Winter 2015

Making Soldered JewelryPROJECTS, BASICS, AND MORE!

jewelryartistmagazine.com

FiveMUST-KNOWRULES page 70

SOLDER, FLUX, and FINISHING

PLUSMake BEZELS AND CAPS

Working with COPPER

best of®

All about micros, portables, and jewelers

Find the RIGHT TORCH

Designs, Tips, Tools, Materials,

Techniques, and Professional Setups

70TOP

PROJECTSChain Necklace,

Autumn Pendant, & more

Soldering_Cover_2014.indd 1 9/19/14 12:10 PM

contents

4 From the Editor

• projects6 Coquina Pendant

by Marilyn Mack

10 Spinner Ring by Lexi Erickson

14 Hammered Silver Beadsby Helen I. Driggs

18 Mosaic Tile Necklace by Michele Grady

22 Bimetal Keum Boo Earrings by Jennifer Mank

26 Soldering Chains by Lexi Erickson

32 Capping a Crystal by Robert Beauford

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on the coverSoldering Chainsby Lexi Erickson, page 26

INSET: From The Jewelry Maker’s Field Guide, by Helen I. DriggsPHOTOS: JIM LAWSON

advertising sections127 Classifi eds

127 Advertisers’ Index

116

36 Pierced Silver and Stone Pendant by Roger Halas

42 Caged Gold Obsidian Earrings by Arthur C. Rediske

46 Reticulated Ringby Allyson Farriss

• basics50 Solder

by Lexi Erickson

54 Flux by Lexi Erickson

58 Your Soldering Stationby Lexi Erickson

64 The Torchby Lexi Erickson

70 The 5 Essential Soldering Rulesby Lexi Erickson

78 Finishingby Lexi Erickson

• torches84 Jewelers Torches

by Lexi Erickson

90 Portable Torches by Helen I. Driggs

96 Micro Torchesby Sharon Elaine Thompson

• tips & techniques102 4 Basic Joins

by Helen I. Driggs

108 Soldering the Copper Metals by Lexi Erickson

114 15 Hot Tips by Helen I. Driggs

116 3 Soldering Setups:John F. Heusler, G.G., Marilyn Mack and Roger Halas

122 Frequently AskedQuestions by Lexi Erickson26

90

3Making Soldered Jewelry

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Making Soldered Jewelry PROJECTS, BASICS, AND MORE!

from the editor

MWhite@Interweave.com

Make Something Special

When you make a piece of jewelry by hand, you create something special just because you made it yourself. Slip that ring on your own finger and you’ll admire your handiwork all day long. Make a gift of your jewelry and someone else will be reminded of your skill, style, and friendship. Sell it and a complete stranger will value not only the fact that this piece goes with everything from sweats to silk but the personal attention that went into its creation.

Varied as they are, all the jewelry making projects in this special collection from Lapidary Journal Jewelry Artist magazine have at least one thing in common: soldering. This gateway technique to metalsmithing lets you join metal sheet and wire in an infinite number of arrangements, giving the other jewelry making techniques you’ve learned or want to learn even greater possibilities.

Knowing how many doors soldering opens to the jewelry maker and knowing it’s a skill makers learn and then continually hone, we’ve also packed this compendium with information about how to solder jewelry from basics on. Have a question about solder, flux, hand tools, or torches? We have answers galore to these and many other questions besides.

Do you have a dedicated soldering station or know why you should have one? We’ll explain it to you and show you how to create your own. Are you working a lot in copper these days? Let us help you understand the differences between soldering silver and copper, brass, or bronze. How do you know which kind of join you need when you’re soldering your pieces together? We have you covered on that one, too, along with an illustrated guide to making each type of join.

Whether you’re looking for cool designs and the occasional tip, need a refresher on the five essential rules, or are just starting out and want to learn about soldering from start to finish, you’ll find what you need here. But don’t take my word for it: step inside and learn about, see, and make soldered jewelry for yourself.

EDITORIALEDITORIAL DIRECTOR, JEWELRY GROUP Merle WhiteSENIOR EDITOR Helen I. DriggsSENIOR EDITOR Denise PeckMANAGING EDITOR Karla A. RosenbuschCONTRIBUTING EDITORS Tom & Kay Benham, Lexi Erickson, Sharon Elaine ThompsonMARKETING SPECIALIST Ashley Lauwereins

ARTART DIRECTOR Amy PetrielloSENIOR PRODUCTION DESIGNER Nancy PollockVIDEO MANAGER Garrett Evans

ADVERTISINGADVERTISING MANAGERMarilyn Koponen, ph. 877-613-4613CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVEStephanie Griess, ph. 1-800-272-2193 X630AD TRAFFICKER Cari Ullom

FOUNDER, CREATIVE DIRECTOR Linda LigonVICE PRESIDENT, GROUP PUBLISHER Shahla HebetsVICE PRESIDENT, CONTENT Helen GregoryVICE PRESIDENT, MEDIA SALES Michele CrockettDESIGN MANAGER Larissa DavisSENIOR PRODUCTION MANAGER Nancy PollockBOOKS EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Allison KorleskiECOMMERCE MARKETING DIRECTOR Evelyn BridgeMAGAZINE MARKETING & FULFILLMENT Mark FleetwoodONLINE CIRCULATION SPECIALIST Jodi Smith

