No excuses soldering

So I decided this year that I will challenge some of my self imposed restrictions. Excuses I make... obstacles I present to myself. One of these is soldering. I studied metals in college. I fabricated things in sterling from simple to complex. Why aren't I soldering NOW as my work cycles back to jewelry from ceramic sculpture? Excuses.

All materials present and accounted for... note dust on pickle pot. 

Excuse #1 - The tools and materials are all so different from those that I learned on...
Sure they are! I was in art school 25 years ago! I learned on large propane and oxy/acetylene torches in a fully outfitted metals studio. We had a separate room for pickle, polishing and sand blasting.

As seen above - I HAVE the materials I need for an in home/studio soldering set up. Soldering pad, charcoal block, torches, pickle pot... Flux, solder... OK. So no excuses here.

1. Caroline's simple yet effective set up. 2. Niky's portable, fully functional set up. 3. Lesley's permanent soldering station

Excuse #2 - Safety and space

The picture above is a compilation of images from my dear UK team mates showing their soldering spaces. Umm. if Niky can do ALL she does in like 6"... OK no excuses there. 

Safety - Protect your work surface. Have a fire extinguisher in the studio. Don't wave the torch around... Hmm. I can do that. So no more excuses there. Lets set up a space shall we?

Ok - let's make this happen. 

What to make? Hmm. I have some great bangles from Nunn design that need charms. Yes - something good to wear to MEXICO when I take the Richard and Jane Salley class of a lifetime. Something to remind me that I am there to learn/relearn soldering.

A 2016 charm with soldered bail. a sweat soldered crescent. and sterling spiral. OK. Lets do this.

3 charms ready to assemble. one soldered loop, 2 sweat soldered layered pieces. 

DONE! Excuses vanquished. See below - pickle and patina! Not perfect,but a personal success. 

pickled and patina - NOT perfect! 

An auspicious start to the year... 

* Footnote - since originally writing this post I have spent that week in Mexico and SOLDERED ALL THE THINGS. Victory is mine! Details and eye candy coming soon!

Fold forming fun

I don't know about you but I am a member of many Facebook groups, one of them being the Aspiring Metalsmiths page. What I love about this page is the vast knowledge of the members and their willingness to share. One such post I came across recently was a tutorial on how to fold form a leaf by Al Martinez. As soon as I saw it I wanted to give it a try and I thought I would share how I got on! Now I did not do everything exactly how Al explained (everyone knows I can't follow a tutorial) and I did not have all the right tools/skills so a lot of it I 'winged' but if you are interested in learning more I urge you to join the group and search the page for Al Martinez, the tutorial is a post dated 25th October so you may well have to scroll back a while but it is very much worth the effort, his work is amazing!

• First off I cut my 0.8mm copper sheet (approx 21 gauge?) with a nice heavy duty pair of scissors (you could do this with a saw but it would take much longer and I for one can't saw in a straight line!)
• Next I hammered the edges and the corners flat to minimise the risk of cutting myself, those edges are really shape so please be careful!
• using the straight edge of my Anvil/bench peg I bent the metal to a 90 degree angle
• and then using my hands I bent the metal over 

• At this point my metal was very stiff so I used my Butane torch to anneal the metal (one thing I found was that I needed to anneal my metal alot more then in the tutorial, I put this down to my rather girly muscles and pitifully light weight hammer)
• After annealing hammer the metal flat

• Here is where Al draws his design onto the metal, which I found an utter pain! I can't draw in sharpie and made so many errors it just looked like a scribble, so I drew my design with my trusty Biro onto a sticky address label (or six) and then just stuck that on
• Then slowly and steadily saw out the leaf and peal off the sticker
• Hammer to add texture (Al shares a really cool way to hammer the leaf so that it curves) if the leaf gets hard and you want more texture anneal and continue hammering until you are happy with the effect 

• When you are happy with your hammering (great way to rid your self of stress) Gently prize the leaf open, here I used an old screw driver 
• Then anneal again to make it easier to open, once cool use the edge of the bench peg to open the leaf further, then place it onto the anvil and gently hammer the seem to flatten the leaf out

• At this point you can add more texture with your hammer or move different parts of the leaf with your pliers to bend this way or that. Once happy I cleaned up the top of the leaf with some sandpaper and soldered on a heavy jump ring
• I decided I rather liked the colour of the metal so I just burnished the edges and the fold to add a bit of interest then I sealed it with some wax and added a lamp work bead with a bronze acorn cap by our fantastic Lesley and a silver chain and voila a beautiful necklace....

