Hot Connections Jewelry--A Review

I received a review copy of Hot Connections Jewelry, The Complete Sourcebook of Soldering Techniques by Jennifer Chin. 


Chin writes that she "conceived of Hot Connections Jewelry as an easy-to-follow resource for people who have experience making jewelry  with beading, wirework, or cold-connection techniques and want to expand their skills to include soldering in their creative repertoires". I  think she has achieved her goal and created a great guide to soldering with much more than soldering in it.


The book is profusely illustrated with color photos as well as very detailed sketches.  


There are six sections. Each section contains an overview of the subject, lessons, and projects. There are also gallery photos in each section.  Each gallery photo includes a short description of how the item was made. I found these descriptions very useful. The jewelry throughout the book is modern in style with clean lines, and graphic shapes. 


Section One covers the nitty gritty details on how soldering works, choosing and using torches, metal, and workspace.  I really like the annealing color chart that was included in the section on using torches, as well as the review of safety procedures.  Lesson One is on annealing sheet metal. 


Section Two details basic fabrications techniques such as sawing, shaping, and riveting, among other techniques.  There are step-by-step lessons on each technique.  


This section also contains the basic soldering overview including solder and flux, soldering tools, soldering methods, and pickle. The solder and flux section has useful charts on solder melting points & uses, and silver solder melting and flow temperatures.  Soldering methods covered are chip (pallion) soldering, wire (stick) soldering, pick soldering, and sweat soldering (tinning).  


Chin discusses standard pickle but also gives a recipe for the less toxic version of pickle made from vinegar and salt.  I was glad to see the vinegar/salt recipe as I feel it is an excellent pickle, less toxic, and much underused.


The first soldering lesson on soldering a seam is in Section Two. The first three projects are also in this section: riveted collar ring, ribbon earrings, and fizzy pendant.  If you went no further in the book you could take what is learned in these three projects and create a multitude of projects of your own. 


Section Three covers forming metal: scoring & bending, forging and dapping. The three projects in this section are my favorite: domed petal earrings, forged chain necklace, and retro bracelet. 


Section Four explains textures, patinas and finishing. I was happy to see embossing with a rolling mill included. I recently purchased a rolling mill and will be using it just as soon as the new workbench is constructed. I know I'll be referring back to this section in the future. 


Section Five is on adding stones and beads.  Making a bezel and setting it, as well as flush settings are included. One of the projects is a cabochon brooch.  This project refers to instructions in lesson 20 later in the book on making a simple spring pin latch. 


Section Six is on advanced techniques such as making clasps, hinges,  marrying metals, solder inlay, and lamination inlay.  After reading this section I really want to started mixing metals using these techniques.  


This book is a great reference for someone new to soldering.  I really appreciated the inclusion of instruction in pin and hinge making, marrying of metals,  as well as use of the rolling mill as these subjects are not often covered. The writing is easy to follow and the book is arranged in a pleasing manner that is attractive and easy to read. The back of the book has the project templates, a ring sizing guide, circle divider, resource list, metric conversion chart and index.  

More Solder Play--Birds and Insects, Oh My

I'm still working on Stephanie Lee's Homesteaders Metalsmith class. I tried soldering some stampings onto my flooded pieces.  The crown was the first one I did and I toasted it pretty well.  I think after I put a patina on it I'll be able to use it. 

These are all still works in progress.  The piece with the round bezel will eventually get resin in it, and I think I'm going to use my letter stamps to stamp a word below the big bird.  They all need holes for attachment rings and dangles.

Tomorrow I hope to get some chain done and more pendant pieces.

Solder Play

I've been taking Stephanie Lee's Homesteaders 2 online class.  Here's a few pics of my works in progress.



These are small pieces of brass that I flooded with solder.  I'm satisfied with the flooding, except for the bottom two that I used a different solder on, but my bezel making with the copper pipe isn't going so well.




The solder is kind of grainy looking after I heated it again to solder the bezels.  And I'm having trouble getting the bezels covered completely with solder on the outside.  I need more practice but I'm having fun with the class. I've antiqued the bezels above with Novacan patina.  It did cover the little bare copper spots. I think I'll go for a "dug up at an archeology dig" look with whatever I put in them. Until I can do better things are going to look rustic.

Homesteaders 1 & 2 and Book Giveaway

During the summer I had the pleasure of taking Homesteaders' Metalsmithing,  an online  course by Stephanie Lee.  One of the major things I learned was soldering with a torch.  I had some reservations before the course began about whether the online format was a good one for learning to solder, but my fears were completely unfounded.  The class was fantastic!  It's a combination of blog posts, pdf's, videos, and a wonderfully energetic and supportive yahoo group email list.  I learned a lot but didn't get as much done as I'd hoped (I was getting ready for Red River Revel and got sidetracked making jewelry for it.) 

I signed up for Homesteader's 2, which started this week. New material is being introduced in this session, although much of the material is a repeat. The class runs five weeks instead of four. The material is available on-line for several months so the videos and other material will be available for review. One of the new subjects is use of a rolling mill. I gifted myself with an economy model rolling mill after Red River Revel so I'm looking forward to this part. Hopefully I'll get a lot more practice this time around as well as learn some new things.


I ran out to Sears today and got a stand for the bench grinder. We didn't have a place in the garage to mount it and now we do! And it wasn't expensive or hard to put together. Plus, plus! During the last class I did all the filing on the little brass squares and rectangles by hand and it took way too long.


I finished some components but not soldered pieces in the last class.  My friend, Bren, sent me some pictures to use. Didn't she do a great job?  Bren and Julie and I met at Adorn Me! last year and all three of us took Stephanie's online class.

The photo above is Elvis Presley as a child.

Bren used a napkin ring and a clip on earring in this pendant.

This pendant utilizes a skeleton key and scrapbook paper.

This is a dried daisy in an antique bezel, with resin.

A handmade bezel with a photo behind resin, and a screw back earring.

Bren cleverly used some hardware trim on this one.

Check out Julie's blog HERE and look at her work. 

Now for the giveaway.  Homesteader's 1 included a copy of Stephanie's great book, Semiprecious Salvage.  Reading the book is like taking a class.  I love the story format she uses, and the multitude of close up photos.



I already had a copy of Stephanie's book so now I have two.  You can win one of them by commenting on this post.  If you post it to Facebook or tweet it you can get another chance. Tell me about it in separate comments.  Just be sure I have a way to get hold of you, either through an email linked to your profile or leave me your email address. You can spell it out:  "name at suchandsuch dot whatever" instead of using the symbols.  The deadline for comments is noon CST on Monday, November 15th.  Due to the incessant spamming comments by people promoting links to  "adult" sites I've turned comment moderation on.  I'll be out of town on some day trips this week, so don't get stressed if your comment doesn't doesn't get approved right away.  I'll get to it!