Finding My Creativity

It's been awhile since I've updated my blog...sorry! I've been re-adjusting to my kids being out of the house and trying to come up with new creative designs. 

One of the things I want to get back to are making pieces that come from the heart, pieces that represent something important in my life. So here's a picture of the Triple Moon pendant that I recently made and will be listing in my shop soon. This one is made using a lab grown Alexandrite set in fine silver.

 

Also, I'm so excited to announce that I successfully taught myself how to solder fine metals...woot woot!! Up until now all of my previous attempts ended in some messy glob, so I'm happy to show off these new rings that I made for myself out of scrap sterling, one is a London Blue Topaz, and the other is a Signity CZ.

I swear after that first successful solder I couldn't stop myself. Before I knew it, it was 2am and my focus was blurry but dangit I made 8 rings and all of them turned out great! Actually that's a fib -- the next day when I looked at the rings again one of the wide band rings was not to my liking because the solder and flowed into part of the pattern...so it's scrap now and I don't care cuz the rest of the rings turned out fab!! :D

Hopefully after I practice a bit more I'll start getting some of these listed in my Etsy shop so keep an eye out!

Working with different metals

My favorite metal to work with is Sterling, but I have a lot of 14kt gold filled wire that I bought to make wire wrapped rings that I no longer carry in my store, and I've been wondering what I'm going to do with it. So for the heck of it I wanted to make a pair of hoops. The metal is a lot more pliable and softer than sterling but after some hammering to give it texture and strength, I have to say that I'm was pretty pleased with the way they turned out.


I listed this pair in my shop today and sent a pair to a return customer as a thank you gift. I'm hoping that I'll have time this week to make more in varying sizes like I carry in my Rustic Hoops line. I'm really excited at the prospect of incorporating this metal into some of my jewelry designs.

On a side note, I should be receiving my very large order of fine silver so I can try my hand at fusing. I'll be sure to post my creations...I can't wait!!

Fusing vs. Soldering

So I saw this really great book on fusing silver. I was in a hurry, didn't have a chance to purchase it, but flipped through it really quick. I was pretty excited at the thought not having to solder, plus it showed you can hammer the piece after fusing. I have not had successful attempts at hammering after soldering, the piece just splits apart.

Today I decided to try it without having the book on hand. Well let's just say it kind of failed. First I tried fusing a ring that was made of low dome sterling silver. Nada! Then I tried a ring using 20g dead soft sterling silver...again nothing. Then with some scrap silver I tried a very thin piece, which I believe was 24 or 26 gauge. Well it kind of worked, part of the silver fused together, but not like it showed in the book.

Then I went online to see what I could find on the subject of fusing. It looks like the recommended silver to use is fine silver and not sterling. With fine silver the melting point is higher than sterling so that kind of confused me, but maybe it's the extra alloys that are in sterling that doesn't quite allow a fusing to happen.

Needless to say I'm going to purchase the book and see what I'm doing wrong or missing. So if any of you out there have ever tried fusing or have any tips or hints, can you send them my way? I would be greatly appreciative of it!

I was really hoping to have some fun pieces to list tomorrow...but that's not the case. As you can tell I'm one of those people that thinks I should be successful at least within the first few attempts....grrr....but I'm not going to give up. I'll post more information after a few more attempts. Back to the torch.

Got A Lot Accomplished!

So I took today off of work to take care of a few things. First was purchasing a Main Showcase on Etsy, they always become available while I'm at work and I didn't want to miss out on it. I'm hoping it'll get me some more exposure!

Second was soldering and just getting comfortable working with my torch. I made my own pickling solution using white vinegar and sea salt...it works wonderfully...love it! I also used self pickling flux..I'm not sure if others use this type, but it worked fine for me. I made 2 rings. After the 1st one was done pickling, I filed down the excess solder and it looked great...then I hammered it for texture...uggghhh! It broke my solder right off :( So I'm going to resolder it now that I've already hammered it, all I'll have to do is file down the excess solder. I'll pull the 2nd one out of the pickle tonight, file it down, and wear it tomorrow and I can't wait!

I also tried my hand using Epoxy today. Of course with the help of a great Etsian, Ed from Stonesinmotion . I tell you, I don't know what I would do without his sage advice, he's such a wealth of information and really just an all in all great guy! On a side note, I've purchased some Rainbow Obsidian cabochons from him, and I can't wait to get them!! Okay so back to the Epoxy, it's tricky stuff and has to be mixed just right or it won't set at all. A coworker had a cabochon that I purchased a flat back sterling silver setting for so I needed an adhesive that wouldn't damage the stone. Well so far, so good...and it looks like I'll be able to give my coworker a new pendant tomorrow.

The other was for another coworker. She had a 14kt gold solitaire ring with a faceted Smoky Quartz, that she wanted switched out with a CZ. So I purchased a really nice quality 3/4ct. CZ and some tools to work with the prongs on the ring. I was really nervous because I didn't want to break one of the prongs off or damage them beyond repair...but phew it worked out well too!

The last thing I did was set some 8mm (2ct)colored CZ's in sterling silver pendants with notched prongs...oooo...I really love the way they look and will take pics of those tomorrow.

So I really did get a lot accomplished today and I can't wait to share some pictures of everything with you tomorrow.

Soldering

I didn't post anything yesterday so I wanted to add something today. I took tomorrow off and I'm going to be trying my hand at soldering some sterling silver rings. I have my fingers crossed that everything will go well. I've been watching soldering videos on Youtube like crazy, and of course I've read all of my books, and have even looked up all I can on the internet to read. Overdoing it??...nah ;) I'm just nervous and I don't really care to waste too much silver. I'm sure that my first few rings will be mine to keep because they won't be the prettiest, but what girl turns down jewelry??

Well that's all I have for now, I'm off for coffee night with the girls! Woohoo :)

I'll post pics of my creations tomorrow!