Chainmail Costumes

Renaissance Festival is still several months away, as well as Halloween, but it might be a good idea to get the jump on this craft early as it tends to take some time. Today, we'll be exploring how to make chainmail at home.

This project can range from a few week to several months depending on the goal end-product. Full chainmail suits obviously take longer than a headpiece. In addition, the chainmail "weaving" could be repurposed for use in jewelry making, which may only take a few days.

Step 1: Cut rings. If designing jewelry, precut rings can be purchased for a few dollars, but costumes require heavier rings. Metal coils can be purchased from your local hardware store and cut down the middle with bolt-cutters to create useable rings.





Step 2: Use two pliers to open a ring. Place four closed rings in the open circle and close your initial ring.







Step 3: Take your second ring and thread it through two of the four rings in step two. Add two additional rings and close your second ring. Repeat this process until you have a string the desire length. You will then begin the same process sideways. Every "center" ring should have four other rings running through it.




Step 4: Depending on the end product, you may need to make a long sheet of mail which can then be closed  by threading one ring through two rings on the left and two rings on the right.

Custom Disc Dying - Godzilla

While it still might be a little bit chilly outside, a fun craft to take up time in the winter months and prepare for spring time is custom disc dying. Disc golf fanatics often have bags full of discs which easily become worn or account for some duplicates. Custom dying is an easy way to personalize and spruce up old or newly found discs. It can often be accomplished for less than $5 using Rit dye and some contact paper.

Step 1: Clean your disc. Most discs come with a decal and model number imprinted. I selected a Discraft Buzz for my disc. While the disc was already white, I needed to remove the decal and printing on the disc with light use of a pumice stone and some peroxide-based household cleaner. Please be advised that if working with a colored disc, peroxide will warp the dye already in place and can have fading effects on discs after custom dying.





Step 2: Print your decal and trace it out on your contact paper. Cut the paper accordingly. Remember when securing the paper to the disc that any place not covered by the contact paper will be dyed. Be sure when applying the paper to smooth out any air bubbles or tape up any loose sides or edges. Depending on the model of your disc, you may want to put a bit of masking tape around the lip to ensure that dye does not leak onto the backside. I chose a Godzilla decal to celebrate the upcoming movie and the monster's 60th birthday.



Step 3: Mix the Rit dye in a pan and slowly heat it, being sure to stir. The dye will need to be completely heated before the disc can be submerged. Once the dye is ready, place the disc face down in the pan and let it float. The longer the disc is in the pan the darker the color will be, which is not always a great thing for discgolf. Remember, the most commonly lost discs are darker colors. I used the black Rit dye as my disc was originally white, so after a quick submersion I was left with a purple color.

Step 4: Run the disc under cold water until the dye ceases to bleed. At this point you are safe to remove the contact paper.

Happy throwing.