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Until about 12 years ago, Jascha Bowen-Kreiner had never heard of a Renaissance festival or people who wear chain mail or people who make it.

Then a friend spotted an advertisement at a Maryland rock climbing gym, looking for experienced climbers to teach belaying at the Maryland Renaissance Festival. Bowen-Kreiner and his friend saw it as a chance to make money doing something they loved, so they signed on.

While he worked at the Renaissance festival, Bowen-Kreiner made friends with a couple of metalsmiths and learned how to create jewelry and clothing out of chain mail.

Until fall 2008, he let that skill sit. But as mud season dried up the money he could earn working in local restaurants, Bowen-Kreiner saw an opportunity to drum up some extra cash with a skill he already had.

"I thought, 'Well, I've got this thing that I do anyway, so I'm going to actually make jewelry out of it,'" he said.

Bowen-Kreiner makes chain mail jewelry by spinning stainless steel wire on a nail that's attached to an electric drill - the bigger the nail, the wider the diameter of the wire coil. Then he cuts small rings out of each coil and pieces them together in intricate patterns he finds on the Internet. The end result can be anything from a pair of earrings to a full-armor chain-mail shirt.

"I find the pattern online and figure out how to put it together," he said. "When I don't get it, I go back and try to figure it out some more."

Once Bowen-Kreiner had devised a routine for making jewelry in the few hours he has each day between restaurant jobs at Sharon's at Pisa's and The Boathouse Pub, he brought a couple of pieces to All That Jazz music store and asked whether they'd be interested in selling them. Floor Manager Brady Worster bought two pairs of earrings on the spot.

"It's different, and it appeals to our customers, and we've done well with it," All That Jazz owner Joe Kboudi said.

Imagiro Chain Mail - a collection of Bowen-Kreiner's chain mail and origami jewelry - was featured at All That Jazz during the June First Friday Artwalk and fills a display case at the front of the store. Getting upward of 50 pieces of jewelry made for that showing tested Bowen-Kreiner's patience for putting tiny metal rings together with pliers.

"I like to say a lot of my sweat and curses go into my jewelry," he said. But making things with his hands comes naturally for Bowen-Kreiner, and the frustration pays off.

"It's about creating something, about making something, about making what would be idle time productive. There's always a hope that I'm going to make a fortune off of it : but it's something I do - I use my hands," he said, adding that he will continue to make the jewelry no matter how it sells.

"When I'm not working for a paycheck, I'm either making something or thinking about making something."