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Posted by TJ Riley, Data Center
Technician

From time to time we highlight
the non-work interests and pastimes of individual Googlers. -
Ed.

I have been working with chainmail, and metal working in general,
for nearly 5 years now. I picked it up when I started college. My
first major in college was history, and I was going to focus on the
Middle Ages because of my fascination with the medieval period.
After I changed majors to Computer Science, my hobby remained
medievalism.

I have apprenticed under a blacksmith and learned some general
metal working techniques. But I could not build my own forge then,
so I turned to chainmail, which is a "cold" metal craft.
Now I can take a bag of rings with me anywhere I go, and any time I
have free time, I can work on whatever my current project is.

The crafting of chainmail is a relatively inexpensive hobby — for
the cost of a single videogame I can have enough chainmail supplies
to last me months. The best part is that is requires very little
thought most of the time, so you can multitask; watch TV, or
movies, or even browse the web while working on chainmail.

A while back I was wanting to try my hand a chainmail inlay, but I
did not have a design in mind. Most people make a chainmail shirt
that has some dragon, or rampant lion design on it. I wanted to
make something more unique. After a few weeks of thinking about
this, I realized that I could use the Google logo.

I started construction in late April 2007, my plan was to only work
on it while on my lunch break, or other downtimes. But I soon
realized it would take me years at that pace. And the opening of
our new office area was going to happen later in the summer. So I
began to work on it whenever I was not actually doing my job. I
spent around 4 to 5 hours a day every weekday weaving the
banner.

Four months later, I had a completed banner, which now hangs in our
office.

onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"
href="http://bp0.blogger.com/_Ap14FtNN91w/R3WDVYLM1fI/AAAAAAAAAh8/a97t0z-By4o/s1600-h/Chainmail_wall.JPG" >
alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5149166152257951218"
border="0" />

For the numbers-minded, here are some details:

The entire project is exactly 25,829 rings.

Dimensions: 67 units by 44 units (c. 66" x 27")

Rings: 1/4" 16-gauge aluminum; the silver is bright
aluminum and the inlay uses colored anodized aluminum.

The entire thing is the traditional 4 in 1 pattern turned 90
degrees.

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