Today I was a lucky teacher. A very fine fellow Nicholas Santella came to give a demonstration to my classes. Nicholas is an armorer. He brought armor that he started when he was in high school.

My students were in awe. They saw a suit of armor and couldn't believe that someone their age started such a project. Nicholas demonstrated several metalsmithing techniques which was a good thing for my jewelry kids to see. Mr. Ray brought his sculpture kids, Mr. Derdeyn brought his drawing kids and Ms. Buzzzy brought her theater kids to see the fun.

What blows my mind more than anything is the open chain mail technique that Nicholas showed us. I've built any number of things with open chain mail and I did it the slow hard way. I'm astonished and enlightened to see a really easy short easier way that will build chain mail. I'm inspired and I want to build some chain mail pieces that are new and wonderful.

Thank you Nicholas for the demonstration. Thanks for engaging my students. Thanks for teaching me a new wonderful thing.

WOW. Today was a WOW.