Soldered stuff.

I burned out my third tip trying to do this with a way under-powered soldering iron (a 35 watt dinky thing with no reostat. Boo.) Hopefully I will be getting this* for my birthday next month and all my soldering dreams will come true!

I messed around with a few stained glass scraps along with a 1960's/70's brooch I bought at St. Vincent DePaul last week and a rock that's been sittig in the dining room for months. Anything that sits in my line of sight for months is in danger of being soldered to something or glued to something or painted with something.

This is about an inch square scrap of stained glass with irregular random yellow, white, and red stripes. The "live" charm and is attached with a jump ring which also has a little turquoise bead at the connection.


The next two are of the same piece, a larger bit of the same scrap I used for the "live" square. This one has two vintage beads attached by jump rings at the top. You can definitely see the stripes better in this one!


This started out as a sad little retro brooch. I pulled the pin off of the back, turned it sideways, soldered on a jump ring at the top and a dangling bead at the bottom (the bead is a vintage glass and it's more blue/gray than it looks in the photo.)


This is the rock that should have known better than to hang around with nothing to do. I wrapped it and soldered it then added the bead (another one from my jar of old glass beads; yay for old stuff!) Unfortunately the camera picked up way too much reflection off the solder. It is shiny. But not that shiny.


These didn't turn out a well as I'd like but I'm really picky about what I'm picturing verses what circumstances let me actually create - the soldering wasn't smooth because the soldering iron I have at the moment doesn't stay consistently hot. It's like cooking on an electric stove where the burner heats to a certain temp then cools then heats again then cools... so I got out my Dremel and tried to make it look like the lack o' smooth soldering was on purpose. I wish I knew more about photography because the texture on the rock's solder is actually really cool and I was able to make it mimic the texture of the rock itself. Not too bad for messing around though now I'm really coveting that new iron...

*I'm not buying the Weller from the ToolBarn.com, but I like anything called The Tool Barn! :)

**Also, I didn't forget the Perelandra post. Just finished reading the third book and have been thinking about it as well. So far haven't been able to separate the two for posting...

Comments

Jodi said…
I need to play with that stuff or you just need to make a super cool charm for me!
betsy said…
can I send you some rocks we picked up at the beach? What makes a rock good for jewelry creation?
Teresa said…
We need to get together. I'm trying to perfect my soldering skills and since you seem to be better at it, you can show me...LOL I'm serious.
Jodi said…
look if we don't get together soon and make something cool with you dangerous equiptment I am putting you on friend probation!

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