Tuesday, September 30, 2008

My Shop Name

When my son came home from the navy he moved in with me to get a fresh start, He told me all about a role playing game he played on board his ship with his friends to pass their little leisure time. He played D&D. He decided to make up his own world to travel in at that time. He started but never finished it.

It sounded fascinating and I was writing at the time so we worked on it together. I got to know the world of StrongArm as well as I know the US. We worked together to populate the world with goblins, troglodytes, dwarfs, elf's, dragons, and on and on. Once we had it fairly well populated with all the different tribes and animals, and with humans, kings queens, and other dictators of course. We started working out a story line.

We made many story lines from this wonderful fantasy world we created. The very first one was Hildeguard's story.

Hildeguard lived in the Black Swamp in an ancient oak tree. She was a famous female wizard. Most wizard's are male but we thought we had to give women a chance so we made Hildeguard. She lived in the upper stories of this oak tree. There was a dragon that lived in the basement, a friendly dragon that grew to protect Hilde and the Oak from attack. Hilde had her own security guards, the goblin tribe led by Gorgon.

There was only one way into the black swamp and that was by way of the troll bridge, run of course by the resident troll family. This family was the first line of defence against friend or foe.

It was rumored that Hildeguard was in possession of an ancient magical scroll and many wandering adventures would try to do battle trying to capture this scroll, there was a Kings ransom for anyone who managed to get this artifact.

My son and I collaborated on these story's and it was our escape from the trials of day to day life. We would sit and talk about this place like it was our hometown, one time in a coffee shop we were discussing a minor point in the story and some friends came in and wondered who we were talking about. It was that real for us.

My son moved away, I lived in New York State at the time and he was moving to Florida with his new family. He had gotten married and had 3 children. He gave me all the rights to StrongArm and stories and wondered if someday they would be published. I still have the stories but never tried to publish them.

My son is gone now, he died a horrible tragic death 3 years ago. In honor of him and in remembrance of him, I have kept Hildeguard alive in this small way. Hildeguard is as much a part of me as my own name, maybe more so.

That is how my shop got its name. Lair means home, not built by man, a natural home built by nature. And so Hildeguard is still alive today and inhabits HildeguardsLair.

Monday, September 29, 2008

Welcome to my blog

Hi, welcome to my blog. I am trying my hand at blogging for the first time so please bare with me.

I have a shop on etsy.com which is a wonderful place to find handmade, handcrafted items to fit every families needs. My shop is htt://hildeguardslair.etsy.com I hope you visit my shop for all your chainmaille jewelry needs.

I have been doing chainmaille for 8 years, I started in 2000. I love chainmaille and making my items. I have sold many pieces at renaissance fairs, craft shows, and on other web sites.

I hope you enjoy your shopping experience at etsy.com.

Feel free to leave a comment on my shop.

Thanks