In Touch

Graphic 45 Soldered Basket Charm by Debbie Olson

The tag sheets from the Graphic 45 paper line make fabulous fuss-free artwork for soldered charms. Today I have a triple-layer soldered basket charm to share with you.

I began with three pieces of 1-1/2" square Memory Glass and the Botanicabella Tag Sheet, and from there narrowed down which images I wanted to use in my charm. I took the three tags below, and cut out two butterflies as well.

 

Next, I placed my glass on top of the paper and penciled in a cutting line. Be sure to cut slightly inside your pencil line, because you do not want paper to be sticking out from between the layers of glass.

Here are my layers. First the back of my charm: I put just a tiny dot of adhesive to hold the butterfly in place. I don't want him slipping around under glass while I am attempting to tape my glass sandwich. Next, the front, except for the butterfly, which will have it's own layer to add a bit of dimension. (A simpler way would be to use only two layers of glass, but use a gray Copic marker to add a shadow for your butterfly, creating the illusion of depth without the extra layer of glass.)

This is my stacked glass sandwich, ready to be taped with copper foil tape. It is imperative at this stage that you clean your glass well. You do not want to discover fingerprints inside your charm after you finish soldering--trust me on this one!

 

Shown above is my taped glass piece. I normally start and end my tape on the bottom of the piece, overlapping by 1/4" or a bit less. If you have too little overlap, your tape can pull apart and show a raw edge; too much, and your tape may pull off of itself when hot solder is applied. After you have your edges taped neatly, burnish all surfaces to make sure that the tape is in good contact with the glass. Too little burnishing, and you may end up with liquid flux in between your glass and paper layers. (Don't ask me how I know this!) Stained glass artists have a special tool called a fid for burnishing tape to glass, but a Teflon or bone folder works also.

 

Before you heat up your soldering iron, make sure that you are working on an uncluttered and protected surface. Ellen carries a nice heat-resistant mat which I'm planning to order. Right now I'm using my oldest cutting mat topped with a terra cotta tile fragment. As you can see from the surface of my tile, it is entirely possible to make a mess while soldering; that's why you need to protect your work surface! Make sure that your sponge in your soldering iron holder is wet. You will want to clean the tip of the iron frequently as you work. I normally use a jeweler's extra hands to hold my piece as I work on it. For under $12, it really simplifies the process. (I will show a picture a little later on of the alternative set-up.)

 

In the picture above, I am tinning my piece; as you can see, the solder does not necessarily look nice at this stage. My goal here is simply to cover the foil tape with a thin layer of solder. If your solder is not sticking well or if it will not spread nicely, you probably need to add more flux.

 

For me, the trickiest part of soldering is attaching the jump ring at the top when I am finished. I told you that I would show you an alternative setup if you do not use the jeweler's extra hands. Here you see it: two clamps on either side. The rounded brad part needs to face up on both clamps so that your piece does not rock while you work. Also, be sure that the clamps stay on the edge of the piece and NOT in toward the center of the glass. Pressure on thin glass is a sure way to get a crack and have to begin again. (Another one of those things that I've learned by experience. . . Are you seeing a pattern here?) Honestly, despite the little mistakes that we all make and learn from, I love working with glass. There's something about the relative permanency of a glass piece that is very satisfying! Please note: that copper-looking highlight on the top left of my piece is just a reflection of my hand in the solder; it is not a piece of bare copper tape.

My ring is now secured with solder. The easiest way to do this, in my opinion, is to try to add just a touch of extra solder where you intend to place your jump ring. Then when your jump ring is placed where you want it, touch the tip of your soldering iron to that dollop or to the base of the ring, and push down slightly. Remember that it is simple to re-heat and remove if you get it in the wrong place on your first try.

Here I have attached a jump ring to the bottom of my piece so that I can add some little findings--beads and a metal leaf.

 

Here is my finished piece after being cleaned up and having its solder polished. I added a decorative scroll piece to the top, but the jump ring is still there to provide a hanger.  The findings at the bottom are pieces that I have picked up over the years to add to cards. While they are not necessary, they add a fun, dressy element.

If you've ever desired to try your hand at soldering, go for it!  At this size, you can't have much go wrong that can't fairly easily be corrected. Remember the piece that I clamped too far in from the edge? I simply peeled the tinned copper tape off, re-cleaned the unbroken glass and replaced the cracked piece, re-taped, and soldered it again. A jump ring that's soldered off-center? Melt it off and try again. A little nub in your solder? Use a file to file it away, and then polish it. Have fun!

