Soldering Earrings
After 15 years of beading and wire wrapping, I knew it was time to take the leap and learn to solder. I wanted so badly to set stones and make beautiful rings. If I knew that 10 years later, I’d be teaching others to make this same dream happen, I’d never believe it. It’s amazing the way that one new skill, can transform your future. One small shift in the direction of a passion can lead you down a path that’d you’d only dream of.
All of this is to say, I’m glad you landed here on this blog. I want to share everything I know with you, so that you too can take one small step towards your dream to make a beautiful ring, set a stone you’ve hoarded away, or to make use of the collection of tools you bought and are just stilling in a box somewhere.
Setting a stone will come, but for today let’s take the first best small step. Let’s learn the soldering process and attach a post to an earring. This skill is transformative, especially if you are an artist who is already doing metalwork, forming, or wrapping.
If you’d like to watch this lesson, you can do that here:https://www.luzdelunajewelry.com/courses
The Tools:
Soldering Block
Butane torch
Flux
Small paint brush
X-tweeezers
Quench Pot (bowl of water)
Pickle (warm vinegar & salt)
Baking soda and water
Hand Held Rotary tool
Silicone pushing wheels
Materials:
Medium Solder
Sterling silver component
Sterling silver posts
Earring backs
The Process
Set your Sterling silver component on top of the soldering block
Place the earring post in the x-tweezers
Snip a very small piece of medium solder.
Apply flux to the tip of the post, the place you are putting the post on the component, and on the solder
With your torch lit and in your non-dominant hand and your x-tweezers in the dominant hand, use the torch to heat the solder into a ball.
Pick up the ball of solder with the post (you’ll need to keep the heat on the solder and the post)
Now, heat your the component. You’ll see the metal go from brown, to black, to white pink, then red.
When the piece is heated, set the post on the component
Look for the solder sparkle.
Remove heat, leave x-tweezers in place for a moment to let the piece cool.
Move the earring over to the quench, listen for the “tizz” you can now touch your piece
Check that the solder was successful
Move the earring into the pickle pot for 3-5 minutes
When the earring is white clean, you can dip it into the backing soda bath to neutralize it
Voila! You’ve soldered an earring. Repeat the process to finish the other.
Now it’s time to polish and clean. Using the rotary tool, polish the entire piece with a Course Pad (usually black), then drop down to a Medium (usually Blue) then finally with the Fine polishing wheel (usually pink).
Take your piece over to the sink and scrub it clean with an old tooth brush and dish soap.
CONGRATULATIONS! You’ve made earrings!
If you’d like to have a visual guide for this lesson, please check out my free lesson here: https://www.luzdelunajewelry.com/courses
