Jewelry 101: Flux
Posted by Leah on Jul 19, 2007
I’m writing a series of short articles on jewelry making basics, called Jewelry 101. You can click on Jewelry 101 under “categories” in the right-hand column to see all the articles (this one is the first). Even if you aren’t interested in making your own jewelry, it might be interesting to learn a little bit about the basic tools and processes I use to create jewelry. Now, on to my first topic: flux.
Flux is a liquid or paste applied to metal when heating the metal. There are many different kinds of flux on the market, and they all work for different temperature ranges. In jewelry making, when using a torch to solder or fuse metal, it is important to get a flux that is intended for use at very high temperatures. This means that flux sold for use with soldering irons probably will not withstand the amount of heat a torch gives off, so make sure that the flux you buy is appropriate for use with a torch.
Flux protects silver from firescale while heating, and prevents oxidation of metal. It is always used when soldering, as the solder will not flow properly if flux is not applied to the solder & the area it should flow into. Flux can be applied with a paintbrush, and should be applied before heating the metal. As you heat the metal with your torch, the flux will bubble and then start to look glassy. If you notice that some of the metal is not covered with flux, you might want to add a little more and then re-heat the metal.
Flux is almost always used when heating sterling silver, whether soldering, fusing, or annealing, because it helps prevent firescale from forming. It is not necessary to apply flux to fine silver when heating it, since fine silver does not get firescale. However, if fine silver is being joined with silver solder, you should apply flux to the solder and the spots that will be joined with solder.
With Argentium sterling silver, some people don’t use flux except for soldering, while some people also use flux for fusing. It is not necessary to use flux when annealing Argentium. In my personal experience, a tiny bit of flux (less than I’d use with regular sterling silver) helps a lot if I’m fusing or making ball-end headpins with Argentium.
Flux is also used when soldering gold. Since I have limited experience soldering gold, I won’t comment more on that right now. If you want to use silver solder to solder copper, using more flux seems to help, since copper oxidizes easily.
I use liquid flux. A brand I like is Batterns, and I also like a very similar product called My-T-flux. Some jewelers prefer to use a paste flux, but I find that it’s harder for me to see what I’m doing if I use paste flux. Whatever you decide, I recommend buying flux from a jewelry supply company - and make sure you get one that is intended for use with a torch. I’ve heard that people have had success making a paste flux from denatured alcohol and borax, but I’ve never tried this myself.
After you complete your soldering/fusing/annealing, you might notice that there is some glassy flux residue all over the metal. This can be removed by soaking the metal in an acidic solution known as pickle. I’ll be writing about pickle in a future article, so stay tuned!
Scrap Pendant
Posted by Leah on Jun 14, 2007
I made this pendant from scrap sterling silver, with a few freshwater pearls added. One thing that is really nice about working with metal is that it is easy to reuse scraps. In this case, I had some half-round sterling silver wire in a size that I just don’t use. I’m not really sure why I bought it originally, but it had been sitting around my studio for quite a while. So, I sculpted it & fused it with my torch until I was mostly happy with the look, then added pearls to contrast with the rough look of the semi-melted silver.
This piece took a while to complete because there wasn’t an obvious place to attach a bail, but with some small alterations, I was able to add the wire bezel shown in the picture.
Crocheted Bobble Cuff
Posted by Leah on May 21, 2007
This is my favorite crocheted jewelry design so far. I wanted to learn some new crochet stitch patterns, and found a bobble stitch pattern in my Reader’s Digest needlework book (it’s a huge hardcover book that was given to me by a friend’s mom, and has instructions for all kinds of needlework including knitting and crocheting).
To make a bobble stitch, you yarn over, insert hook into stitch, yarn over, pull hook through stitch, yarn over, pull hook through two loops. You keep doing this into the same stitch until you have six loops on your hook, then yarn over and pull the hook through all six loops. The bobble will look kind of flat at this point, but so you single crochet into the next stitch, which gathers it up and makes it look more bobble-like.