Itty Bitty Lavender Soldered Charm, by Debbie Olson

The Lockhart Lavender image has always been one of my favorites, so I was really happy to see an itty bitty version of the Lavender! It's the perfect size for a little charm. (Actual size of charm: 1-1/4")

First, I stamped my IB Lavender image on Neenah Solar White cardstock in Memento Tuxedo Black ink, then I colored it using the Copic markers shown below. See the marker with the blank cap end? That is a custom marker--an empty marker that I filled with about half blender fluid and half YR31. (Y21 is very close and would work great as well.) I use this very pale, muted yellow to add a warm glow around an image, especially if my image is predominantly cool in temperature. Since yellow and purple are contrasting colors, the small amount of yellow really makes the violet tones pop.

After coloring my image, I used a 1-1/4" circle punch to punch it out; I also punched a piece of Memory Box Echo patterned paper to cover the back of the charm. (Since markers show through the cardstock, you need two paper layers sandwiched between the glass layers.) Next I cleaned my glass pieces. This is important--trust me! Besides the fact that copper tape won't stick well to glass that has skin oils on it, you also don't want to see a fingerprint soldered on the inside of a piece. (We won't mention why I know this. . .)

When your glass layers are clean, sandwich the focal image and back cover between the two layers of glass and wrap the glass in copper foil tape. As you will see later, I used the scalloped-edge tape for added interest; but plain copper foil tape would work well too if you prefer the look. It is important to try to get the tape evenly overlapped on the glass around the entire edge. If you have deeper tape in one area and shallower tape in another area, your solder will also fluctuate. If you are not happy with the position of your tape, remove it and start over. You cannot "fix" a poor taping job with solder. Picture 1 shows the back of the piece before I burnish the tape down into place; that's about how much overlap of tape I have on the back side. 

When all edges are satisfactory and your tape ends are slightly overlapped (about 1/4" on a piece this size), you will need to burnish the copper foil tape down to the glass. Be sure to burnish the outer edge as well as the front and back. If you have a fid, use it. If not, a bone folder works quite well for burnishing.

You are now ready to begin soldering. You will want to make sure that your work surface is safe and appropriate. Although you may be aware of all of the tips below, the mother and teacher in me says that I need to share them anyway!

1. If you have a heat-resistant mat, use it.  I use a quarry tile to work on. When solder drips, it lands on the tile and does not harm my counter top. I can also pick up the fallen solder with the tip of my soldering iron and reuse it.
2. Wear safety glasses when you are soldering. Occasionally when hot solder hits cool, wet flux, you may have some spattering.
3. Your soldering iron holder needs to be sitting on a flat, protected surface with plenty of space around it. (You wouldn't want a pile of scrap paper near the tip of a soldering iron for obvious reasons.)
4. An 800-900 degree soldering iron, and children and pets do not mix. Also, you should never leave a soldering iron unattended, nor should you leave flux and other chemicals in reach of children.
5. While this is not a safety issue, I should mention that if you are just beginning to solder, it is  simpler to solder a straight-edged shape such as a square or rectangle, than it is to begin with a circle or oval. The molten solder tends to stay on a straight, level edge; but you have to work a little differently with a curved edge since solder tends to run down on it.

Let's get started! The little clamp that you see in picture four is mounted to the arm of a jeweler's helper. It's a fairly inexpensive and very useful little tool for holding your work steady. Here I am coating my copper foil tape with a liquid, acid-free flux. In addition to the acid-free flux, I will also use lead-free solder. (You don't really want a standard lead solder staying in contact with your skin.)

After fluxing my copper tape, I will use the tip of my soldering iron to apply a thin layer of solder on all of the exposed tape. If the solder stops sticking well, you probably need to reapply flux. It is important to keep the tip of your soldering iron clean too--frequently wipe it off on a damp sponge so that the tip stays shiny. After applying a thin coat of solder over the entire piece, you are ready to bead the solder up on the little scallops as shown in picture 5. In takes some practice; be patient with yourself!

 

Often the toughest part for me is getting a jump ring or decorative scroll on straight. Several people have e-mailed me asking for help in this area, so I know that I am not alone! I find it simplest to use my jeweler's helper to hold the scroll or jump ring in place, and my small clamps to hold the piece straight up. This gives me both hands free to work with my flux and solder. I usually clean my soldering iron top, then dot a small drop of solder on the back side of the scroll. This tack it into place and gives me time to see if it is still positioned correctly. keep in mind that it doesn't take a great deal of metal to hold a scroll or jump ring in place! If you keep adding solder, you will end up filling in all of the lovely scrolls: less is more!

