Hot and Bothered

Love My Art Jewelry has proposed a year-long challenge that I’m going to try.

There are so many interesting jewelry challenges posted in the blog-o-sphere

and I have to be careful not to jump into each one that I’m drawn to

or I wouldn’t get anything else accomplished.

If you’ve never tried participating in one, consider this one.

I’ll tell you  3 reasons why I like this one so much.

                                      1.   Each challenge is accompanied by a video or tutorial to teach a new skill. Love this idea!

                                      2.   Each challenge is 8 weeks long. Plenty of time to work on perfecting the skill,

                                                        making jewelry for the reveal day…and getting other stuff in your life done too.

                                      3.   You can choose to do them all or just the ones that interest you.

The hosts of this as yet unnamed challenge did a great job designing these parameters.

So, here’s the first challenge that was posted this week.  Make ball head pins (click to the link).

 Your jewelry piece(s) must include handmade ball head pins.  Period.

And if you are not able to make your own head pins, you may use someone else’s…handmade, of course.

I’ve done some soldering but never made head pins, so this is perfect for me.

This is the “HOT” part of the post’s title.

And the video tutorial is great. I tried cheaper copper first, just in case I messed up.

This is the “BOTHERED”part of this post.

The copper just wouldn’t ball up no matter how long it got torched.

I know copper has a higher melting point than sterling,

so my little butane torch might not have the UMPH that is needed with copper.

And could be that I was using 18 gauge wire that requires even more fire power.

Anyway, I decided to damn the torpedoes and move straight to sterling silver.

 YEAH!  Practically instant success with both 18 and 20 gauge wire.

I need to do some more research on the copper, because I’d love to be able to make these too.

I can see where this could get addictive.

These two pair of earrings were made with extra long double ball head pins.

First I balled up one end. Then I slipped on the glass bead.

Holding the glass bead out of the way with locking tweezers, I balled up the other end.

I really liked the dark gray oxidation on the balled ends,

so I only pickled the middle portion of the wire to bring back the shiny silver.

                                                So, what do you think?   Wanna come and play with me on this one?