Successful Surprise Valentines Gift

Well in the previous post I enlightened you folks as to the processes involved in the construction of the chainmaille choker with which I had hoped to surprise my girlfriend. Astonishingly, this surprise valentines gift actually did indeed surprise her! I myself am rather taken aback by the fact that she didn't already assume and realize that I was working on a project for her specifically. She simply assumed that my efforts in chainmaille were simply 'practice' (which they were) and did not directly involve her at all. So she was not expecting anything to say the least. I told her that I always have 'evil' genius little plans dancing through my brain and she concurred, being quite impressed at my ability to keep the entire project secret from her, even down to timing the last post to be automatically published half an hour after the estimated delivery of her gift by FedEx.

Of course this is simply the tip of the iceberg and she has no idea that I have actually already completed her chainmaille bra and all that remains is to ensure that it does indeed actually fit her. I actually made the bra through a tutorial I found and purchased online at www.theringlord.com. I spent my time working on the choker to gain experience with the European 4-1 weave, which is the primary weave utilized by the bikini top. Once I felt comfortably proficient, and felt daring enough, I decided to order the rings I would need. I placed the order and then had them rush shipped to me in order to have them arrive by Friday on February 3rd. I wanted to get as much as possible finished by the time the weekend was over due to my extremely busy schedule and the upcoming retreat (MuKappa a campus club I am a part of) and holiday (valentine's day). I needed to be done with something in time to ship it as a Valentine's gift. I managed to complete the cups by the end of the weekend but not without much difficulty in getting the pattern to lay in the correct direction however.

Later that week I managed to hash out time to complete the straps that would support the entire piece. Now all that is left is to give my girlfriend her second gift, this bra is totally going to catch her completely off-guard. I am now confident of this due to the fact that the chainmaille choker itself was totally unexpected for her! I know for a fact that if she did not anticipate that, she won't even have planned on my already having completed her chainmaille bra. Of course I will need to make adjustments to the bra to ensure that it fits her properly. But first I need to have her try it on and get her opinion on what adjustments are required.

Of course by the time this gets posted, I will have already given her the chainmaille bikini top. I just need to ensure that this does not post too early lest my evil genius plans be revealed prematurely and the surprise spoiled.

Securing my Domain Name

"'Ring Weaver' is a cool name!" This is what flashed through my head while trying to brainstorm easy names to use for my online chainmail store. Apparently many other people also had this same idea. :P I probably should have done a bit more research before I simply threw myself in with this name. However I did do some research and found that 'ringweaver.com' is an expired domain name. Even better, on February 20th, the present owner's lease/claim to it comes due. So I am crossing my fingers and hoping that it becomes available. I have indicated to GoDaddy.com that I intend to purchase this domain name if it does indeed become available. If this happens, I will be setting up a website at this domain to serve as a more dynamic central location for my chainmail business as opposed to primarily selling through Etsy.com. 

In any case, the hope is that by this weekend, I'll have my own domain name secured and can move into the preliminary phases of online marketing in order to effectively build up my brand. I've got some marketing ideas in order to accomplish this, but it will take some time before I have time to implement them and once I do carry them out, it will be more time before they really start to kick in and begin driving any real traffic to my website, blog, and etsy. Patience and perseverance will be the key ingredients to success. 

My First Chainmail Art - Valentines Day Gift!

Well as I write this my Valentine's gift is en-route to my darling's home. :) I love it when evil genius plans come together! I've also been itching to show off my first completed chainmaille project. Unfortunately, seeing as how my girlfriend is privy of this blog, I have been unable to do so until now. I reckon this demonstrates a particular need of a blog where I can parade my surprises and creations without fear of her uncovering their form and design prematurely. That does warrant some thought, but seeing as how it would be much more work to write in two separate locations about the same items, I am just going to write about it on this one blog.

