Over the weekend I went on a whirlwind trip to Ohio to see some of my friends graduate! Congratulations to the class of 2012! Anyway, my foray into the Midwest chopped some time off of my project. So simplicity was the goal! What's simpler than a necklace right? I shied away from the idea of jewelry for awhile because I thought glass pieces would be too heavy and awkward to wear. But my necklace turned out nice enough, so maybe I've been convinced. Although, this particular necklace will have to be looked at as a proof of concept rather than something I'll be wearing out and about. The only kind of solder I have has a high lead content and apparently lead exposure on skin isn't good for you. Oops. Also, I took the liberty of doing a little photo-shoot with my necklace, so I hope you all forgive my vanity. I think any other girl would have done the same in my position.
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| If only my fingernails were red! |
The Process:
The first step was to cut out my glass pieces and foil them.
Then, I had to make wire loops and solder them to the points of my rhombi (geometry strikes again!). I have this awesome thing called a Helping Hand, which I could use to hold my glass at the right angle to attach my loops.
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| The Helping Hand at work. |
Final Product aka My Model Debut:
You so pretty <3
ReplyDeleteThanks Spencer! :)
DeleteNice, Robie! For wearable glass, you might consider fusing rather than soldering. If you were to make the loops from sterling silver, sandwich the non-loop end of each between two pieces of fusing glass, and heat them in a kiln to about 1450 F (hold 15-25 min, depending on recommendation for the type of fusing glass you're using), you could get approximately the same effect but without the lead solder around the edges. The pieces would be thicker, too, b/c of the two layers of glass, which are needed to trap the ends of the loops, but I think you might like the results. Too bad you're not here, b/c the Kenyon craft center glass kiln would be perfect for this project!
ReplyDeletePaula
Thanks Paula! I wish I still had access to the craft center and the kiln. I've realized there are so many great things I could do. Maybe, I can find a kiln around here. Do you know if you could use a ceramic kiln for something like this? Or does it need to be strictly a glass kiln?
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