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Nov. 5th, 2006 05:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
afmetalsmithI'm pretty pleased with my work today, even though I only worked on a couple of things.
I made a lot of progress on the plique January thimble. I think it may be ready for me to start adding the white now, since all the read and green are done or close to being done.
I fused over 100 links of the third size for my elaborate loop-in-loop necklace. I ran into a bit of a problem, since yesterday I'd wound and cut maybe 60 links from a bundle of wire that was labeled "22-gauge", but as I was closing them before fusing I thought: "You know, these seem awfully heavy for 22-ga.!" So I checked than, and they were not! They were 20-ga. My coil of wire had 2 pieces in it, and one was 22 ga. and the other was 20-ga.! I'm glad I caught it when I did, but still, that was annoying! So I separated the 2 sizes and made more rings of the proper size and fused them; meanwhile, I have a small baggie of 20-ga. 9/32" ID rings that I have no idea what I'm going to do with. :) I can always melt them down, of course, but I'd rather find some use for them...
I also experimented with a couple of tips on the Little Torch for the fusing. So far my best results have been with a #6 tip, and a very, very soft flame. I may try the #5 next batch. The soft flame helps the fine silver to flow just slightly but not too much, and the smaller tip allows me to focus the heat more on the seam than everywhere.
I fused the fine silver bezels onto the argentium hearts for the earrings I'm making, and that went beautifully. I am still quite taken with argentium!
I will say, though, that at this point I rather wish I were doing the loop-in-loop necklace in gold- or argentium- rather than in fine silver. It's a huge amount of work, and doing it in silver means that it is unlikely that anyone would be willing to pay a reasonable amount for it given the labor involved. Now, I am not making it to sell, so that's not a huge issue... but it's something to consider.
I made a lot of progress on the plique January thimble. I think it may be ready for me to start adding the white now, since all the read and green are done or close to being done.
I fused over 100 links of the third size for my elaborate loop-in-loop necklace. I ran into a bit of a problem, since yesterday I'd wound and cut maybe 60 links from a bundle of wire that was labeled "22-gauge", but as I was closing them before fusing I thought: "You know, these seem awfully heavy for 22-ga.!" So I checked than, and they were not! They were 20-ga. My coil of wire had 2 pieces in it, and one was 22 ga. and the other was 20-ga.! I'm glad I caught it when I did, but still, that was annoying! So I separated the 2 sizes and made more rings of the proper size and fused them; meanwhile, I have a small baggie of 20-ga. 9/32" ID rings that I have no idea what I'm going to do with. :) I can always melt them down, of course, but I'd rather find some use for them...
I also experimented with a couple of tips on the Little Torch for the fusing. So far my best results have been with a #6 tip, and a very, very soft flame. I may try the #5 next batch. The soft flame helps the fine silver to flow just slightly but not too much, and the smaller tip allows me to focus the heat more on the seam than everywhere.
I fused the fine silver bezels onto the argentium hearts for the earrings I'm making, and that went beautifully. I am still quite taken with argentium!
I will say, though, that at this point I rather wish I were doing the loop-in-loop necklace in gold- or argentium- rather than in fine silver. It's a huge amount of work, and doing it in silver means that it is unlikely that anyone would be willing to pay a reasonable amount for it given the labor involved. Now, I am not making it to sell, so that's not a huge issue... but it's something to consider.