And these are so many ways that you can adapt this to make a truly individual piece. You could set stones on them, hammer words into them or even cut shapes out....

I hope you have enjoyed this post and if you did go check out Al's you will not be disappointed!

Setting Tiny Stones

Recently on my blog I was asked how I manage to set such small stones, such as this 4mm peridot in my daisy stacker ring, so I thought I would share a few tips and tricks that I have learnt.

Daisy Stacker Ring With Lampwork by Jen Cameron 

The first thing I do when setting small stones is cut the bezel wire in half with very sharp scissors. I do this because the smallest bezel wire I can get is 3mm tall and when setting tiny stones this is much to big. The wire does tend to curl up but I just use my flat pliers to gently straighten it back out.

Cutting the Bezel Wire

Next, using this neat little gizmo called a mitre jig that I learnt about from one of my favorite blogs Cinnamon Jewellery (Tracy's work is just amazing as is her blog where she shares so much fantastic information, a really great source for learning), I clamp the bezel wire and file one side flat.

My Beloved Mitre Jig

Most of the tiny stones I use are 3-5mm in size because I use my bail making pliers to form my bezels, and they are 3mm and 5mm in diameter. Making bezels this way is a lot less fiddly than trying to wrap the wire around the stone and a lot easier then trying to measure the bezel wire to the correct size. I wrap the wire around the end of the pliers and press down at the join to leave a mark so I know where to cut.

Bail Making Pliers

After cutting and filing the marked edge I rewrap it around the bail making pliers and check that the edges are flush then I gently flatten the join with my flat pliers to hold it in place, once I am happy that the edges meet perfectly with no light showing through I solder the piece. Because it is so small I always use easy solder and go as slow as possible, it really is easy to melt these little things!

Flatten the Join 

Once soldered and pickled I reshape it on the bail making pliers, if by some chance it is a touch too small I then use my round nose pliers to stretch it, by simply placing it onto one side of the pliers and twisting and pushing it further down the tapered end of the pliers to stretch it. Alternatively if I am making an oval shaped bail I would place the bail onto the tip of pliers in the above photo while they were closed and then I would gently open them to elongate the bail.

Made Using Tiny Stones

Once the bezel is a perfect fit for the stone I solder it onto the backing plate, or as in the photo above, onto a coin and continue setting as I would a larger piece. Hopefully this has answered the question!

Bits of NikNats

Artisan Jewellery by Niky Sayers

Guest Post - Manda Jane Rodwell - A Dandelions Tale

Today talented jewellery designer Manda Jane Rodwell joins us as a guest blogger and shares some of the trials and tribulations of transforming ideas into reality.

I can't tell you how excited and honoured I feel to be here as guest designer!  So a really big "hello" to you all!

Lesley Watt is such a talented artist and one that I very much admire and look up too.  So, when she offered me the chance to "have a go" at setting one of her ceramic cabs I bit her hand off,  couldn't believe my luck that she had picked me from all the uber talented artists out there in jewellery land.

This is not my first collaboration but it is the one that I shall remember for teaching me a life lesson or 2 or 3.

The idea was I that I would journal the process of cab to setting to finished piece and share the complete journey with you here.

I had a plan...to complete one cab just to make sure I could do it (I had visions of breaking the cab in 2 at the last minute) and the 2nd would be THE ONE, step by step pictures for you to peruse. However some things never go quite to plan and oh, how I fooled myself.

After 3 aborted attempts I decided to down tools and ditch any thought of a camera. I was letting this cab down horribly, I was not delivering the greatness I had promised. Too fussy, too plain, too contrived, too confident,  not enough confidence…Nerves had got the better of me and panic had set in, I was running out of time!

