Soldered ephemera collage memory or jewelry boxes

I don't think I have shown you my jewelery boxes! Using purchased boxes, I soldered a collage under glass to embellish the top of the boxes. They are simply beautiful, unique, and one of a kind boxes where you can keep your memories, trinkets, or jewelry. The one with the little girl, vintage doily, and key is sold, but the fairy one is available on my website:

www.toodlesocks.com

I can customize boxes if you forward any old photos or other memorabilia to me. Please contact me at am803@aol.com if you are interested. These boxes would be an unexpected and fanstastic gift! Ideas for your collage would be old tickets, meaningful fabric, photos, labels, buttons, lace,old keys, jewlery, etc. I will forward a photo of the collage to you for your approval before I solder.

Back to my OOAKs and soldering for 2011

After a very fun and very busy Christmas (two trips back to Ohio in December), I am nearly ready to start on new pieces for 2011! I have some new ideas in the works and can't wait to share them with you!

I am really into dolls and fairies with extremely white faces right now, so that will be one of my first projects. I plan to make some larger soldered pieces for wall hangings. As always, I probably have more ideas than time.

Alan is officially retired right now so he will be helping me rep my work to various local shops, particularly in the quaint city of Orange. I am also going to work on pumping up my website, which I have had to put on the back burner for a while.

See you soon!

soldering tips for jewelry

I keep thinking that I will get back to my sculpting, but I have been trying to keep up with custom orders for my pendants.

I have some safety tips for those of you who want to try your hand at soldering.

Plan to burn yourself a few times. Soldering is not for those who are unadventuresome.

Use only lead free solder.

No one can really tell you how to make solder beads,at least, in my opinon. You just have to keep practicing until you attain the skill.

Soldering on a jump ring is also something that takes a lot of practice, especially if you have an unsteady hand. Practice on a "junk piece" of china.

Always wear a mask or, at the very least, have good ventilation while you are soldering. Flux fumes are not good for you. Dust masks will not filter out fumes.

I will add more tips as I think of them. In the meantime, you can find the basic instructions for soldering on some of the solder supply sites and the stained glass sites.

To see all of my work, here is a link to my site:

www.toodlesock.com