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.