I can solder!

 

 

I have had my solder paste now since Christmas and all my other bits and pieces to solder but last night was the first night I gave it a go.  I wanted to solder ear posts to my PMC earrings which I had made earlier so I plucked up the courage, stuck my little goggles on and went for it!

I must have had about 4 goes and couldn't seem to get it right, the solder wouldn't flow and I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong.  So after much frustration I flickr mailed my buddy,  the lovely David of Revonav who explained it all to me and gave me a great link for making posts too.  I left it and went back to it this morning and fiddled about with positioning of the earring post and the direction of the torch and it worked! The solder flowed and I made my earrings.  I got a bit solder happy and made 4 pairs above is one of them.  I have wanted to make these for a while now as an alternative to my paint palette necklace and I love making and wearing post earring myself.

These earrings will be up in my Etsy shop tomorrow, so here's to more soldering and thanks again to David, go check out his awesome shop here. :)

Books I'm Reading

I thought I would write about some new books I purchased that arrived today and yesterday.  I am looking to learn more about working with sterling silver and learn some metal smithing techniques especially soldering.  I got Tim Mc Creight's book "PMC Techniques, Hot & Cold Connections"  I have a had a browse through and it looks really good and informative.  I also bought Jinks McGrath's book "Jewellery Making- A Complete Guide For Beginners" and also Joanna Gollberg's book "The Art & Craft of Making Jewellery"  The latter I think is not really for the beginner, well it looked a little complicated for me anyway but it is nice to browse through and look at the gallery photo's. Jink's book I think will be a good start as it is more for the beginner after flicking through I am looking forward to having a more in depth read and giving a couple of the projects a go.