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ChainmailleByBim

Chainmaille for Everyone

Portland, Oregon On Etsy since 2009

2,725 Sales | 5 out of 5 stars

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Buyers bought gifts from this shop and gave them 5-star reviews!

ChainmailleByBim

Chainmaille for Everyone

Portland, Oregon | 2,725 Sales

5 out of 5 stars

Shop owner

Contact

Announcement    PSST! I'm out of town on a road trip until early November! You can totally still order, but I won't be able to make and ship your order until I get home from my trip. If you're okay waiting, great! I'll make and ship things in the order I received them once I'm back. Thanks for the endless support!

Welcome to my shop! My name is Bim. I've been making Chainmaille jewelry since I was nine years old. It's how I've made my living for the last 21 years. Look around, ask me questions. For a relatively short time at least, we're all in this thing together. Enjoy.

I started making Chainmaille when I was a kid. By the time I turned ten, I had a booth of my own at the Handmade Saturday Market in my hometown. Over the last eighteen years I've continued to grow my abilities as a creator along with my business. Not too fast, no need for outside investment, patience is a less frantic work ethic that works just as well. Chainmaille is what I do full time to support myself. I take pride in every aspect of what I do. I love working with all of the amazing people who make my creative kind of life possible. Thanks!

I'm a weirdo. Maybe it's because I've never had a boss, maybe I was born with it. Hopefully it's good-weird. I wasn't born with the name Bim, I came up with that when I was learning how to talk. I'm told that I forcefully made it stick, and for once, I believe what I'm told. When I was barely walking I had a knack for bashing on pots and pans each morning on the kitchen floor. Now I'm a drummer in touring bands. Growing up in nature-rich Eugene, Oregon, I remember endless Lego sessions with my three older siblings. Now I can build anything with a saw and drill, like the crazy wooden booth and displays that I now use to sell my Chainmaille out of each week at the Portland Saturday Market. I remember drawing, painting, and doing origami in the craft room growing up. I remember refusing to wash up for dinner. Most clearly though, I recall practicing Piano and French Horn and sitting quietly to listen to my siblings practicing Bach, Stravinsky, and others on Cello and Violin. My mother was a music therapist and my father a dancer turned craftsman. They both were teachers by profession as well. My siblings and I make things. I'm the Chainmaille maker, another of us does leather working, and another a seamstress, all of us are musicians. We speak fluent counter-intuitive. We're not strangers to the harder parts of making it as artists in this increasingly vertical, corporate, and mechanized world. Hopefully though, we're smart enough to exist within whatever may be in a way that reduces suffering and leaves things in better shape than we found them. Along the way, we can bring some joy and love into the picture with what we create and how we interact with other people. Humbly, that's my mission as a maker.

I sell my work at the Portland Saturday Market, The Oregon Country Fair, here on Etsy, and I consign and wholesale my work to several boutiques across the West Coast. I've worked on projects from the Twilight movies, to accessorizing musical pop stars, to Chainmaille seat covers for motorcycles, and everything (I do mean everything) in-between. If it can be done with Chainmaille, I can totally make it happen.

Thanks for reading! Now get back to drinking in cool photos of Chainmaille!

-Bim

Announcement

Last updated on Sep 30, 2020

PSST! I'm out of town on a road trip until early November! You can totally still order, but I won't be able to make and ship your order until I get home from my trip. If you're okay waiting, great! I'll make and ship things in the order I received them once I'm back. Thanks for the endless support!

Welcome to my shop! My name is Bim. I've been making Chainmaille jewelry since I was nine years old. It's how I've made my living for the last 21 years. Look around, ask me questions. For a relatively short time at least, we're all in this thing together. Enjoy.

I started making Chainmaille when I was a kid. By the time I turned ten, I had a booth of my own at the Handmade Saturday Market in my hometown. Over the last eighteen years I've continued to grow my abilities as a creator along with my business. Not too fast, no need for outside investment, patience is a less frantic work ethic that works just as well. Chainmaille is what I do full time to support myself. I take pride in every aspect of what I do. I love working with all of the amazing people who make my creative kind of life possible. Thanks!

I'm a weirdo. Maybe it's because I've never had a boss, maybe I was born with it. Hopefully it's good-weird. I wasn't born with the name Bim, I came up with that when I was learning how to talk. I'm told that I forcefully made it stick, and for once, I believe what I'm told. When I was barely walking I had a knack for bashing on pots and pans each morning on the kitchen floor. Now I'm a drummer in touring bands. Growing up in nature-rich Eugene, Oregon, I remember endless Lego sessions with my three older siblings. Now I can build anything with a saw and drill, like the crazy wooden booth and displays that I now use to sell my Chainmaille out of each week at the Portland Saturday Market. I remember drawing, painting, and doing origami in the craft room growing up. I remember refusing to wash up for dinner. Most clearly though, I recall practicing Piano and French Horn and sitting quietly to listen to my siblings practicing Bach, Stravinsky, and others on Cello and Violin. My mother was a music therapist and my father a dancer turned craftsman. They both were teachers by profession as well. My siblings and I make things. I'm the Chainmaille maker, another of us does leather working, and another a seamstress, all of us are musicians. We speak fluent counter-intuitive. We're not strangers to the harder parts of making it as artists in this increasingly vertical, corporate, and mechanized world. Hopefully though, we're smart enough to exist within whatever may be in a way that reduces suffering and leaves things in better shape than we found them. Along the way, we can bring some joy and love into the picture with what we create and how we interact with other people. Humbly, that's my mission as a maker.