I had a stiff drink and slept on it!

I'm a weekend maker so it was a whole week before I could tackle it again but the penny had dropped... the cab wasn't the problem I was.  A different approach was called for if I was to get at least one cab set in time with some degree of professionalism.  Armed with a renewed mental confidence it struck me that I was going to have to re-think the technical approach as well, I was not going to be able to treat this ceramic cab in the same way as a glass one - It should have been obvious! Deep breathe and I start again this time with no expectations and no camera, just calm and relaxed...Tah dah - "Dandelion Wind" was born.

She's not how I first visualised her... she's so much better.

Lessons learnt:

1. Panic less, plan time management better.
2. Listen to my own creative voice. 
3. Relax.

I ran out of time to attempt the 2nd one for this post - sorry about that, but I'm confident I can now tackle it with far less anguish!

Health & Safety experts close your eyes NOW.  The aftermath!  I know where everything is, its highly organised really.

Lesley, thank you so much for letting me play with one of your beautiful cabs, for the prods in the right direction and your belief in me!

Manda 
Silver Storm Jewellery

Finding My Mixed Media Mojo...

So it's three weeks since I arrived home from my holiday in the USA and my first (yes I will be back) visit to Bead Fest and I'm delighted to say that once I got over my jet lag, I found myself raring to get in the studio and do something creative. It's not unusual of course to feel refreshed after a holiday but this one was just a bit special.

For me Bead Fest itself was a huge inspiration and not just because of the beads. My AJE team mates were so generous in the way they welcomed and hosted me and what with so many hugely talented and creative bead makers and designers coming together in one place I felt an amazing energy and buzz about the whole thing which certainly followed me home.

It was also great to talk to people attending workshops and to see how excited they were about the new skills they'd picked  up and I completely understand that as I  was lucky enough to take a mixed media workshop with our own Jenny Davies-Reazor. Jenny's class gave us a start on developing the skills to combine polymer clay, metal and ceramic cabochons as shown in these pieces of hers...

Mixed media amulets by Jenny Davies-Reazor

Metal working was one of my first jewellery making passions but I've never really felt the urge to get into polymer clay until I saw how well they worked together in this layered approach. This is the piece I made in the workshop and though not perfect I was pretty pleased with it...

Cabochon by Diana Ptaszynski

Needless to say as soon as I got home I ordered myself some supplies and set to work at having a go on my own and this was my first piece using a ceramic cabochon my Marsha Neal...

The process uses simple cold connections such as tab settings and staples to combine the elements into a sturdy focal piece. I know Jenny is hoping to teach similar classes at events next year so if you get the opportunity to attend one I would thoroughly recommend it.

This was a pretty large piece so I haven't quite decided how to use it yet but my second piece has already been made in to a necklace called 'From Darkness Comes Light'. I used one of Jenny's Celestial face cabochons with a sleepy expression and made a sun ray tab setting, Set against the dark blue of the sun stone beads and the tint of the polymer it evokes for me the dawning of a new day.

Well by then I was well and truly hooked and just had to make another one, this time using a pretty butterfly cabochon (again by Jenny) in warm rich tones. I haven't had a chance to make this one up yet but it's sitting on my work bench with a selection of possible beads for when I do.

Taking Jenny's workshop has had an added benefit in that it's also made me think about other ways of using cold connections and different mediums in my designs. This pendant combines a lampwork cabochon by Caroline Dewison with copper and a setting made from a vintaj brass flower blank connected with rivets.

And this one is again copper with a vintaj blank but I've added extra elements with a leather flower and enameled leaf from Gardanne Beads.

Ceramic cabochon by Caroline Dewison leather flower by H M Creative supplies

I have lots of ideas popping in my brain to take mixed media further so I hope my mojo decides to stay awhile. But what about you - have you taken any inspiring workshops or courses and if not, what's inspired you to try something new lately...? We'd love to hear.

Lesley

The Gossiping Goddess