Shown in picture seven is my finished piece after cleaning the glass and polishing the solder. You can use a special solder polish, or you can resort to card wax in a pinch. Soldering these little pieces is a fabulous hobby! Think of the one-of-a-kind presents that you could make, or the fabulous Christmas Tree ornaments. If you begin with the necessary basic supplies, and if you follow some basic safety rules, you can do this--have fun!

simply soldered stamp "stuff"

Welcome to "In Touch" - the place where we try and share as much educational information as possible regarding the products we carry in our store. "Simple Dreams" will also continue to be published, but we wanted to put together a special place for you, our customers, to be able to come to and easily find information that directly correlates with the newsletter we will be sending out. Everyone does have access to this blog as well, but you will be the first to receive this information. This will allow us to share more information than we can now fit into a newsletter. Our desire is to allow you to choose - read instructions in their entirety here or just skip over the details and enjoy a quick review of what we have going on by reading the newsletter. We will do our best to keep this section of our blog well organized so that you can easily find the educational information you are looking for.

I am SO very excited to finally be sharing a vision with you that has been in the making for at least half a year - LOL! One of my favorite aspects of crafting includes the use of glass. I think it all probably started with the fact that I LOVE Dale Chihuly glass and living here in Seattle we are surrounded by many of his beautiful pieces of art. My love then proceeded to grow when I came across an article a number of years ago in a magazine. It showed an absolutely stunning piece of artwork that had been created using glass, stamping, paper collage and other mixed media items. I can no longer remember where that article was written, but it left a huge impression on me.

Back in October 2004 I was invited to be a guest artist for the Splitcoast Dirty Dozen gallery. It was at that time that I shared my first soldered, stamped glass piece, a magnetic tile. My soldering abilities have come a long way since then - LOL - as you can see the edges do not have nearly enough solder on them, but I wanted to share this with you being we all need to start some place. As with any craft it just takes a little practice to get it right.

I hope to share the love of glasswork, stamping and soldering with you. I hope to be able to walk you through the basic steps involved in soldering right here on my blogs. For those who want a much more thorough education in the art of soldering I have now added two different forms of educational material to my store as well. The first is a DVD created by Lisa Bluhm and Melissa Wood, the owners of the business that produce the soldering kits for us. They have been sharing this information with the crafting world for at least the last six years, probably longer. I met them at a Creating Keepsakes Convention here in Bellevue a number of years ago and was immediately enamoured with this art form. Lisa has also written a book that gives amazing detail regarding the entire soldering process. Along with the basics she has shared many unique projects to get your creativity stimulated.

PREPARATION

The first step to soldering is preparation. I prefer to have my work space cleared and prepared before starting the soldering process.

Pictured Above: Glass Kitchen Trivet, Non-Stick Craft Mat, Soldering Iron, Iron Stand, Yellow Sponge, (Stapler - to keep Iron Stand from scooting to the right if I happen to have the cord extended too far Ü), Clamps (small and large), Locking Hemostat Pliers, Copper Foil, Lead-Free Solder, Liquid Flux

Please note: I forgot one of the very most important elements in the preparation stage - PROTECTIVE EYE GLASSES. Please be certain to add this to your must do list!

I like to work on a large glass trivet that I have in my kitchen. This is then covered with a Non-Stick Craft Sheet. We will have a special heat proof soldering mat that will protect your work surface while creating your soldered art in stock soon - they are currently on backorder. It is heat proof up to 500 degrees and solder, adhesive and paint will not stick to it, but the above system has worked well for me over the years. Another alternative is to get a large tile from your local home improvement store and back it with felt. This will help protect your work surface as well.

The next important element is to dampen the little yellow sponge that is included in your kit. As you solder it is vital to clean the tip of the soldering iron constantly. Residue has a tendency to build up on the tip and will cause you to have pits and unevenness in your soldered piece - so with each additional layer of solder I use I clean my tip on this dampened yellow sponge. Please be cautious and never pick up this little yellow sponge and touch it to the tip of your soldering iron - it gets REALLY HOT! Hmmm - how do you think I know that?!? Leave the sponge sitting in it's little place on your iron stand!!!

The other piece of equipment pictured above that is not included in the kit is the locking hemostat pliers. I feel that these are essential to hold your jump ring in place with your hands being a safe distance from the tip of the soldering iron. I highly recommend that you purchase these at the same time as the kit.

Today I hope to share with you the step by step process I used in creating my Inchie Bookworm Marker.

To create the Inchie "innards" I am going to link you back to my ABC's of Inchies post being it would be redundant to repeat that information here. I will begin with the first step that shows you the beginning steps to the soldering process.

SOLDERING

Step 1.

