Chainmail Victorian Top: Work in Progress

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🛠 Work in Progress with my best friend Luxor:

I am currently working on a big chainmail top and it takes huge amount of time. Luckily, I love my job and also have a very sweet companion to work with.

Speaking about the top, I designed it as a Victorian piece in my mind, but I also improvise so I change some parts as I progress. Since there is no Ctrl+Z in chainmail, it takes quite much time to make those changes and arrangements. I am looking forward to seeing the final outcome and sharing it with you as well :)

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Chainmail Bracelet Compilation

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A FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTION: Who is taking my 

pictures? 📷 

— It is me. I studied Photography & Video in college

 and my tripod is my best friend in such times :)

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D20 Dice Necklace

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D20 dices mean a lot to the people who are into role-playing games. 

So after many requests I decided to make necklaces out of these 20-sided dices with variations of such bright colors.

- Made of anti-allergenic aluminum rings

- Sent with the metal necklace chain

- Produced in a limited amount.

- Please just write me the desired dice color.

- Enjoy the Worldwide Free Shipping!

* * * All the items in my gallery are sent in a special gift bag * * *

For more handmade designs and give-away announcements, feel free to follow my Instagram account: 

@xnchainmail

I am happy to do customized designs as well so if you have any special requests I will see what I can do and get back to you.

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Sheet versions of some chainmail weave patterns: 

1- "4 in 1 Hoodoo Hex Sheet"

2- "Conundrum Sheet"

3- "Half Persian 3-1 Sheet 6"

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New Models for Pop-Up Kadıköy

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I have participated a Pop-Up event last weekend at Kadıköy, İstanbul and enjoyed it a lot!

Before the event, with my usual excitement, I worked non-stop to bring out new models to my customers. Although it was extremely tiring to work 14-15 hours a day, I was only feeling happy after getting so many good reactions and compliments for my creations.

Here are some of these new pendant models and also me that day :)

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Armor and the Shield

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Title, right to the point! On one arm it is the chainmail armor and on the other arm it is the scalemail shield.

Photo by Ilgın Akarsu

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ONE OF THE ASPECTS OF CREATIVE PRODUCTION: PRESENTATION

Pin It       There are many aspects of production, especially in arts. Presenting what you have made effectively is one of them.

      Making beautiful, meaningful or appealing pieces in every kind of art is important without a doubt. In addition to that, it is also important to show the best view of those pieces, because sight gives the first impression and we know "there is no second chance to make a first impression".

      Even though I am a photographer myself, I take some of the pictures of my blog by my smart-phone. This is mainly because I like Instagram the most, among all other social media. And then I use those pictures in my other accounts.

      Rather than the device I am using, the thing I find important is not to go too far from the original scene. Because if a customer likes an item on my Etsy shop by its picture and then feels disappointment after getting his/her package, I would be really sad. So I use many techniques but still try to keep all the images natural.

      Actually I find it magical because there are numerous angles, or different styles, and each person has a different point of view. So it is very enjoyable to find yours among these countless choices.

     

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İŞİNİ SEV! / LOVE YOUR JOB!

Pin It A friend of mine (Bilge Can Gürer) became a partner with (Duygu Aynur) in a very interesting and in my opinion helpful organisation called "İşinisev". It means "love your job" and their motto is: Let your dream be your job. They basicly pick role-models for each occupation and make a video-interview followed by a photo-shooting.

So one day he kindly asked me to be one of their role-models as a chainmail armor and accessory designer. It was both flattering and an exciting experience for me because I am really bad at moving infront of the camera :)

I tried to describe my job, 'how to do's, the good sides, the difficult parts, some hints, shortly, any kind of information that might be helpful to the people who are thinking about choosing accessory designing as their jobs.

I have no idea what the final interview video will look like :) but my personal page is as follows:

https://www.isinisev.com/rol-modeller/ilksen-baysaling

The web site is in Turkish for now but for those who are interested, here is the link:

https://www.isinisev.com

Instagram: @isinisev

A shot from my interview

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Long Time No See..

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It has been quite a long time since I last wrote in my blog. This fact makes me restless and excited because I want to do a lot of things at the same time and I want to do all of them so badly! For example, currently I am working in an archaeological excavation  and also run my chainmail design brand through Etsy. Excavation takes my days, chainmail takes the rest of my days and nights, including the weekends.

