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Have you met Melissa Starks of Enchanted Chains?

Answering questions about the individual pieces of chain mail, the buxom brunette’s pride in her jewelry is evident. Most of the items on the tables are custom made designs which she has developed and include necklaces, rings, earrings, and bracelets, each a work of art. As she adds several links to a bracelet for a customer, the process providing an excellent example of just how “custom” her art is, her smile is quick and her laughter engaging. Let me introduce you to Melissa Starks of Enchanted Chains.

Background

Melissa grew up in Virginia, started performing in theatre productions at a very early age, and continued throughout her college years. She finished college with a degree in teaching and a minor in theatre arts and took a position in Missouri, teaching drama at the Kansas City School district during desegregation. During the five years she worked there, she found that she did not enjoy teaching as much as she enjoyed consistent paychecks and good retirement plans. Feeling a need for change, she entered the corporate world as a financial planner, helping her clients determine and setup plans to achieve their goals. Following her own advice, Melissa took her financial planning lessons to heart and paid off her debts, funded her retirement, and built an emergency fund.

Faire History

In 1991 while in college she attended her first Faire at Peoria Olde English Faire on a date with a boyfriend. The next year, she attended Kansas City Renaissance Faire, taking a class on a field trip. She met and married her husband, “the first man to ever give me a rose at faire,” she laughed and told me and started working with him at faire the next year and hasn’t missed Kansas City yet.

Her husband was a maille armorer who gave demonstrations and sold his creations. She attended with him and learned maile weaving but found that her hands were not strong enough to work with the steel rings. A friend was designing jewelry from sterling silver rings and Melissa tried those. She said it was like a fish to water, the tools and rings just felt right in her hands. She designed and wove a pair of earrings that day and has never looked back.

Sixteen years ago, Melissa started selling her custom pieces at shows in the South and Midwest. She collaborated with another merchant, sharing booths and expenses, at the St Louis Renaissance Faire, the Great Lakes Medieval Faire, and the Florida Renaissance Festival. She and a partner have a booth at the Kansas City Renaissance Festival, her home faire, and she runs the crew for the booth at the site.

Four and a half years ago, she realized that she was at 20 weekend shows as well as working 60-hours a week at the corporate job and making product to sell. She took a look at her life—recently divorced, financially stable, a business that she wanted to try fulltime—and decided that if she was ever going to make her dreams come true, there wouldn’t be a better time. She bought a camper, arranged for a house sitter, took care of all the paperwork necessary for her and her Shelties to be on the road, and made the leap of faith. She quit her job and she’s out there making a living like so many of us sometimes dream about

Being a merchant at a Renaissance Faire is not as easy as it sounds. Merchants don’t work for the faires; they are independent business owners with bills to pay just like everyone else. Selling at Faire is how they make their living. Melissa spends four days a week making products to sell; products that most shows require go through a jury process in which judges review detailed descriptions and photos to determine whether the merchant is a good fit for their faire. There are requirements for certain types of displays, tents which meet “period” standards but which are also safe by modern standards, and clothing requirements. Checking and repairing the displays, tent, clothing, etc., is required in order for it to be in good working condition. Of the other three days in the week, she spends at least two on site while Faire is open; the last is for all the “other” things like banking, laundry, bookkeeping, shopping, etc.

Melissa applied to and was accepted as a merchant in her own space for 41 weekend events out of the 52-week 2008 season that started in January at the Lee County Kiwanis Medieval Faire in Ft Myers Florida. She’s booked for shows in Florida, Ohio, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Illinois. During those 41 weeks, she’ll be on the road twenty of them living at campgrounds in her soft-sided pop-up trailer. The rest of the time, she will be at shows that are within a four-hour drive of her home in Kansas, allowing her to stay in a hotel or with friends for the weekend, and then go home during the week.

