Have you got what it takes to be a real hero?

Chain artist Dylon Whyte sure believes so with a labour of love that combines applied arts with memes and produce-on-demand technology to create the legendary t-shirts and various epic hero accessories of his latest initiative - Hero Chain - wear you can be the Hero!

"Today, by utilizing a lifetime of technical experience I am able to produce chain faster, lighter, stronger and less expensive than ever before on the computer. POD services such as the Hero Chain Shop on Society 6 afford independent artists such as myself the unique opportunity to represent ourselves authentically by bringing similar ideas from digital canvas to life."

Keep watching for many more unique opportunities as Hero Week continues on Chainman.me

Please feel free to email Hero Chain requests to Mr. B.A. Hero

Head Talks?

A True Master Never Stops Learning?

Received an email from a friend recommending a TED Talk on Happiness, the following was my response.

Thank you! I love TEd Talks and can't imagine a better way for increasing smarts, happiness and perhaps even worldliness.

I've even been working on a new marketing angle, something along the lines of "Chainman Challenges". The concept is for participants to build a chain shirt while passively absorbing TED or other educational content. Such as VSauce (for the faster minds amongst us) or ever those neat RSA Animate white board talks.

Ultimately TED is like anything else; there will be ideas to cheer, ideas to jeer and a lot of stuff that simply blows your mind.

Some of the mind blowing ideas I've come across are:

The First 20 Hours - How To Learn Anything

Hack Schooling

Do Schools Kill Creativity?

Philosophy for Happiness

An example Chainman challenge would be to knit a chain coif and passively absorb 20 hours of educational videos.

I only recently learnt about TED and discovered that there are over 900+ hours of TED material.

For the last couple of months I have been listening to as many random educational videos as possible each Saturday at Whytes on the second floor of the Gore Bay Harbour Centre. Where I mind the shop when my wife is unable.

It's been quiet on the island of late. As always this has led a great need to entertain ourselves. I don't know about you, but most modern movies and TV leave me with the same deja amnesia experience of having been there and done that all before.

Thank goodness I love learning! One of the most important things I have ever learnt is that statistically I know nothing. I consider this awesome because it means that's always something new to learn!

Enjoyed the article about Sir William Marshall, whom I had previously not come across. What a character! Thank you once again for expanding my knowledge base. Grace is something rather hard for an uncoordinated buffoon like myself to quantify.

When I was younger I can remember wishing that it were possible to know everything there was to know. Now I can't imagine any worse fate than knowing it all. As it would mean there was nothing new to learn.

Anyhow, I reckon that 900 hours is about as long as it would take a chain neophyte to knit themselves a nice chain work. Such as a hauberk;

By the end of the process not only should the reader have picked up a new skill (see The First 20 Hours) and lots of other ideas worth spreading by osmosis, but also have an chain garment of literal value. For example, I just listed the pictured XXL chain hauberk on Etsy. So at the very least there's a physical gain that can be passed on to friends, family or even customers.

Plus, if nothing else, anybody with the literal willpower to make a chain garment will undoubtedly pick up a modicum of patience. Which to my perspective is definitely virtue.

What do you think? Would there be interest in a Chainman Challenge Kit?

Instructions, materials and tools to make your own "real" chain armour?

What would you pay for such a novelty?

Quote of the Day : Bacon; because life is only black and white when developing negatives.

How DO YOU make a chain shirt?

One link at a time!

Q. No, seriously dude, how do you make a chainmail shirt?

A. I've always wanted to do a sequel for the Art of Chainmail that explains practical applications for the European patterns. In the meantime, here's a quick explanation of the process I use. For me, a lot of what I create is a process as opposed to a strict set of rules. Shaping garments for specifically for my clients is why as a couturier I love haute couture fashion.

Anyhow (assuming we're talking about the European 4-1 weave) I measure evenly around the chest (C on the illustration below) and then up from this point over the shoulders. Then from the top of the shoulder to total length; waist for a shirt, knees for a hauberk.

G is also an important measurement for sizes sleeves if desired.

For construction I start with three rows running around the chest at a length that is equal to the chest measurement. Because of row stretch (AOC - Page 9) I measure this distance with the European pattern "at rest." That is neither stretched nor collapsed, but just resting naturally on a flat surface.

I also make sure that the total number of links is divisible by four so that I can divide the whole pieces into four working quadrants with stitch markers.

From there knit columns up over the shoulders, joining the offset row ends in the middle (top of the shoulder) with a shoulder attachment (AOC - Page 21.) From there I generally fill in the neck, making sure it's left large enough for my head to pass through both ways. (Don't get this wrong, it can hurt!)

I also like to make my shirts with a V-Neck, as I have large collar bones (AOC - Page 11.)

I then build out over the shoulders. For a vest this isn't even really necessary, for a shirt the sleeves can come out square or angle forward a bit. For long sleeves I recommend an angled shoulder attachment (AOC - Page 19.)

Depending on body shape I generally build straight down and allow row stretch to wrap the pattern around the body inside. For a more tailored look links can either be added or removed in order to create subtle expansion and contraction.

For sleeves a hand width measurement (M) is nice, as a reduction along the inside of the sleeve saves a lot of sloppy chain flopping around at the wrist.

I constructed a XX size hauberk for myself last summer and covered the process on my social media network. If you do a search on my YellowSMG Tumblr for "Hauberk" sans quotation marks and scroll through the results you will see a neat reverse chronology of the process emerge.

The "Danny Steel" poster explains the motivation for creating this piece from split links as the unofficial greeter for the second floor of the Gore Bay Harbour Centre where our shop, Whytes, is located.

Any questions? Please feel free to post your best chain vest, byrnie, shirt, haurbergeon, hauberk, etc... techniques below.

Also, in the age of crowd-sourcing solutions, a simple Google Search also turns up lots of juicy chain making instructions.