Begin by attaching two bookworm basics to each side of a 1" square of black cardstock. Be certain to use as little adhesive as possible being the heat from soldering will cause your adhesive to run. Sandwich this piece between two pieces of 1" square glass. Currently we only have the frosted glass in stock, but we are hoping for a shipment of clear soon. Starting at the bottom center of your piece begin wrapping Copper Foil around your square. This is important being you are going to need to overlap your foil on the bottom edge to be certain that the solder adheres properly.

Step 2.

Wrap your piece entirely - finishing on the bottom edge as shown.

Step 3.

Snip the foil squarely with the finished edge.

Step 4.

Fold down edges as you would when wrapping a package. I typically do the vertical edges first, tapering the corners as shown. The horizontal edges will then fold down smoothly once all the vertical sides and corners are taken care of.

Step 5.

Next burnish the foil in place using a teflon bone folder. You could use your fingernail or some other smooth device to complete this step as well, but I find that I get a beautiful, smooth finish when I burnish with my teflon folder.

Step 6.

Using an Xacto knife you will next remove the excess foil from your image face. It is MUCH easier to trim away the excess than to wrap your project with a smaller piece of foil. As you can see in the photo above I make my cut all the way around the piece and then I use the knife tip to lift the excess foil to remove it.

Step 7.

You can see the finished taped piece above. Once I have removed the excess I do reburnish the piece once again.

Step 8.

Clamp your piece along the foiled edge and set it on your work surface with the bottom even to your work surface. This will keep your project hands free - this is a very important element being your piece will get VERY HOT while working on it.

Begin by applying a very small amount of flux to the copper foil on one side of your project. Do not cover the entire foil area at this time being the flux will evaporate and you will just have to redo it. Liquid flux is SO easy to use - it's purpose is to allow the solder to flow smoothly on to your project. If you did not apply flux your solder would have a tendency to "mound" up. The flux also helps with resistance to the oils from your hands and other residues that attached to the foil during preparation of your project.

Step 9.

I prefer to sit my solder on edge as shown. This allows me to place the hot tip of my soldering iron to the solid solder and melt a little piece which will adhere to the bottom side of the tip of my iron. Each time I talk about touching the tip to my project below I will have loaded the bottom side of my chisel tip with a slight amount of solder.

Step 10.

The next step is to "tin" your copper foil. Move the tip of your soldering iron along the top surface of your project. Allow the bottom of the tip to touch down to the foil to attach the liquid solder. I prefer to move the iron evenly across the top edge, moving from left to right. I am right-handed and so if you are left-handed you will set your work up opposite to what I do. Allow the solder to solidify - it only takes seconds. I also let it cool slightly before flipping to the next side.

As I work I use both clips. I rotate my piece clipping the second clip to the next side and remove the first clip. This allows me to keep my hands off of my hot piece of work.

Step 11.

Once you have "tinned" all foil surfaces you can continue to add solder to your project. Reapply the liquid flux each time before you apply the solder. Typically I will apply three, sometimes four layers of solder.

Step 12.

Once you have your project completely soldered it is time to add your jump ring. This is the one time I do not apply flux before adding solder to my project because I would like my solder to remain in one spot rather than flowing across the top of my piece. As you can see in the photo above there is a slight "mound" of solder. Touch your iron to the center top of your project and leave a drop of solder behind.

Step 13.

To steady my project I now apply both clamps to my project as shown above. Apply flux to the jump ring. Holding your jump ring in your locking hemostat pliers brace your hand on the table and hold the jump ring to the top of the mound of solder. From the back side of your project touch the tip of your hot iron to this mound. It will liquify - as soon as it does pull your hot iron away and your jump ring will settle into the puddle of solder. This solder will then solidify when you remove your iron. This is a split second move. It takes some time to heat the mound of solder, but when it liquifies it happens fast.

Step 14.

As you can see in this photo the mound can sometimes be one-sided.

Step 15.

If this happens I then reapply some flux and lightly touch the tip of my soldering iron to the side that needs to be melted and allow the solder to even out. As you can see I am still holding the jump ring in place being that each time you melt the solder your jump ring will loosen.

FINISHING

At this point I take a damp soft cloth (an old diaper is my tool of choice, but an old t-shirt works great too) and "polish" up the piece. Next I use a buffer/sander to remove any little bumps or pits and to really polish it up.

To complete the bookmark I ran a piece of ribbon through the jump ring and knotted it. Next I threaded a silver bead on to the ribbon strands and then knotted the long tails. The bead slides up and down the ribbon and adjusts your book ribbon to accomodate the size of different books.