How to Make Soldered Jewelry, Episode #6 - Post Earrings

hey there I'm Lisa Niven Kelly for

Beaducation.com and in this episode of our

introduction to soldering series we are

going to make some stud post earrings

[Music]

this is actually a class that we've had

on our site for a little while

I should for Mansky teaches it and it's

really fun we take a little stamped

blank and a post earring and solder it

right on there I'm all set up here to

solder my little posts onto the back of

these blanks to make a cute pair of stud

earrings I have my small butane torch

safety glasses a quench cup some flux

and a brush my soldering tweezers Krass

locking wooden handle tweezers charcoal

block and then everything is here is on

a non-combustible work surface and I'm

also making sure to work in a

well-ventilated room I'm going to use

easy solder wire for this project these

are pretty cool these are solder cutting

pliers the cut sheet solder and wire

solder you just put it right here in the

little hole open the little jaw and it

cuts these little pal Ian's I know it's

super teeny but bear with me there's

this little pal Ian here I know we're

just soldering two joins for this

earring but I tell you if you only

prepped two pieces of solder you're

destined to need three so always make

sure to give yourself one or two extra

little pieces of solder go with three

put that aside so here I have one two

three little pal Ian's

you've also noticed I placed a little

mark on my blanks there these identify

the top of the design a little diamond

there a little shiny on say her

that sharpie marker is actually going to

burn away but I know when I place it on

my block if I put it at 12 o'clock that

that's the top I'm actually going to

start these posts just a little north of

Center so that when they're being worn

they don't spin on the centre access so

that your diamond design is always

pointing the right direction

I'm gonna take my flux and flux my

blanks and my posts I actually find it

easier to bring the post to the flux and

so the flux of the posts so pick them up

with little tweezers here and just swipe

them on the brush

no everything's flexed I'm going to take

my first post I'm kind of all thumbs

here today so excuse me these are very

small pieces and I'm going to clamp it

here in my would handle Frost locking

tweezer and I'm going to put the post at

a little bit of an angle this is going

to make picking up the solder and

soldering the post in place a little

easier I do want to drive home the point

that you need wood handled cross locking

tweezers as we work the heat is going

you know these tweezers are gonna heat

up and if you're using just regular

tweezers what happens is from the

tweezers start to get really hot and you

have to try to solder the post in place

before your fingers begin to burn so

make sure you get those those tweezers

with the wood handles I'm going to

strike my little butane torch using just

a small one here

you notice I was adjusting the oxygen

here we just need a small flame so I'm

going to turn the gas down what turned

it so far down it went out

that looks about good all right so

here's what we're gonna do I am going to

melt one of this solder pal Ian's into a

little sphere and while it's glowing hot

I'm going to touch it to the end of the

post so let me show you this

Keith the pallium there it is into a

little glowing sphere bring in the post

and pre flow that solder on to that post

now I'm gonna heat my little blank no

preheating it a little bit and a fluffy

part of the flame waiting for that flux

to get kind of shiny and then I'm just

going to hold my post in place while

heating the blank try not to keep the

post it's going to get enough residual

heat from the blank if you keep the post

you may melt it so just keep your heat

on the put on the excuse me on the blank

and they throw there it goes now you

want to hold your post in place while

the solder sets release your tweezers

and turn off your torch I'm going to

take this one now and I'm going to put

it in the quench cup and let's do it one

more time I'm going to take the tweezers

I'm going to make sure they're cool so

put them in the quench cup make sure

they're nice and cool and pick up my

next post for the second post we've come

in for an extreme close-up so you can

really see how this works I have the

post already mounted in the Cross

locking tweezer

and I'm going to go ahead and strike my

torch

come in again and heat up a lien

see solder has flowed there at the end

of the post preheat the blank warming up

that flux now I'm gonna hold my post in

place while heating the blank

there are girls hold it in place let the

solder set release the tweezers turn off

the torch and that looks great we're

gonna quench the second earring let's

take them out of the quench bowl here so

I can show you these maybe in this part

of my hand will be better now we have

the post soldered now we're going to

clean up the post in the pickle pot and

come back I want to show you how to

strengthen these posts they've become

very annealed during the soldering

process and we need to work hard in them

here are the post earrings fresh out of

the pickle see how they're all white

like this that's because when you heat

sterling silver the silver in the alloy

comes to the surface so that's what that

is this comes up super easy with a pro

polish pad but before we do that we need

to talk about these posts one more time

when we soldered them we accidently

annealed which means softened the post

so this is super malleable right now if

you wore these now I mean it would be

fine but if you accidentally took a nap

in them you may bend the post so let's

work harden this in a very easy way

which is to use a flat nose pliers just

take those grasp at the very end of the

post hold the blank and twist

just the slight manipulation will work

harden the wire

you know else it's gonna do it's gonna

check your solder join and make sure

it's nice and strong so I'm just

squeezing this to make sure it's nice

and straight so now you just fill with

my finger it's not going anywhere let's

do it the next one

straighten this

right now it's twist or grasp and twist

right so the posts have been work

hardened I'm going to do the be

education quick and dirty method here of

darkening the impressions and grab my

trusty sharpie marker

you can be kind of messy about this fill

in those stamped impressions

remember you want the Sharpie to be dry

before you start to pro polish your

piece Pro polish pads do not like to be

wet

and this is a quick little

grab the little ear nuts oh you know

what we have a little whitening on the

back and a pickle pot I'm just gonna

give us a little swipe I had the ear

nuts now you have your very own pair of

diamond earrings

[Music]

it's like comes like this from below the

the table

I sure for Manske teaches it

[Applause]