[By the way brief information for the ones who are intrested in: Our excavation site is the “Küçükyalı ArkeoPark” located in the Anatolian side of İstanbul, Turkey. It is a 1200 year-old Byzantine structure complex consisting of a monastery, church and a cistern. You can find more details in one of my previous posts: http://xnpurple.blogspot.com.tr/2016/03/a-sustainable-urban-archaeology.html ]

Except for these 2 occupations:

- I have -and still continue to buy- a lot of books that I want to read,

- There are hundreds of topics I want to search and write on, ranging from botany to zoology, from outer space to history, from clean eating to medieval culture etc,

- I’ve participated a “Go Game” workshop short while ago and I want to practise it with my best friend laying on the grass in a cool summer evening,

- I am in love with Luxor, my sphynx cat and I want to watch movies and tv series with her, putting one after another,

- I like translating ancient Ottoman language into modern Turkish and I want to practise it more, want to memorise new words,

- I travel as much as I can whenever I find (or can create free) time, so I want to travel also,

- Among all these things I have lack of sleep as you may guess. I am fine with it but in order to keep healthy, I want to sleep a bit more, so forth an so on..

And these are just the first things coming to my mind. If I continue with my list, this post can last forever J

My point is, there are so many things in life that we can be interested in, we can (and should) be curious about -I really don’t understand the people who get bored easily. Life is too short for all the things we want to learn or see or practise.

Now I am able to write because we have a 10-day national holiday and I am having the best time in my own way like I dreamt for a long time.

Have you ever thought about your own wish list in life? Shall we use the time more efficiently to satisfy ourselves more?...

 

Fresh data, my choice for this evening..

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A Sustainable Urban Archaeology Experience: The Küçükyalı ArkeoPark

Pin It       For the time being, besides my own "Chainmail By Xn" business, I am also working in an archaeological site within the city of İstanbul. This is a 9th century Byzantium structure complex and our project is called "Traces of the Past for Contemporary Creativity: Urban Archaeology and Küçükyalı ArkeoPark". Aim of the project is to integrate cultural heritage into daily city life. What's more, archaeological excavations are conducted in the area along with conservation and preservation practises and social activities for different age groups.
       It is the largest archaeological area located on the Asian side of İstanbul and was a suburb of the ancient Byzantine city.

If you want to take a closer look at the activities of Küçükyalı ArkeoPark, here are our social media accounts and pages:

Instagram: @kucukyaliarkeopark

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kucukyaliarkeopark/

Web Site: https://kyap.ku.edu.tr/

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Peaceful Weekend In Nature

Pin It      In my previoust posts I shared some pictures from Sile, a seaside town close to Istanbul. I spent the weekend with my family there again and had a silent, peaceful & enjoyable holiday. Here are some shots from there.
  

 

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Venus

Pin It       Today I learned more about planet Venus. I find it interesting so wanted to share some brief information with you.
      The most striking fact is that a single day on Venus is longer than its entire year. It takes Venus 243 Earth days to completely rotate on its axis, but just 225 days to orbit the sun.
      It is the second planet from the sun and is named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty. It is the brightest natural object in the sky after the moon. Venus is a terrestrial planet and is sometimes called Earth's "sister planet" because of their similar size, gravity, and bulk composition. It is both the closest planet to Earth and the planet closest in size to Earth. However, it is very different from Earth in other respects such as the atmospheric pressure or the amount of carbon dioxide in it.
      Concluding with another striking fact, Venus is one of two planets that rotates in reverse. This phenomenon called retrograde motion. Most theories attribute the reverse rotation to an ancient planetary collision.
  

Photo by NASA

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Age of Kaleidoscope

Pin It        Few days ago I came across a shop selling kaleidoscopes. I call it a good chance because I was looking for one for a long time so I immediately bought two (also for another friend). I remember it as a childhood memory and the vision of fractals always make me imagine further.
       It is basicly a cylinder with mirrors. As you looks into one end, light entering the other creates a colorful pattern, due to the reflection off of the mirrors In Turkish it is also called as "flower binoculars". It is because of the shapes and fractals those mirrors create when you look through it.
     

