In my last blog entry I talked about how I planed to make the rings for the chain mail myself based on a tutorial I found on youtube. A couple weekends ago I visited a friends house and heard he had experience making chain mail shirts and such. I talked to him about it and after talking with him I was convinced of two things. One, creating a whole suit would not be a good idea because a) it would take too long and b) it is too darn heavy. I tried on his chain mail shirt and I know I would be dying after walking around a whole day wearing that thing. Two, not to make my own rings. Instead, buy them online from TheRingLord.
Purchasing premade rings has its advantages. For one, there’s better selection of metal, color, diameter, and thickness. I purchased three pounds of the 1/4 inch brass 14G rings. My friend suggested that 2 pounds would be enough to cover the little spots on my Link costume that show the chain mail so I went ahead and got 3 just in case. Now that I’ve got it, I’m not sure 3 is enough. I also wish I had either gone with a larger diameter or something less thick because the 1/4 inch 14G is difficult to work with. But I’ve started to get the hang of it. It’s going to look hella sweet once it’s done. It’s also a nice color. It’s a better match to the color of Link’s chain mail. My hands are pretty sore already after two nights of linking rings.
I’ve decided not to do the skirt by Fanime. Instead it will be a goal for Halloween. Link’s skirt area of his tunic has a slit on each side which means if I want to have chain mail there I’ll pretty much have to make an entire chain mail skirt. And if I am going to make a skirt I want to make it out of thinner and bigger rings. Perhaps that will be a goal to complete by halloween.
More updates to come.