottle for water? Too often.
We’re also considering doing larger bears for this year’s events.. like build a bear sized bears, with removable shirts. So if you had one at home and you just wanted a shirt for him… well, you get the idea.
It’s going to be an exciting year… can’t hardly wait for the events to get started! Oh wait.. yes we can. We’ve got a lot of work to do.
2018 was a pretty big year for us- we started branching out and exploring other types of metalwork, getting more creative with our offerings, and finding new ways and uses for things we’ve been doing for awhile.
In recognition of that evolution happening at our core, we decided it was time to have a logo designed. A bear (of course), an adorable bear that may also (not intentionally) be a little stabby/bitey.
But really, he just wants a hug.
Since the first event we’ve gone to, we’ve had a little bitty bear in a chainmail shirt… we figured this was a great way to ensure we always have a bear in a chainmail shirt with us.
Many, many thanks to the amazingly talented Egan Ulbricht for creating this little guy.. we love him and hope you all will, too!
It all started when we got our hands on some gorgeous Harry Potter house shield scales… we got this crazy idea to do a bag for each house.
So far, Gryffdor, Slytherin, and Ravenclaw are good to go… just Hufflepull and an overall Hogwarts bag left to go.
Also showing off a black and rainbow bag just cause I thought it was pretty.
All these bags are now available in the etsy shop, and if you pick it up today, I will get it shipped tomorrow in hopes you can have it in time for the holiday!