Maille or chainmaille, is a flexible material composed of small interlocking metal rings. It was historically used to make body armor, but is commonly seen today in jewelry, reenactment armour and fashion. We have been weaving maille since 1995.
At Wolf's Den Armoury, we make maille (also known as mail, maile, chainmail, chainmaille or chain maille). Nothing else. We've been weaving it since April 1995.
We started simply by exploring the historical aspects of it, then after noting the fluidity of maille, we looked into the more fashionable and artistic qualities.
We hope to show you that maille is not only a piece of our history, but can be part of our present as well. While Wolf's Den Armoury *is* a business, we hope that we can also provide you with an education on this ancient art form.
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I've been making chainmaille since late 1994, ever since my oldest son's 6th grade class did a segment on the Middle Ages and the teacher wanted some parental help with some medieval crafts for the kids to work on. I have had a lifelong love of all things ancient and this was just right opportunity to learn something new. I had an old book on blacksmithing (I have it to this day, in fact) that had a drawing and a photograph of a piece of chainmaille on one of the pages. I studied the picture for hours, trying to figure out exactly how the piece was woven with every ring having the 4 surrounding it to go through that ring. Once I figured *that* out, the rest was easy. Since that day, I have learned or taught myself over 60 methods of weaving maille, some distinct weaves, some variations of other weaves.
In 1995, Wolf's Den Armoury became a business in its own right. Selling finished pieces of maille at Medieval Reenactments, Renaissance Faires, Craft Shows, Church Bazaars even on a blanket in the town square, I eventually became known through the city I live in as a man who makes everything from protective armour to delicate-looking jewelry to Christmas Ornaments...all out of little metal rings! Later that year, Wolf's Den Armoury initiated it's own website (back then it was on one of those free servers with tons of popup ads), finally giving him a web presence for others to see my work.
