Five-time Academy Award® winning Weta Workshop in collaboration with Fred Tang of Tenzan Production have developed a unique process to create highly-realistic, visually stunning and actor friendly, lightweight chainmaille for the film, television and re-enactment markets.

Developed during the ‘The Lord of the Rings’ trilogy, Weta Tenzan Chainmaille has been used extensively in ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ and ‘The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe.’
  Weta Tenzan Chainmaille Example - Eowyn's Stand from the Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Weta Tenzan Chainmaille Example - Orland Bloom as 'Balian' from Kingdom of Heaven

What is Weta Tenzan Chainmaille?

During the initial stages of designing the costumes and Armour for ‘The Lord of the Rings’, Weta Workshop faced a difficult historical problem: how to create highly realistic chainmaille that was practical for use onset. To date, two main materials had been used: knitted fabrics which tend to look unrealistic in close-up shot and real steel chainmaille which is too heavy for a full days filming. To solve this problem, Weta developed a unique process that was used to create the hundreds of suits of chainmaille that were seen extensively throughout the trilogy.

At the end of L.O.T.R. Weta and its partners decided that there was a need by film and television costumers around the World for a chainmaille product that was an exact facsimile of the real thing but at less than a third of the weight.

The Chainmaille manufacturing process has now developed further. Using a unique injection molding process developed by Fred Tang and Tenzan Production and drawing on the specialist skills of chainmaille experts at Weta Workshop, We can now produce any number and style of garment required.

Our Chainmaille has been tested extensively in the field on several major Hollywood productions. The actors have worn the garments consistently for long shoot days and for many months in varied environments from studios to the tops of mountains! Weta Tenzan Chainmaille is very suitable for use onset as it is extremely easy to clean and if any breakages occur then repairs are simple to make.

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