I sell my work at the Portland Saturday Market, The Oregon Country Fair, here on Etsy, and I consign and wholesale my work to several boutiques across the West Coast. I've worked on projects from the Twilight movies, to accessorizing musical pop stars, to Chainmaille seat covers for motorcycles, and everything (I do mean everything) in-between. If it can be done with Chainmaille, I can totally make it happen.

Thanks for reading! Now get back to drinking in cool photos of Chainmaille!

-Bim

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Bim Ditson

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Bim Ditson

Reviews

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5 out of 5 stars
(558)
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quality 127 shipping 105 customer service 84

About ChainmailleByBim

Sales 2,725
On Etsy since 2009
  • My wild booth! I designed and built it myself. It's made from reclaimed wood & fabric and I think it looks very cool!

I've been making Chainmaille every day since I was nine.

I started making Chainmaille as a hobby. When I was nine my older brother had a friend who was making Chainmaille armor and I got him to teach me how to do it myself. I must be the right kind of crazy for this type of work because by the time I was ten I had convinced my dad to help me make a booth for the Saturday Market in my hometown Eugene Oregon. Selling at market from a young age informed both my art and my personality in many ways. I learned to be kind. I learned to work hard and to serve my community. I learned to love conversation and real connections with my customers.

After selling in Eugene for 8 years it was time for me to move to Portland, OR to try out a larger city. I instantly fell in love with Portland and have lived here ever since. It's a place where you can succeed without cutting anyone's throat. I sell at the Portland Saturday Market every Saturday and Sunday. I play in a band and I go to local shows every night, seeing around 900 bands play each year. I ride my bike in the rain, sleep in on Mondays, and work 1,200 hours from June to August. In the summer I run a 32 band basketball tournament that's played all over the city on the regulation height hoop that I bolted to the top of my band's tour van.

So what does this all have to do with Etsy? Nothing. When I started my Etsy shop in 2009 I told myself that it would be an extension of what I already do every day, I guess if I were to put that into business terms I'd say that my brand is a lifestyle brand--no need to create an intangible ideal to sell my work. I'm a tangible, and my idea is to make things that can speak to my customers directly with no sales pitch. I've got roughly 49,000 hours of experience making my work.

Shop members

  • Bim Ditson

    Owner, I Do Everything Myself

    I'm a lifelong Chainmaille maker who also plays drums in some bands in Portland, OR. I've had a booth at Saturday market for eighteen years selling my creations. I am an active advocate for arts and music access and cultivation here in Portland, OR.

Shop policies

Last updated on January 21, 2018
Welcome to my shop!

Here are some things I've found folks like to know right off the bat:

- I make all of the items I offer on my Etsy myself. I start everything from raw materials and make my own links by hand. This is my sole source of income and I appreciate every single person who supports me by purchasing a piece of my life's work.

- Jewelry can be frustrating to buy for people with unique wrist and neck sizes. That's why I offer free custom sizing for everything I sell.

- I am here for you. Ask me anything! I'll promptly reply with all the answers you're seeking!

-Bim

Accepted payment methods

Paypal Mastercard Visa American Express Discover Apple Pay Giftcard
Accepts Etsy Gift Cards and Etsy Credits
Returns and exchanges
I gladly accept returns and exchanges
Contact me within: 7 days of delivery
Ship items back within: 14 days of delivery
I don't accept cancellations
But please contact me if you have any problems with your order.
The following items can't be returned or exchanged
Because of the nature of these items, unless they arrive damaged or defective, I can't accept returns for:
  • Custom or personalized orders
  • Perishable products (like food or flowers)
  • Digital downloads
  • Intimate items (for health/hygiene reasons)
Returns and exchange details
Of course I take returns! the only thing I ask is that the item be returned to me in it's original state within one business week of when you receive it for a full refund or trade-in for an item worth the same amount as what you're returning.

I also size everything I sell. If you receive an item from me and realize you actually wanted it slightly longer or shorter, I'm happy to have you send it back and I'll adjust it for you and I'll even pay to ship it back to you. When it comes down to it, my goal is for you to wear and enjoy my art.

Thanks!

-Bim
Payment
You can purchase my work using any of the payment options available on Etsy. I don't have any preferences regarding payment methods other than it being whichever you're most comfortable with using.
Shipping
I ship everything via USPS and I typically turn orders the same day or the following day that they are placed! You can choose the USPS shipping service you'd like when you check out so whether you need it right away or have plenty of time I'm happy to make it happen.

I take pride in my careful and prompt execution of every order I receive.
Additional policies and FAQs
If you're interested in purchasing my work wholesale or would to have some of my work on consignment at your store. Let me know what you're interested in working out and I'll be happy to quote wholesales prices, design a catered stock for consignment, or arrange any other larger orders you might have in mind.