Simple Soldered Silver Chain

I love chain maille jewelry, but I wanted to have a simple, thin and light chain that I could wear all the time, day and night, without having to take it off when I go to sleep, for example. I remembered my soldering lessons from before, so this weekend I made this silver chain with some jump rings that I already had at hand. Not perfect, but I see my soldering is better than it was a few months ago when I gave it a previous try.

This one is mine :)

YOJ 2013 - Week 16 - Something Hidden

Here is my entry for the week 15 at the YOJ project group for 2013. The bracelet is a mix of chain maille and soldering. All sterling silver and all rings hand cut with the jeweler's saw. The bracelet measures 18 cm (7") and the chain maille weave is called Orbital Vipera Berus. Very light bracelet and fun to wear.

I named the bracelet Oriana as it reminds me of a highschool colleague of mine from way back - back at home.

YOJ Weeks 13 And 14 - Learning To Solder

Here are two pieces in sterling silver as a result of my attempts to solder. For week 13 the theme was Talisman, so I made this piece as a small talisman - for me it looked like peace on earth, however somebody told me they can see a rose within the pendant.

For week 14 the theme was egg-citing, however I didn't do anything related to Easter eggs or the celebration itself. For once I was off topic and I made one of the pieces from Melissa's course. Argh why do the pictures always show the mistakes so clearly...

Wrapped Donut Pendant

Something new I made a few days ago is based on something I wanted to do for a few years now. I always wanted to wrap a donut without having to fiddle with making a wire wrapped bail, it's just a pain to do it right.

I got some tutorials from Eni Oken several years ago when she was still selling her tutes, and one of them is a wrapped donut. So I've decided to do something similar, but not quite the same. So I ended up with this piece which has seemingly random wraps around the donut and a silver frame - frame which I soldered. I then soldered the jump ring as the bail to the frame, and did a bit more soldering work - basically all jump rings are soldered, including at the end of the cord, right between the endings - now that was fun to do without burning any other nearby piece.

It's a simple piece, but I'm happy about how I slowly develop my soldering skills. Anyway, here are a few photos of it. The donut is quite heavy actually, it's made of hematite and measures 4.5 cm (a bit over 1.5").

YOJ 2013 Week 11 - Rescued from the Scrap Bin

Here is my entry in the week 11 for the Year of Jewelry Project of this year. It's my second project from Melissa Muir's soldering course. I am proud of it because I could never solder before, but now I made two separate projects already, including the previously shown first ever soldered chain.

It also fit well the week's theme because all the wire pieces and jump rings are literally taken from the scrap bin, from older projects that didn't go anywhere and had to be dismantled.

I love soldering and I know I'll get good at it once I practice enough.

First Ever Soldered Chain

I'm learning to solder using two beginner metalsmithing courses - one by Melissa Muir (workshop here), and one at Craftsy (Metalsmithing at home - link here) and Melissa's first project is a soldered chain. She uses 3 different jump ring sizes, and I used only two because I already had these cut, but overall I like it for a first piece. I stretched the larger rings into ovals a bit with the round nose pliers, and the rings didn't come apart, so the solder seems to hold.

There are tons of possibilities opened with soldering, imagine soldered frames without having to fiddle with wire wrapped bails, or soldering silver wire to a silver sheet cut to a particular design...I'm really excited about it. I know there are still flaws with this piece, have to remove some extra solder from the joints, some rings need a bit of adjusting (the ovals are not quite the same size everywhere), but I'm getting there with practice.

Here are a few pics taken of this first piece, one that I will keep, afterall it's my first :)