Welcome to the Second Day of Ellen Hutson, LLC's Twelve Days of Christmas feature! Today we're on two soldering starters. I made a double-sided necklace pendant--does that count as two pieces? They can be worn with different outfits, so I'm counting it as "two soldering starters."
I started with the Simply Swank Necklace kit, which makes two 18" necklaces. Because I wanted a longer chain to go with V-necklines, I went with a 20" length and will finish the remaining part of the chain as a shorter necklace. The kit comes with both trapezoid and rectangular glass, as well as jump rings, catches, head pins, and beads with which to decorate the pendant and the chain, if you wish.
Using my trapezoid glass pieces as a template, I chose a basic black pattern for one side of my charm, and a more intricate pattern for the second side. Papers that I used were from Graphic 45's Fashionista line, Debutante and En Vogue. Tip: When you trim your papers, make sure that the papers do not extend past the glass. If they do, you will not be able to get the copper foil tape to adhere perfectly to the glass edges.
Here I have wrapped the glass/paper sandwich in 5/16" copper foil tape, a little wider than I normally use, but I wanted plenty of solder on both sides since the piece is double-sided. I burnished the foil firmly against the clean glass, using an old bone folder. It is now ready for solder.
I have now soldered the edges and attached jump rings to the top and bottom of the pendant, as well as attaching a jump ring and catch onto the ends of the chain. On the catch end, you can see that I got the necklace links too hot while I was tacking a gap in a jump ring. (A loop had filled with solder, and I was trying to melt it out.) I went back and replaced the clasp after cutting off the two discolored links.)
Shown above is the black side of the pendant (before I repaired the discolored links).
In the picture above, I have added some dangling beads (all included in the kit, except for the tiny seed beads at the bottom). The most helpful tool for creating loops in order to hang the beads from jump rings is the Concave Round Nose Pliers. I cannot even tell you how much I love these pliers! They are the simplest tool for creating a nicely rounded wire loop--I wish I had discovered them sooner, and I would have used more beads along the way.
I could have added black, clear, and silver beads along the chain with the beads and head pins included in the kit, but I'm a pretty basic person. I think I'll wear it more often with it being a bit simpler. I'm looking forward to creating the second necklace from the kit, and perhaps I'll get braver with the beading on that one. Thank you for visiting the CLASSroom today! Don't forget to read on to participate in our blog candy for our two soldering starters!
SECOND DAY BLOG CANDY
On the second day of Christmas my goodie box could be:
- two soldering starters
To participate in this random drawing please leave your answer to the following question as a comment to this post. Please limit yourself to one comment only. The last day to submit a comment to this post will be January 6th at Midnight. We will post the winners (which will be drawn using a Random Number Generator) for all twelve days on January 7th.
What hobbies/crafts other than rubber stamping and card making do you currently enjoy? Have you tried soldering yet? Do you enjoy gardening, baking, cooking, quilting, knitting, crocheting, sewing...??? If it is rubber stamping and card making that's OK too - simply leave a comment telling us what you enjoy doing to releive stress.
Don't forget the First Day of Christmas drawing - Ellen's Favorite Scoring Tools. Be certain to answer the question on that post to be included in that drawing!
