Soldering Skillz

So I started making a set of earrings from wire and decided at some point to share a little.

first off, I had a ton of solder joints. All the bends in the wire i notched the wire, bent the wire then soldered in the notch to give it strength again. As you can see I used my tweezers as heat sinks to prevent certain joints from accidentally flowing. For the most part I was able to use hard solder, but the spot that had 4 joints at once I decided to use medium on. you can see in the picture below H for hard solder, M for medium. No need for easy.

 I then put on the earring post with medium, again using tweezers to prevent that one joint from accidentally getting too much heat and flowing on me.

 I then added the wires for the pearls and soldered them closed. I polished up the prongs so they were smooth.

 I decided to try something so i oxidized the posts

 And tumbled them so the oxidation became permanent....i might touch up a little to make the darker once they are set.

 Aand this is what i got: black tourmaline and pearls. Super classy.  I overworked one prong so i gotta re-solder it, then liver of sulfur, then tumble then reset. le sigh. Almost done, though. Hope it gives you some ideas how to solder lots of joints together.

Step by Step Diamond Earrings

Howdy howdy. I've been up to lots, taking picture meant for my blog but never getting around to it. Sorry guys. How about lets go over these earrings I made tonight. First off I've been trying to figure out the secret of engraving. I have a little project going trying to create a realilistic hazelnut leaf. I engraved the veins, now im hoping to shape it some and eventually enamel it. But, main thing i wanted tou to see was the engraving.

So today I went to the Willamette building downtown and decided to drop in on the diamond dealer. At some point I want to make a fancy suite for myself so I wanted to check out what he had and I picked up two conagc diamonds. I decided to start with real basic premade earring studs. It saved me time, but its not my own if I don't DO something to make it my own. Take a look: one stud as sold, and one engraved.

Not too bad, I don't have the best engraving setup (infact,  it would probably make most goldsmiths shudder), but I was able to do something nice.

After engraving both studs I attached wires for the pearl to dangle from.

Now from there I had choices: do I want to solder the ring closed or not? I decided to leave it open and slip the pearl dangle on and shut it firmly closed when done and not risk soldering/melting everything. Now That I have the wire on I need to clean up the metal and set the diamonds.

Pretty little things. I personally prefer colored diamonds to colorless...now attach the pearls and viola!

Lovely little earrings in just two hours.

End Product

So here is my inspiration:

The connection: 

The rabbit in a handmade silver clasp (note the tail is the release for the clasp):

The end product:

No pun intended.

Anyone else ever make a piece based off a pet? How do you incorperate humor?

New Pretties

Yesterday I took a little trip to the pearl dealer and got me some sweet pearls. lovely stuff. I went in to buy this:

Nice chocolate pearls. Really nice. I just finished making the clasp for the piece and it will blow your mind. But until then, check out my little splurge:

Nice natural pink teardrop shaped pearl. yumyumyumyum. What to do with it, though. Oh. maybe I should see what it looks like with my conganc diamond I have in the bank.

My word! It's amazing! Well, at least in real life. THAT'S what the congac has been waiting for. This will become a masterpiece. Until then, back to the bank.

I had to share my little goodies. fun stuff.