      I connected it to my mobile phone camera and here are some results: 



That is the result of looking to my ceiling at home

And that is my mother actually :)

That is what mine looks like. (Yeah it could have looked better with a cooler design :) but the function is satisfactory.) Most people know about these actually but here are some more information you might have skipped.
It is produced by the Scottish inventor Sir David Brewster. The name is derived from Ancient Greek words: Kalos (beautiful, beauty) - Eidos (that which is seen: form, shape) - Skopeō (to look to, to examine) hence meaning "observer of beautiful forms".
In the cylinder usually three mirrors are placed at an angle to one another, (usually 60°) so they form a triangle. This setting creates several duplicate images of the objects.

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My New Friend: "Safir"

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      Yesterday my colleague came to the office with two spiders. One of them was a big one and the other was a baby. I liked it so much that he gave the baby to me. That's how I got my new friend "Safir", a grammostola pulchra, in other words a terrestrial tarantula from Brazil.
      I named her "Safir", the Turkish form of "Sapphire" and I suppose that it is a female because I learned that females live for up to 25 years and males can only live for 5 or 6. So I named it as a female (I give positive signs to the universe to turn my wish into a reality:))
      I continue reading about this creature more to take good care of it and till now the basic information is as follows: it is a slow growing docile pet, is gentle in temperament, has an appealing dark velvet color, can grow up to 15-19 cm when adult. It's venom potency is unknown (ops!:).
      I am preparing a suitable vivarium for her and she eats live food insects such as crickets, locust, butter worms, meal worms, houseflies and cockroaches. I won't be fond of giving her a live animal but I guess this is how it should be.

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Hi! :)

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If there is a beautiful sunrise or a sunset, I go out instantly to take pictures (as you can see pijamas or messy hair can't stop me:)).



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Preserving and Archiving Photographs

Pin It       As you know my main occupation is photography. Creating an image is a satisfying and productive process but I like to adress this art along with museology and archiving as well. The title of my post graduate thesis study was "The use of photography in the museums and the criterias of photography as a collection object". After completing this study, I worked in the rich archives of Istanbul Archaeology Museums for 3 years. Dealing with 80-90 year-old films & glass plates made me read and learn more about this subject and thus restoration, conservatiton and storage of the old negatives and prints turned to be my main concerns. If you are interested in it and want to read more about this issue, the link of my thesis is as follows -it is in Turkish for now but I will translate it into English soon:

http://www.belgeler.com/blg/1fte/fotorafin-mzede-kullanim-ekilleri-ve-koleksiyon-nesnesi-olma-kriterleri-the-use-of-photography-in-the-museums-and-the-criterias-of-photography-as-a-collection-object

My cousin and me 29 years ago :)

      Here I will not tell you about technical processes or chemical restoration formulas but simple and effective archiving tips instead, because all of us have many pictures in our homes and they are indeed very precious to keep our personal history.
      * First of all, avoid touching the emulsion side of a photograph. Hold it by its edges and from underneath. Rough handling can cause tears, scratches and cracks, and oils, lotion residues, and perspiration can stain photographs. So make sure your hands are clean and dry.
      * Family albums need to be organized as well as protected. Many albums in stores are considered potentially hazardous because they may have been made of unsafe materials. Small groups of the same type photograph of similar size and condition can be stored together in a folder, envelope, or sleeve, and then placed in a good quality box.  Avoid paper clips, rubber bands, tapes that can damage photographs.
      * Store valuable, historic or fragile albums horizontally (flat) in a good quality box or wrap with good quality paper to protect from light, dust, and to keep the album together.
      * An internal closet or rooms surrounded by other living space are often the most stable environments for the storage.  Avoid storing photographs in too hot and damp areas.
      * Do not store photographs on the floor because they are more susceptible to physical damage and water exposure.
   
      Finally, pictures are to look at also so do not forget to go through them from time to time, preferably with other family members because there may be so many memories, funny conversations while having this good quality time:).

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Chainmail Bracelet With MoonStones

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Amigurumi Bunnies - New Friends

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Yeah the one on the right side looks quite funny :)) 

 

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Chainmail Pendant

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 Recent one I made:

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