Above: Experiment one a complete success!! Experiment two: total and epic fail!
Here's what I've learned (by reading online and through two experiments) about soldering copper jewelry components.
(1) You should never ever try a full-blown project before you've played around with solder in a few different scenarios. Really sweet ideas come to a screeching halt, often near their completion. Very frustrating.
(2)You can use commercial grade solder to fuse two flat pieces together and no one is the wiser. (I still recommend using lead-free solder, however.)
(3) When a project calls for multiple components to be soldered together, apparently you are supposed to start with hard solder for the first stage and move down to medium and finally to soft on the final piece. That way, you don't risk having a literal melt-down of a perfectly good almost-finished piece. Grrrrr!
(4) Always use less than half the amount of solder you think you'll need.
(5) Never quench your piece in pickle solution. Let it cool first or at least quench in plain water before pickling.
(6) Allegedly you CAN use silver solder on copper pieces. If you want to avoid an unsightly white solder line, leave a piece of steel in your pickling solution and it will somehow magically cause your white solder line to become copper colored.
(7) It's really fun. When it goes well.
Thanks for being patient while I get my act together enough to create, post to Etsy, update my business page on Facebook, AND blog in a more timely manner. As always, thanks for rolling in the Fluff & Ruff.
~~Gigi
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