She thinks it is probably her theatre background that caused her to choose Faire over art shows, though her first answer when I asked the question was a rich chuckle and “I don’t know!” Melissa loves to dress up and has numerous outfits. It’s also the chance to interact with so many people, the merchants and performers that she works with and the customers that come in to her booth. “A young man came in to my booth on school day. He wanted to take a pair of dragonfly earrings home to his mother. He had limited funds and had looked all over Faire for the item. We went through the trays together and found a pair of earrings that met his desire and he was able to take the gift home to his mother. That was gratifying.”

Being on the road alone has been interesting. On the way back to Kansas from Florida in late March, Melissa ended up on the side of the road for several hours with a flat. The first tow truck company wanted to leave her trailer on the side of the road. Since she had product and all her living necessities packed in it, she had to wait for a second company. She’s also met some great people and had some wonderful experiences. She told me that she’s seen and done so many amazing things—had a bald eagle land within 15 feet of her at Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park outside Gainesville, Florida; watched some amazing sunsets off the southern most point in the Florida Keys; swum in one of the Great Lakes; watched a turtle lay her eggs in the sand; danced around a fire; and held a monkey. “Well,” she laughed, “really the monkey holds you, not the other way around.” She is dating and hopes to find someone who enjoys the same things she does. “It would be nice to share all this with someone,” she told me.

Each faire holds something special and draws her back for different reasons. St Louis Renaissance Festival has the most creative cast, Great Lakes Medieval Faire has the best campground, and the Florida faires have some of the closest-knit friends. Kansas City Renaissance Festival, where she grew up and the festival she considers her home faire, has great group of friends who help her out in the booth. They go in, clean out, repair, and generally make the booth ready before she gets back in the state. Without them, Melissa says she would have to run the booth all by herself. That’s why she seldom gets to see a show unless friends who are performing—like 3 Pints Gone, WyldeFyre, and The Minstrel and the Harper—stop by occasionally and do a song for her.

Currently

She is still enjoying herself, Melissa tells me. When we originally talked, one of her few regrets was starting off with a vehicle and trailer combination that was too small. The soft-sided pop-up trailer towed fine behind her minivan, but is humid and doesn’t keep out the campground noises. When I talked with her a couple of weeks ago, she told me that she’s replaced the minivan; she’s got a full size van now with enough space to hold most of her product and large enough to tow whatever camper she decides to get. “Making jewelry is still the best part of it,” she told me, “I love designing and weaving the silver, but I get bored easily,” she finished with a chuckle. To combat the boredom, she works on chains a couple of days a week, builds some other things like hair barrettes or stick pins one day, and designs, creates or does whatever is needed for stock the fourth day.

In addition to her own work, Melissa sells pieces made by four other artists. Two are apprentice weavers who are taking lessons from her. The other two are exclusive contributing artists who supply unique items only available through Enchanted Chains. She also has some beads and cast pieces that she uses as accents for the earrings, kilt pins, hair sticks, and such.

Being on the road fulltime has actually had the benefit of allowing her to take a couple of week’s vacation, which Melissa told me she hadn’t done in years. We laughed as she explained that staying home and catching up with friends had been the agenda, as she enjoyed the downtime of not working on the business at all. She’s sure that some people she knew while in the corporate world would be amazed at the changes to her lifestyle. No longer does she have the weekly hair and nail appointments or make the shopping trips. Now she sits at home, works on the jewelry, watches DVDs, and shops at WalMart and she would not trade it.

Now, she is in the midst of her Midwest season. This weekend, she will have her own booth for the first time at the Great Lakes Medieval Faire. Her former partner will have a sign up directing customers and friends to the new location that, last she knew, was to be in the general vicinity of the Pub Stage used by Axel the Sot.

Final thoughts

Melissa told me that she was very scared when she left the corporate world but cannot imagine going back to it. Sometimes it’s scary, like when sales don’t do well or something breaks down; then she’s had to dip in to the emergency money to make ends meet. But it’s a business of her very own, demanding and involved, and so worth it. She’s having a great time.

Websites for Melissa Starks:

Enchanted Chains
Melissa on MySpace

July 1st, 2008 Posted by Escarlata | Have You Met? | 5 comments