I have been having a lot of fun in my little green shed/studio this week.. polishing up my soldering skills, teaching myself patience and trying something new. I know that chain making is a nemesis for some, but I don't mind it... I am finding repetition is a good teacher.
Here are a few photos of this week's results.
Soldered and textured necklace. This was a lot of soldering.. every link is soldered. I added a slight texture on both sides of the larger link with a riveting hammer and matched the design on the toggle clasp.
It's a little hard to see, but there are hammered lines on bar and ring. Soldering the small rings are indeed teaching me patience!
This is a bracelet with alternating oval and round links, all soldered.. I have added a pearl at the moment but am thinking I will also add something else as well. It is quite dainty.. so the addition has to be not too big... I will look at some gemstones tonight that might be o.k.
Hammered sterling rings (well the Olympics are approaching!)
My first "spinner"ring. It is a bit of an illusion because of the photo angle, but the sides are both curved equally, although it does not look so here. Can anyone tell me how to get rid of silver solder on copper?
There is not a lot there, but it annoys me. I tried dabbing it with used copper pickle and steel wool with no result. I am going to darken this with Liver of Sulphur and then brush it up again. Hopefully it will look all right. This ring has taught me quite a lot! But I love doing it and will make more using different styles.
This (too dark) photo is a copper cut out of a Miniature Schnauzer.. which is the type of dog we have here at home. I was quite thrilled with this little piece as it is the first real 'cut out' I have done using the jewellers saw. I soldered a ring on, but unfortunately, he hangs crookedly. I replaced the jump ring up higher.. but still no go. Obviously he has more metal weight on the head end. I will have to re-cut and somehow make it more even. I am determined to make this work as I think it could make quite a sweet little pendant. Any ideas would be appreciated!
Some of these will be going in to my ArtFire shop, Jennibead Studio, this weekend after I take some better photos!
Hope you all have a great weekend,
9 comments:
Love the bracelet with just that teardrop pearl! And your hard work on soldering is inspiring me for the class I'm taking next month to practice just that. I, too, want to make my own chain. Happy soldering!
Wow!! Great job on the links...looks really professional! I love the little Scottie dog, he is too cute!! Of course if he doesn't work right as a pendant he would make an absolutely darling broach! :)
Great chains! I love that copper ring as well!
What kind of pickle are you using? I have commercial pickle and since we have a hot tub I also have the PH down.. which works great as a pickle... however I left some copper pieces in the PH down with a ton of steel in the container for two days... nothing happened... so I tried the commercial pickle with a coil of bailing wire 10 minutes solder was gone... the steel wool darkened the copper using the commercial pickle.... think if I did more than once I could get it copper colour... I think the solution is to use contaiminated pickle before you add the silver. What kind of jewellery torch are you using... I'm looking for something bigger than my smith little torch and something less awkward than my minor!
Lovely chain! I've done spinner bracelets but not rings!
clarifying what I wrote.... I used the steel wool dipped in commercial pickle on the bracelet that I had added the silver wire spinner too because I didn't get rid of the solder first....
Gorgeous work, chain making is a meditation, all of your work beautiful!
Ro
Jenni, I am very impressed with your chains. Absolutely gorgeous. And the spinner ring - wow.
Can't help you with the solder color, but I believe there is copper solder available these days.
Love your doggy pendant!
Another alternative to the ring & jumpring bail is to solder a couple of evenly spaced tubes on the back of body of the doggy.
I use 4x4mm (or whatever size suits) crimp tubes for this sort of thing - you can thread a chain right through and it's all hidden on the back.
Really like your spinner ring too - it's awesome!
Great ideas and awesome blog.Thank you Love and hugs Tanya
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