Friday, June 12, 2015

A Paris Street Market, June 2015

Thanks to everyone for another successful show at A Paris Street Market  this past weekend.  The weather cooperated...for the most part.  Morning was sunny and beautiful.  Early afternoon a brief rain shower went through.  Laura and I were able to cover things up before the rain started and thankfully it was mild and brief we were able to uncover everything pretty quickly. 

Here are the photos from the show:







Thursday, June 4, 2015

Soldered Pendants and Vintage Lace, Trim & Hankies

Talk about taking a leap of faith in my creative endeavors.  I have always admired soldered pendants and now I know why they are typically so expensive to purchase.

In an effort to learn as many ways as possible to repurpose vintage linens like lace, trim and hankies,
I decided it was time to make an investment in funds and time
to learn how to solder.

First I purchased several books I spent time reading & studying.
Watched several videos, although I have to say I had to trust the books more.
Put together a list of essential tools & supplies.
Invested in a Weller 100 Soldering Iron
Visited my local soldering glass store.
Learned how to cut glass at the store and purchased more tools!
I have played with it
Even burned myself....just a bit.

I had to ask myself.  What if I purchase all these items and then I can't do it?  All the books say, you have to be patient and practice.  It does take lots of patience and  practice.  It also says refrain from re-working the piece to try to make it perfect, because you will just get frustrated.   
I can be patient but it is really hard to not want to re-work the piece.  Believe me, I struggled with this aspect but just kept telling myself, this is a handcrafted item.  Created by me, not a machine.
Naturally, I had to learn the hard way to just let it go.
I have some ruined pieces to teach me that lesson.

I am so glad I took that leap of faith in myself!
I am more comfortable with soldering and in time hope to improve upon this new skill.
Although I have invested lots of time and even more money that I planned, I am happy I have jumped into soldering jewelry pendants using vintage linens.

I will have a small batch of Soldered Pendants available at 
A Paris Street Market this Saturday, June 6, 2015
at Aspen Grove.

Here are the pictures of some of my packaged soldered pendants with a 24 inch length chain all created using Lead-Free Silvergleem Solder.



Now, here are some closeup photos of my new soldered pendants before packaging.











http://www.aparisstreetmarket.com/