For this bracelet, there are two single crochet stitches in between each bobble. I used a multiple of three stitches and alternated where the bobble was in each row. In between a row of bobbles, I did a row of single crochet. That’s basically the stitch pattern as printed in the book! I ended up with a flat bobble at the end of the middle row of bobbles, so that’s where I sewed on the button. To make a closure for the button, I did a row of single crochet along one end, but chained a couple stitches and skipped a couple before continuing the single crochet, forming a small loop.
I used sport weight yarn and the hook size recommened on the label, and did nine repeats of the bobble to get a decent length for my wrist. You would probably want to experiment with gauge to make sure your bracelet is the right length for you. I think I’ll make it a bit tighter - maybe one less repeat - if I make this again, because it stretched a little when I wore it for a while. It still fits okay, but I’d prefer a tighter fit. I have some beautiful silvery gray yarn (”Love” from southwest trading co’s vickie howell line of yarns - the black version here was made with “Craft” from the same line) that I think I’ll use to make another cuff and a matching necklace. The black was really tough to photograph, so I’m hoping to get a better picture once I’ve made this in another color.
Metalwork In Progress
Posted by Leah on Apr 25, 2007
I started a new fused silver pendant last night. Since metalwork is such a mysterious process to many people, I thought I’d post a picture of what it looks like on my soldering pad at the moment. It definitely still needs some work, but I think it will be a good one when it’s done:
Crochet Flower Tutorial
Posted by Leah on Apr 18, 2007
Here’s my second crocheted pendant tutorial. For this one, I used a sport weight yarn called Craft from the Vickie Howell yarn collection. The red color is called Chica. I used a 3.75mm crochet hook.
To begin, chain 8 & join with a slip stitch to form a ring. Single crochet 14 times into the ring, then slip stitch to join to the first single crochet. Now you have a sturdy-looking ring with single crochets all around it.
Now make the petals - if you have 14 single crochets, you will end up with 7 petals. To make a petal, single crochet, double crochet, triple crochet, double crochet, and single crochet into the first single crochet. Then slip stitch into the next single crochet to make a space between the first petal and the next. Repeat making one petal and one space all around the ring.
If you want a pendant, you need to make a bail. Chain about 7 stitches, then slip stitch to join to the center of the flower, making a loop for a bail. If you don’t want a pendant - say you’re making the flower to sew onto a scarf or something - skip this step and just weave your ends in when you are finished making all the petals.
More on Definition of Handmade
Posted by Leah on Apr 4, 2007
I found a page on silversmithing.com that shows the FTC guidelines for what can or can not be called handmade jewelry.
The page also shows some other useful legal information for jewelers, so I recommend it for anyone who makes or sells jewelry. It’s definitely “legalese” but they’ve picked out the important bits of information, so it’s not too hard to understand.
By the way - thanks to Karen who wrote to me regarding my previous post on this topic, which led me to looking up the guidelines. Karen also pointed out that there was a problem with the comment function - no doubt that was the result of my server move - but it is fixed now. Some permalinks have changed, so if you link to specific articles in my blog, you might need to update the links.
Tim McCreight Interview on Craftcast
Posted by Leah on Apr 3, 2007
Alison Lee, host of the podcast “Craftcast” interviewed Tim McCreight (the metalsmith and author whose book I blogged about recently). From her liner notes on the podcast:
“Today I talk with Tim McCreight. Tim is a master metalsmith, author, and teacher. He has taught workshops both nationally and internationally as well as running his own publishing company in Portland, ME.”
New Mixed-Media Jewelry Book
Posted by Leah on Mar 28, 2007
Making Designer Mixed-Media and Memory Jewelry: Fun and Experimental Techniques and Materials for the Home Studio
This isn’t exactly a review, since I haven’t read this book yet, but it looks like fun. My friend Cyndi (author of the Bead Arts blog) has a piece in the book. If anyone reading my blog has seen this book, would you mind posting a comment to let me know what you thought of it? I haven’t seen it in stores yet, and I’m dying to see how Cyndi’s project turned out!
