I was invited by one of my talented artist friends (Laura) to make 15 charms for a swap, and here they are. (My art for the day!) Since I have been wanting to learn how to solder jewelry for some time now, I decided to challenge myself with this project... and what a challenge it was!! Only one burned finger and 15 charms later, I am actually feeling confident about my skill level now. I will confess that I did not feel like I was getting the hang of it until charm number 9, so I apologize to the first 8 recipients. They have a rather primitive look to them, but I am confident that it will get better as I continue to practice. I will be teaching a class at Art Connection in the spring - called Home Sweet Soldered Home, in which we will make soldered house shaped pendants, so I will be getting a lot more practice.
These charms are two-sided, so I am posting pictures of both the fronts and backs. Because I knew that the bulk of my time would be spent taping and learning to solder, I did not have time to devote to new original art for the charms, so these all contain color photocopies of fragments of my art journals. Each charm has a jump ring soldered to the top, in which I tied a piece of ribbon. I really hate making two of the same thing, so I used different journal fragments for each charm. Once the swap is over at the end of March, all participants will receive 15 charms in return - one of their own, plus one of each group submitted. I cannot wait for that packet to arrive in the mail!!!
Like every new artistic venture, this one came with it's own list of necessary materials: soldering iron, lead free solder, liquid flux, copper tape, glass slides, and a soldering jig are among the most crucial. Flux remover, soldering polish, burn cream and soldering patina are some other materials I may have to invest in as I continue to experiment with this technique.
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