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Showing posts with label soldering. Show all posts
Showing posts with label soldering. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 16, 2021

Soldering a Fern Leaf - Part One

This week I'm working on some soldering.  Specifically making new pendants and wall art.  This first part focuses on the steps prior to applying solder.  Next time, I'll cover the steps for applying solder.  I really enjoy soldering but these first few steps are somewhat tedious to me.  


The first step is picking out what I'll frame.  That's the easy part.  :)

fern from my garden and glass

Next comes cutting copper foil to go around my glass.  A little more effort.  But still fairly easy.

cutting foil to go around the glass

The third step (most tedious to me) is sandwiching the fern between the glass, whilst also making sure there aren't any dust particles, finger prints, or that the fern has shifted.  Definitely, a bit of a pain.  I feel like I always see dust and am constantly cleaning it out.  But when I feel it's finally dust-free, smudge-free, and hasn't shifted, I use binder clips to keep it all together.

binder clips hold the glass and fern together

Lastly, I wrap copper foil around the glass.  Still tedious but not as tedious as the previous step.  The hardest part of foiling is making sure that I'm square in the middle of the tape with my glass. For this piece, I cut the foil a little bit short and covered up what was missing.  I'll use an hobby knife to even up the tape on all sides.

the glass is foiled and ready to be cleaned up
 on the edges with a hobby knife

Next time, I'll show the steps for soldering.  Happy Tuesday!
~Katie


 




Friday, October 14, 2016

Soldering!

I like learning about new things and lately I've been trying out soldering. 




soldering stand, slides, solder, flux, and coffee (of course!)




I've made some flower and leaf microscope slide magnets.










I'm not sure that they're sales-worthy and my soldering iron tip disintegrated while making them, but it was fun to try. 


After I replaced my soldering tip (and bought a different iron because I couldn't find a replacement tip for the original) I tried out stained glass pieces. 






The far right green one looks like Illinois, right?!

It went a bit easier this time and the soldering tip survived!!!  I might even make these into necklaces or charms for bracelets for KateeMarie.