If you don't flux, router!

Yesterday I had fluxing success but if you're struggling with soldering, or you just don't want to create that look, you can try routering your glass cabachons. I like to use this technique when I want a "floating" look - where the frame that holds the glass cab is hidden.

The equipment you'll need is a glass grinder and a special jewelry bit. Yep, that's what it's called, a jewelry bit. I buy the Aanraku Twofers



There's a better picture on the Delphi Glass website if you're like me and want to see a close up picture - in fact, here it is from the site:


Once you have the bit, it's really easy to just run the edge of your fused cab around to create a groove in the glass like the one on my painted cab:


Delphi Glass has a quick step by step for adding a wire frame to create a pendant out of the routered glass cab.

Try it! If you don't solder, router!

It's Fluxing Success!

YAY! I finally successfully soldered a few of my cabs and added a little bit of wire "filigree." I made the cabs - one is a painted bead that had rough beadholes so I slumped it into a cab. The other cab is a made of glass "shorts" that was fused and ground into a square shape.

I must admit that adding the filigree was the hardest part - I think I need an extra hand to do it again! LOL! I used a bench clamp to hold the piece while I added the filigree.

If you solder jewelry, how do you hold the piece so you can solder on a jump ring or other decoration?

Warm in the studio

It's "warm" today - 58 degrees here in New York State - so I've got to take advantage of the warmth to work in the studio. Maybe I'll do some fusing, or some torch work or some more bowl bezels or even get to the soldering I've been struggling with. Maybe today is the day I'll be able to solder decently!

Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Good Investments for Technique and Inspiration

I got good suggestions on copper foil yesterday from Lynn and Angie. Thanks, guys! (BTW, Angie, I too started in stained glass and couldn't cut glass very well so I decided I'd rather burn with hot glass than bleed with stained glass!)

I'm putting the twist tie on the roll as I write this (hmmm, how am I able to type and tie at the same time? wink!). I like the copper foil part, there's something meditative about burnishing it onto the glass and making sure that all the bubbles are out. But that's where my zen like state ends.

If I'm to be honest part of my problem is impatience.
Sally Jean Alexander's book Pretty Little Things has ruined me forever - I want to live in this book! N...O..W!


So I'm trying to solder round glass nuggets before I master the square and rectangular shapes.(Boy, do THEY look like crap - that is, the ones I'm able to actually solder!)

Damn that Sally Jean, why does she make it look so enticing and easy?!

If you need to back up a bit like me and slow down - buy Lisa Bluhm's Simple Soldered Jewelry and Accessories. It's THE book to teach you how to solder jewelry using stained glass technique.


Use Lisa's book in combination with Sally's and you'll have the perfect mix of how to and inspiration!

Curses Foiled Again!

Do you remember Dudley Do Right, the cartoon mountie a segment that originally aired on the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show in 1969? I've downloaded a picture of his arch nemesis, Snidely Whiplash whose signature line was "Curses, foiled again!" -



Well, that's how I felt this past weekend when I was tied up in the huge roll of copper foil. I continue to work on mastering the art of soldering - I'm still struggling with the tinning and soldering end of it all - hats off to those who make it look easy. In the meantime, I feel like Nell tied up on the tracks but Snidely's line fits how I feel when I find myself muttering....

"Curses! Foiled again!!"

Soldering an art....

Soldering, whether in stained glass work or in metalsmithing is a fine art. I've been working in metals during the last few weeks but the creative muse in me wanted to change directions - but still using the cabachons I've made. So, it's on to stained glass style soldering. It's not as high temperature as soldering silver and I can do it with a soldering iron. But it's still an art, one you have to practice.

Yeah, you say, I saw those lumpy pieces yesterday.

Ok, so they were lumpy - what did I tell you?

It's an art.

Flux it!

Lesson learned.

What you ask?

Flux it! I say!

You say, "excuse me?"

Flux it!

Flux it!

Flux it!

No, I'm not swearing in another language. I was swearing though when I was soldering a few cabachons and the solder wouldn't stick.

I thought I was just lousy at soldering. But that wasn't the problem. I needed flux.

DUH!

So now when something doesn't seem to stick - Flux it!

Lesson learned.