I recently found a book in a charity shop called The Art of Fermentation by Sandor Katz. This thing is an encyclopaedia! So full of obscure forms of fermentation that I'd never heard of. The contents page alone is spread out over four pages, covering everything from mead to kimchi to tofu to cheese to kvass to sake to sourdough to cacao to cod liver oil. It goes into the science and culture associated with fermentation and includes so much deeply obscure and fascinating information that it's a joy to read through even when I'm not planning on making anything.

Anyway I haven't got round to doing much with this information yet- I tried unsuccessfully to make a plum and blackberry mead, I have a day old sourdough starter in the cupboard right now, and once I find a scale in a charity shop I'll try my hand at sauerkraut.

I can't remember what planted the initial seed of interest in chainmail for me. I suspect it inevitable. The idea of getting to practice a craft as old and disused as this has so much appeal to me, it was bound to happen eventually. I just one day had the realisation that chainmail looks so unbelievable fierce as clothing/accessories, and got consumed with the desire to make some.

Specifically, the goal is to make a long fingerless glove/gauntlet or two out of it. There's something so beautiful about the fabric of little intricate silvery rings, and I like the historical-vaguely-martial-vaguely punk aesthetic it creates. I also want to experiment with materials- I've only worked with aluminium rings, which are cheap and bright and easy to work with, but I would love to make something out of heavy rusted iron or patinated brass or something.
Temporarily on a backburner for now until I can make or buy a mandrel and some wire to go with it. I've run out of rings after only making a fraction of one gauntlet.