2013 - Pushing Up My Sleeves

**IMPORTANT NOTICE:  You don't want to miss this post!**

I've been dragging my feet on this a while.  Random phone calls from people wanting to know what time I open on Saturday.  Or asking for specific lobster clasps  or turtle-shaped ceramic beads.  They always caught me off guard -- like, huh?  Then a split second later I realize they think I'm a bead shop. 

Lol. No.  I'm a jewelry designer.  "My Bead Therapy" is the name of my business meant to convey what jewelry design is to me.  It's  therapy.  It is my therapy.  Even when I travel if I can get away with it!

Copper Solder Wire - Lessons Learned

Want to hear a bit about what I learned about sweat soldering with copper solder wire when I made all these guitars that went into official gift lounge bags at the 46th Annual Country Music Awards?  Want to watch my YouTube tutorial showing how I work with this new material?  Can you believe I managed to video myself soldering one of my guitars without melting or lighting my smartphone on fire?!  (Lol - I'm pretty surprised!)

Well, then follow me over to Artisan Whimsy today and see my post as team member of the Metal Group.  There you can see pics, read my experiences and tips, and watch my very first YouTube tutorial.

Happy soldering!
Heidi

This Weekend - Shop Small Business!

**PLEASE NOTE: I am now blogging on HeidiKingman**

Planning to shop 'til you drop on Friday . . . or maybe you plan on hiding from the crazy crowds because the thought of all that pushing and shoving gives you hives?  Well don't worry.  I have a solution for sore feet AND crowd-adverse feet.  SAVE $$$ while SHOPPING in your WARM FUZZY SLIPPERS on SATURDAY and SUNDAY.

Prong Challenge - Oh boy!

**PLEASE NOTE: I am now blogging on HeidiKingman**

I have wanted to learn to do prong settings for a while now.  So when the Artisan Whimsy Metal Team  decided we were going to post a prong setting how-to and a follow up challenge and blog hop, I figured now was as good a time as any.

When the how-to was posted, I saw that the solder media of choice was of the paste variety.  Well, of course, I don't have any of that.  And I wanted to save my $$ to put toward that disc cutter I've been eyeing.  (You know, metal workers will ALWAYS choose tools and convince ourselves that we can "make do" on less than ideal material because it will just be a little more challenging -- not impossible, right?)  I have copper solder wire for use when soldering copper pieces.  And I have some easy sterling solder wire for use on sterling pieces.  And I have loads of stones and fossils I want to set.  So I was game to jump right in.

As soon as I considered making prong jewelry, I knew I wanted to try using my twisted rosy tipped ball pins as the prongs.  But they needed to be pretty thick.  So I tried twisting 16 gauge wire together to form a 14 gauge prong (approximately) and managed to ball the tips just fine.  I then trimmed the ball pins down to a short prong length, making sure to cut the prong so that the bottom was flush and straight.  I melted the copper solder and then held the prong in place with my locking tweezers while I "sweat soldered" the prong onto the face of the textured plate I cut from copper sheet.  Repeat three more times and this is what I got!

My First Prong Setting!

Big Dreams, Small Screen - Part II

**PLEASE NOTE: I am now blogging on HeidiKingman**

A little bit ago I told you all about the amazing opportunity I had to send in a piece of jewelry for consideration for use on the Pretty Little Liars television show.  I still haven't heard that they will use my piece yet -- but I also haven't heard they won't!  Heehee -- ever the optimist, right?!

This is the piece I sent: