Continuing on Bookmark and Learning how to make a chain

The impending due date is coming up for the bookmark, so I have been rather stressed getting that done. Soldering is a bit of a nightmare at first; after what I thought was a successful job of soldering all 9 planets on the brass sun plate, I am disturbed to find them all fall off during quenching and pickling. After an infuriatingly long time, and thanks to Aurthor and the help of some advanced students advice, I was able to attach them all. I have to say it is a shame I cant keep the coloring the flame and heat created while working. Once I had fully finished, it created a beautiful rainbow color effect. but alas I had to clean it and sand it, with which I am not yet finished.

I have found myself very behind in this project due to the stupid snow days, and now I will either have to quickly slap it together to finish it on time, or turn it in late and make it more like what I originally wanted, but get a lower grade. uhg. I really hate boone weather.

But I think I finally got the hang of soldering, and I decided it is tedious and exhausting. My ADD really kicks my ass with these intricate details and steps. I originally wanted to cold connect sun rays atop of the sun to give it more dimension, but I simply don't think I will have time for that now, unfortunately.

Guess we will see what happens in the next few days. It is only the first project after all.


That being said, the next project will be wearable, which is exciting, but also means it will probably means lots of tedious work on making the chains for it. Guess I'll find out...

bookmark work

Continuing on class and working on my bookmark. We learned how to solder, which is going to save my biscuits with this project. We learned exactly how it works, how it differs from welding, and the process it takes to do it. More torch work!

There are a couple steps to this which could make it rather tedious in my opinion. Especially with my 9 planets I need to solder onto my brass plate. We will see I suppose.

First you need to clean the metal, and you do this by sanding it with sand paper. No touching the area after, or you have to sand again. I guess the oils on your skin affect it?

Then, you use the flux, which is a white mixture next to the torches. You put this on the area you want to solder.

After that, we use the hard solder, which has 3 bends at the top so we can tell which one it is. clip the little bits off and place them with tweezers where you want them.

Then torch with a more specific point on the flame. I have yet to do this however, so we will see how this turns out with my inlay example. I want to try it on that before I do it on my book mark. So far it has just been a lot of sawing. My arms are still sore from sawing that brass plate out. But the next step once it is sanded and shaped how I want would be to solder. Unless I can figure out a way to work the nickel medal into the peace.

soldering info...

 progress!

 planning...