CHAIRMAN & CEO David NussbaumCHIEF OPERATING OFFICER & CFO James OglePRESIDENT Sara DomvilleCHIEF DIGITAL OFFICER Chad PhelpsVICE PRESIDENT, ECOMMERCE Lucas HilbertSENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, OPERATIONS Phil GrahamVICE PRESIDENT, COMMUNICATIONS Stacie Berger

Making Soldered Jewelry: Projects, Basics, and More is a special publication of Lapidary Journal Jewelry Artist (ISSN 1936-5942), published by Interweave, a division of F+W Media, Inc., 4868 Innovation Drive, Fort Collins, CO 80525. (970) 669-7672. USPS #0023-8457. All contents of this special publication of Lapidary Journal Jewelry Artist are copyrighted by F+W, 2014. All rights reserved. Projects and information are for inspiration and personal use only. Reproduction in whole or in part is prohibited, except by permission of the publisher. Retailers: If you are interested in carrying this magazine in your store, please call (866) 949-1646 or email sales@interweave.com.

VISIT US ON THE WEB:jewelrymakingdaily.com • interweave.com • fwmedia.com

F+W, A Content + eCommerce Company

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tips & techniques

What they are, how to create them – and how to tell which one you wantBY Helen I. Driggs

4 Basic Joins

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Thinking about soldering for the first time or even the first many times can be scary, exciting, intimidating, thrilling, and inspiring all at once. You’re combin-ing what can be overwhelming technical information, fire, and expensive pre-cious metals with very little experience to buoy your confidence. Not to fear! Every teacher I have ever had suggested breaking down seemingly impossible tasks into smaller, easily digested units, and this excellent advice has served me well for many years, at the soldering table and away from it.

Although there are millions of possible jewelry soldering scenarios limited only by our ability to imagine jewelry designs,

specific soldering tasks can be made easier to handle by organizing them into larger groups with similar physical features. Unlike, say, the millions of species in biology that are grouped into thousands of genera, there are just four basic jewelry soldering joins. Soldering anything to anything is really pretty easy once you understand and can reliably create these four joins — and 99.97% of the time you’ll only have two things you want to connect together with one solder seam, making it even easier.

So, first: what do you want to do? Use the convenient What Do You Want to Do chart to help you figure out which kind of join you’re going to solder, then move

on to the diagrams to see what to do. If you want to practice — and I highly

recommend it to improve both your ability and your confidence — cut up some strips of copper sheet and wire and use silver solder. You’ll be able to see the silver solder easily on the copper, and after you’ve cooled and cleaned your work, it will help you analyze what and how you did — plus it makes for very inexpensive practice.

Remember, the hardest part of solder-ing happens in your head, not with a torch in your hand. Figuring out the best way to go about making a solder join and then preparing that join well makes the fire part really, really easy.

What Do You Want to Do?

Look at the surfaces you want to join

Are both or all surfaces flat?

Are both or all surfaces

curved?

Does one surface differ in profile than

the other one or ones?

Is only one of the surfaces to be joined

an edge?

Do the curve profiles match?

Will the surfaces be joined like

the layers of a cake?

Are the parts to be joined very different in their weights

or thicknesses?

YES

YES

YES

YES

YES

YES

POINT OF CONTACTSOLDER JOIN

NO

NO

SWEAT SOLDER JOIN

“T” OR STRIP SOLDER JOIN

BUTT SOLDER JOIN

NO NO

NO

YES

NO

NO

103Making Soldered Jewelry

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tips & techniques

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Practice sweat soldering on textured and non-textured sheet in several metals. The most difficult part of mastering this join is judging how much solder to use. Watch for flooding; observe the bright line around the perimeter of the upper layer — your signal to remove the torch.

A: To “tin” the back of the upper layer, cut wire or sheet solder into sections of equal mass so they will heat up to flow point at the same time. Position them evenly over the work.

B: With both prepared layers on the block, place chips of solder on the reverse of the top sheet and melt them in advance by heating the top layer until the chips pool over the surface.

C: With tweezers, flip the top layer over and into position on the fluxed lower layer while it is still hot.

D: Once all has been positioned correctly, reheat the assembly until the solder flows again to join both layers. Watch carefully for a bright line of solder to appear around the perimeter of the upper layer. At that moment, remove the torch. Quench, pickle, and rinse.

A

B

C

D

SweatSHEET ON SHEETThis two-step process is the easiest solder join to master. Although the most common use of sweat soldering is joining sheet to sheet in a layer, the process can also be used where a difficult join that is hard to access can be “tinned,” as shown in A below, and then cooled and set up for an additional solder operation later.

COMMON USES• Overlays• Bridging parts to other parts• Joining findings to pieces• Complex solder joins for larger works

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