Handcrafted vs. Assembled
Posted by Leah on Mar 13, 2007
If you are an artist or crafter, or if you like handmade goods, you probably see the words “handmade” and “handcrafted” a lot. But did you know that there is actually a legal definition of what handmade/handcrafted is?
In jewelry terms, a piece is only legally considered handcrafted if all of the components are made by hand. This means that, unfortunately for many designers, necklaces made from strung beads aren’t legally handcrafted — unless, of course, you make the beads and the clasp yourself.
When I describe my work, I try to clarify what is handmade and what isn’t. I often make my own earwires and clasps, but not always. I almost never make the beads I use, and I wouldn’t even know where to start with cutting stones. I do make all my wire pendant frames - luckily for me, wire *is* considered a raw material, so anything I make from wire fits nicely under the legal description of handcrafted. So does sheet metal - but not the tins I use as bezels for my resin pendants. That’s a bummer, because I often make the metal and mixed media objects that I put inside the bezels!
I’m planning two jewelry making tutorials in the next few weeks that will illustrate the difference between handcrafted and “assembled by hand” (the term I use for jewelry I make usinng pre-made components). I will describe how to make a piece of jewelry using objects you can buy at craft and/or jewelry supply stores, and then I will describe how to make something that looks very similar that is entirely handcrafted.
Even if you don’t make jewelry yourself, I think you’ll appreciate seeing how much more work goes into a piece that is entirely handcrafted versus a similar assembled piece. (Of course, many assembled pieces also require loads of time and skill, but that’s a subject for a different post because I could go on for a while.) I hope that you will also be able to understand why I (and many other jewelry makers I know) use a combination of handcrafting and assembling techniques in creating jewelry. While it is often the case that the extra time and effort to handcraft a component adds a lot to a piece of jewelry, sometimes assembling beads and other manufactured components is not only adequate, but results in an equally attractive and high-quality piece of jewelry. Watch this blog, or subscribe to the feed, to see my upcoming tutorials!
Tutorial: Easy Crocheted Pendant
Posted by Leah on Mar 8, 2007
If you know how to make a chain stitch, a slip stitch, and a single crochet stitch, you can make this pendant. The yarn I used is from Vickie Howell’s new yarn “rock”, manufactured by Southwest Trading Company. It is a sport weight yarn, so you could probably substitute any sport weight yarn and get similar results (the color I used is called Courtney - it’s such a bright pink that it seemed like a flower would be a natural thing to make with it). I used a 4mm crochet hook.
You can change the look of this flower by varying the number of chain stitches in the center and each petal - thus increasing or decreasing the size or the loop- or by using a different size/style of yarn with an appropriately sized hook for that yarn. If you aren’t feeling too adventurous or are a true beginner, try doing it with the exact yarn and hook that I used until you feel comfortable enough to experiment.
To start, chain for about an inch and join the chain using a slip stitch to form a ring.
Instead of doing single crochet into each chain stitch, single crochet into the ring itself until you have single crochets going all the way around the ring. Join to the first single crochet with a slip stitch.
To make the petals, chain 4-5 stitches, then single crochet into the next stitch. Do this all the way around, using the same number of chains for each petal if you want a uniform look. Then single crochet into the loop of the first petal the same number of times you chain stitched. In other words - if your petals used 4 chain stitches, single crochet into each petal 4 times. This stiffens up the petals a bit.
Instead of fastening off, chain for about 1 1/2 inches, then join the end of the chain back to the body of the flower with a slip stitch - this makes the pendant bail (the loop you use to hang your pendant from a chain). Cut the yarn and weave in the ends. That’s it!
In the picture, the pendant is hanging on a knitted I-cord, also made from a sport weight yarn, but you could hang it on any kind of chain or fiber. If you’d prefer a pin instead of a pendant, don’t make the bail of the pendant, and glue or tie it to a pin finding.