So I taught myself how to weave a European 4 in 1 pattern with some chainmaille links that I purchased from Fusion Beads. I experimented with a couple patterns first that I made using larger 18 ga 15/64 rings. Then I went and bought the smaller 11/64 rings and practiced making the pattern with the smaller rings. This proved to look much cleaner and interesting so I went all out to weave together a triangle of rings. The rings feel amazing when they gently roll across the skin and the pattern of copper tone alternating with black is extremely appealing (to my mind, hopefully my lovely lady finds it appealing as well). I decided to add the dragonfly after finding it at Fusion Beads and knowing that she finds them cute (do not ask me why, I don't pretend to understand my own girlfriend completely). I need to get better pliers to work with as the ones I utilized occasionally put scratches on the rings and were prone to slipping. Once I finished the triangle I considered what I could possibly use a triangle weave of chainmaille for and finally settled upon making a choker for my Lover. Here is the finished product:

My primary concern at the moment is actually whether or not the choker will actually fit her neck. I had to estimate the size of her neck using very indirect methods as I don't live very nearby and could only ask her questions about the size of her wrists and such. Fortunately the human wrists circumference is half the circumference of the neck and I know for a fact that her wrist's circumference is 6 inches long. So I'm hoping that her neck is a proper 12 inches in circumference which would mean the choker fits perfectly. This evening we shall find out when she finally returns home from classes and such to find my valentine's package awaiting.

In any case, if the choker doesn't quite fit, I'll bring my chainmaille supplies down with me when I visit this weekend and adjust it to fit her perfectly. After completing this project I have become fairly proficient utilizing the European 4-1 weave. It gives you plenty of practice and especially using the smaller rings, forces you to focus on being quick and precise.

The next weave I intend to fully master is the half-persian 3-1. I have already made a few small chains from it but starting the weave continues to elude me. I also really want to learn the full-persian/foxtail, however thus far none of the rings I have worked with have been correctly sized (or I simply don't know what I am doing which is more likely). These are the next two chainmaille weaves I intend to master. I shall look into practicing those weaves and keep you updated on my progress.

The Start of a New Adventure...

Hello!

I have decided to begin selling online. It occurred to me that it could possibly be interesting to maintain a blog to loosely track my progress in this endeavor and in general maintain a log for future personal reference. Hopefully this may also serve as a reference to other people who wish to begin selling online as well.

So what has inclined me to sell online? Well this thought process has had a very interesting history. It began with my discovery of the Wealthy Affiliate University. At Wealthy Affiliate, I learned the basic theories behind online marketing of both products and services. They explained how to get visitors, how to convert visitors to buyers, and all that jazz. I tried it out and built my own website as an experiment. The techniques have worked to drive a steadily increasing amount of traffic to my website (though still no sales which is no doubt my fault due to my lack of aggressive sales drive). This all took place ten months ago. 

Fast forward to the future. I have been monitoring my website on and off and thinking of working on improving it, but thus far have not had the time or drive to do so as my inspiration seemed to have faded. Then suddenly I had a girlfriend who likes chainmaille. She showed me a chainmaille bikini top on the internet that she has admired and wished to obtain for quite some time. I decided I ought to find a way to purchase it for her. However at 175 bucks, plus $20 more greenbacks for the glow-in-the-dark version, it was a bit out of reach. At some point one of our discussions turned to the chainmaille bikini and she mentioned in passing that I ought to make it for her myself. Now I had considered briefly making chainmaille a few times in the past for armor, however always dismissed it as too time consuming and cumbersome. However now I had incentive to please someone else (and not just anyone mind you, but my girlfriend herself!). So off I went to the local bead shop, Fusion Beads, to track down the necessary tools for the task and get a few rings to practice on. I've now mastered a few patterns and actually find the process to be quite enjoyable, though this mostly because someday, when I get good enough I can surprise my girlfriend with a variety of gifts.

I am not sure exactly how I realized. It was no doubt while I researched concepts for my girlfriend that I realized that I could sell chainmaille online. That got me brainstorming. If I could make and sell chainmaille, I could totally recoup the costs and expenses of this new hobby in addition to providing myself with plenty of practice, some additional money (which will come in handy as I shall soon be graduating from college and have upcoming loan payments). So the plan is to use all the tips and tricks I learned through Wealthy Affiliate to drive traffic to my products, make sales, and generally just learn how to make quality chainmaille jewelry while having fun!

Keep tabs on this blog if you are curious about my progress. I wouldn't mind having a few followers to post my updates for, though this is also going to be a good practice for me as I try to begin selling. If anything big happens I'll let you know!