Making Chainmail Armor

Technical Writing Class, RWU 1995

CHAINMAIL

Introduction: British Celts were among the first to use chainmail armor for battle. It was widely used by Romans leading into the Dark Age and Middle Age, because chainmail was lighter than platemail, easier to repair, and flexible. Chainmail, as its name implies, is made entirely of small, inter-locking metal rings. I will instruct you on how to make your chainmail using modern tools. I learned from mentors in the SCA.

Required Steps:

A. Get Materials and Tools (figure 1-3)

• 16 or 14 gauge metal wire in coils

• 7/16″ rod with a hole drilled through at one end

• aviation snips

B. Make Rings

1. Insert wire into hole at end of rod.
2. wrap wire tightly around rod.
3. cut coiled wire where it connects to the rod using aviation snips.
4. slide the coiled wire off the rod.
5. begin cutting through coil with aviation snips to create each ring.

C. Make Chainmail Strands and Sheets

1. hold pliers in each hand.
2. firmly close four rings (figure 4).
3. open fifth ring.
4. loop four rings on the open ring.
5. close ring (figure 5).
6. repeat steps 1-6 at least once more.
7. take two rings from each cluster and link them together using separate ring (figure 6).
8. create long strands of chainmail by repeating steps 1-8.
9. combine strands as in figure 7.
10. continue to combine strand patterns to make sheets.

Conclusion:

Making chainmail is a tedious but very forgiving process. If you make a mistake in the pattern, you can always go back and fix it later. Use a lighter gauge metal and thinner rod for more decorative costumes (such as bikinis). Keep at it, play your favorite long videos and albums while working, and eventually you will have enough sheets to make shirts. The curves in connections between shirts and sleeves are advanced, and deserve another essay later. Good luck!

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How to Price Art

SCOD List of factors for pricing Art:

1.   Market previously for similar items or services

2.   Social associations of symbols

3.   Artist’s feelings about the art

4.   Relationship between artist and customer

5.   Customer’s feelings about the art

6.   Quality of craft technique

7.   Quantity of materials

8.   Hours invested

9.   Demand currently

10.  Design spirit (alien influence?)

The best thing about art, is that it needs no justification. If someone asks you why you priced it the way you did, you can simply say “ALIENS” and leave it at that. Most subjects and work that we do can be considered in terms of ‘science’ and ‘art’; the artificial value of any product or service (or anything) is subjective.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Snobs Cry “Don’t Punish Success”

I have heard the cries of the successfully wealthy and powerful, “Do not punish success.”; from the brilliant actor that satirizes Trump (Alec Baldwin), to the angry metal band that cut off their long hair in the name of maturity (Metallica). As a fan of both Baldwin and Metallica, I appreciate their artistic mastery of craft, and believe that if any one earned the right to be rich by working hard I am sure that they did; however to not understand that the very art that they did was often anti-authoritarian is mystifying to me. Perhaps fame blinds many to hypocrisy, as their same angry fighting spirit that got them there, wants to cling on to “what is rightfully, not wrongfully, theirs”? 

 

When I listen to Metallica’s music, and then i hear them speak about how they do not understand ‘this new desire to rebel against authority’, i wonder how out of touch they have to be to not have learned more wisdom from their own lyrics…. “Master of Puppets is pulling your strings”. To be fair to Metallica, I first heard the cries for mercy from the lead singer of Kiss in his auto-biography; as though it were so much easier to become rich back then, and luck has nothing to do with opportunities or hard work. Talent speaks for itself, and being successful at your craft means being able to sustain yourself enough to do it. Any wealth, power, and fame that comes with successful talent is just layers of responsibility that they can accept, but must let go of eventually, even if it has to be pried from their cold skeleton hands in the grave by robbers. If an archeologist preserves their remains clinging to their assets, ok fine.

 

Money and popularity makes people into gods, so if their worshipers are jealous there is really not much law abiding citizens can do. The gods can proclaim that jealousy should be punished, but not greed; and have their will carried out in the halls of justice, in favor of divine corporations over individuals. ‘Might is right, and weakness is wrong’; did this problem of human existence eat away at Nietzsche’s mind as his body gave way to illness? Ethics may be for the weak, but Jesus did promise that the meek shall inherit the earth. Promises, promises. I see no evidence that the rich are being punished more than average people. In reality evil seems to win by brutalizing those who cannot control them, even while their corruption pollutes the planet.

 

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SCOD Hybrid Design

‘All or nothing’ is the same mentality that causes gridlock in Congress, and starts wars. In historic and environmental circles, there are many hypocritical idealists and intolerant purists. Puritanical authoritarian attitude leads to inhumane imbalances in politics, as found in Nazis, and my ancestors ‘the Puritans’ who not only killed witches, but also stray Quakers. As radical as Bernie Sanders seems compared to main-stream Hillary, or far-right Trump; he still would barely scratch the surface of our socio-economic problems or ecological design work that needs to significantly change the paradigm. But Sanders would be a good start to help shift pop-culture a bit further to the left socially, as Obama allowed somewhat, to tolerate pluralism.

The SCOD way of reasoning, is that it is better to preserve larger portions of nature when planning architecture. If over 50% of a farm can be kept for growing food, and wilderness conservation for-ever (as long as can be predicted reasonably and indefinitely), then regardless of the details of any historic, artistic, or ecological architectural combinations; the master plan is a success overall. There are 7 basic SCOD architecture types: Yurt, A-frame, Sod, Cob, Tree, Dome, and Glass; all of which can be mixed or overlap (sod underground homes can be dome-shaped).

Hybrid cultural appropriation and poly-synthetic blending is a natural part of history. Race is an artificial term, to distinguish superficial differences between homo-sapiens. New-Age multiculturalism celebrates social and religious diversity, and encourages exchange and adaptation. Enlightened New-Age spirituality runs parallel with advances in science; such as the importance of bio-diversity, relativity, quantum theory, and mathematical fractals.

Cultural pride is not hatred of others; what ‘cultural pride’ means to me, is I can love Celtic music and mythology, and not hate other cultures. I can even love cultures that are not my own, and adopt what interests me into my own celebrations and studies in life; regardless of snobs that say I am not worthy because it disrespects cultural purity. Obviously I can be sensitive to cultures that have been abused, but I am fine with Africans wearing torcs and crowns like those in the museums of Europe. I would love that. We should share and celebrate each-others historic cultures, while helping to create new World cultural traditional blends. None of it was ever pure, and we will continue mixing and remixing all things.

People should be comfortable in communities, and methods of negotiation are useful to arrive at levels of comfort architecturally. Pillow people need to communicate with Straw people, and find out if some pillows can be made with straw, or if straw or hay can be used without using finished processed materials sometimes. Sharing personal stories, tools, games, and allegories can be helpful as well, in the art of design.