A Tale of Two Soldering Blocks

I have a new soldering block.

My old soldering block, pictured below on the left, has seen me through a lot. In fact, it's as good as the only block I've ever used when I've soldered away from the class environment. And it had got to the stage where to find a small patch of level surface involved balancing the block on its side and really wasn't ideal, to put it mildly.




I've always used powder flux and when this is heated it becomes molten. Then it hardens to an almost glass-like quality, as you might be able to see in the photograph. It also becomes sticky and hardens rapidly as soon as the heat is removed, and can quite easily hold the work being soldered onto the soldering block. This is, to put it mildly, far from ideal when you've finished the soldering part.

Eventually I was given the handy hint of reheating the area very slightly, just enough to make the flux molten again, and then lift the work off without any resistance. But until then I used to pull until the silver came free, and it normally came free with a small piece of the soldering block.

So my old block is a mixture of miniature valleys of missing block and mountains of glass-like flux. It's still usable and will be used, but for delicate, more precise work, having a smooth soldering surface feels like the most extravagant indulgence and I'm still enjoying the clean and smooth expanses, and doing my best not to create any more landforms than I'm sure I inevitably will, however careful I am.

Do leave a comment or get in touch if you've any hints to share about dealing with soldering blocks - I've love to read them.

Jump Rings - To Solder or Not . . .

I've recently been soldering a lot. I quite enjoy doing this, the method, routine and ritual. The concentration. The ever-present slight fear that everything will just melt if the concentration wavers. Hmm.

Soldered jump rings

But, specifically, I've been soldering jump rings, working the two edges carefully together and then filling them up with solder and heat, so they hold firm.

More soldered jump rings

As I was doing this, I started wondering whether I was being too fussy and creating a whole lof of unecessary work. Assuming they've soldered correctly, they then need pickling out. Then I have to check them to see if they need filing and generally tidying up. And then they need a polish to clean them up and make the silver shine again, even if I'm going to mattify them eventually. Something my tutor taught me, and a lesson worth following, most of the time anyway . . .

Jump rings waiting to be soldered

I know that for certain pieces of jewellery, soldering jump rings makes the difference between things staying together and things falling apart. But with many of the jump rings I solder, especially the small ones, they are then used as components for earrings and for pendants, fixing earrings to ear wires, and pendants to thread or chain.

Soldered and pickled

In the examples of my finished work shown here, I think with the earrings, pictured above, jump rings may work just as well unsoldered, and this may protect the ear more, should anything catch and pull on the earring.

In both these pairs of earrings, the smaller jump ring is unsoldered, the larger soldered, so I've kind of reached a potential compromise - under pressure the smaller jump ring would come open. But the larger jump ring, being soldered, should hold the earrings a little more securely to the ear hook. Larger jump rings also seem a little more likely to pull apart to me, whereas the smaller sized ones, in the same thickness of wire, have less movement and give to them, and are less likely to pull apart easily.

Soldered jump ring

With the pendant, shown above, the jump ring is, to my thinking, more secure when soldered, especially when threaded onto fine organza, and it holds the silver leaf firmly to the fabric. But would it be safer for the wearer if it wasn't soldered? Is it better for the necklace to just break, if under pressure, than for it be less likely to be lost?

So what I'm asking is, overall, are jump rings really any better for doing this extra work? Are they more dangerous, as should jewellery break easily if this is needed for safety reasons, rather than holding firm and potentially tear or trap someone. Is the best compromise one soldered jump ring, and one unsoldered? Or am I just worrying too much on all counts? I'd love to know what you think, and what you do?

Frightened of silver?

A couple of years back I carefully crafted a cobweb in silver. It took a long time but it worked. I then carefully began to craft a second web. It became a small partially melted mass and I'd not returned to the idea since.

Until last week when, wondering if my soldering skills had increased sufficiently to avoid meltdown, I decided to take some wire, a small torch, a couple of spare hours and a lot of patience and I made this . . .







Update - The cobweb is for sale now at my Folksy shop.

Something for . . . me : Rings part 1

I decided to combine a little soldering practice with making myself a couple of rings . . .





I think this a common crafter's affliction, whether you sell your work or not, may be to make things that always end up belonging to other people. I almost start to feel guilty about making things for myself, that the time and material cost would be better off going towards something that will perhaps sell or be a gift.

But I've collected a few small items for myself over the years, things I can't part with because I love them so much, or things I just stand no chance of replicating.

Sorting through my scraps box the other day I found some mangled and twisted pieces of silver sheet that looked as if they just might form rings . . .

Unfortunately I have yet to persuade myself to part with the money to buy a ring forming mandrel. So whilst I've been able to push the thinner ring, in the first photo, into some kind of wearable shape, the much thicker ring is still unwieldy and maintaining its decidedly oblong form that I had to persuade it into to solder it in the first place.

Tune in some time around the middle of September to see what they look like when they're finished . . .

In the meantime I'm working on finishing a necklace for, yes, me. The reason being is it's pretty much a prototype and I've been working on it an age and so this way I can give it a trial run and never have to part with it . . . photos up here as soon as it's finished.

Soldering . . .

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. . . always makes me a little nervous, until I get started. 'Fire equals danger' seems a pretty sound basis to live by so it's been quite a change to get to the stage where 'fire equals just being a bit careful with a fire extinguisher on stand-by'.

I did buy a book or two on jewellery making without soldering but found it impossible to achieve the effects I want to. And since I've worked hard on getting better at this melting-solder-to-stick-silver-together lark, then it does make sense that I use my 'talent' (very loose meaning of that word!) when I think it needs using.

A leaf from start to finish

A work-in-progress gallery of a new pendant I've been working on.

Perhaps not overly fitting given the weather lately but when venturing outside I've found a few small crop of green shoots pushing through the snow, and some buds, just waiting, on a plant . . .



This is the pendant after it's been soldered. Not particularly attractive but the shape I'm trying to achieve is emerging. The small 'veins' were not easy to solder.



Fool that I am, I decided on soldering another 'vein' in. I think it looks more balanced, perversely, and more natural and authentic with an odd number.



How the pendant looks after it's been pickled out, the dark oxidisation from soldering lifted away by the acidic pickle solution.



A couple of rings have been attached (for hanging on a chain necklace) and excess solder has been, carefully, filed away. I tumble polished the leaf to give it a bright shine and then lightly hammered it to impart some leafy-looking texture.

Hearts in January

Very, very slow to blog this year, after Christmas and the turn of the year itself. Tut. But I've been making again (after that same Christmas and New Year malarky) and have spent a fair time this week making hearts in preparation for Valentine's Day, chasing away the dark gloom of the January weather in doing so.

This is them, as a work in progress, looking pretty dull after just being subjected to some creation by soldering:


A good few more are also in various stages of production.

Next is the description writing process . . . which sometimes seems to take longer than making the jewellery itself . . .