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      In episode #8 of our How to Make Soldered Jewelry video series, you will learn how to turn 18 gauge jump rings into a stylish chain. Aisha teaches how to properly connect and layout the chain and how to then pick solder the joints closed. >> Scroll down for the list of tools.

       

      hey there i'm aisha vermanski with

      everthine jewelry and i'm Lisa Niven

      Kelly here for Beaducation.com and we

      have come together in this introduction

      to soldering series to teach you all

      kinds of soldering stuff

      and then this episode we are gonna make

      a chain super fun and sometimes can be

      tedious

      let's be honest

      [Music]

      so this was the first project that i was

      taught when i went to jewelry smithing

      school back in the day back in the day

      yeah back in the day and it's a great

      great way

      to practice patience

      and this very kind of small

      small work

      patience was our number one in our

      golden rules and if remember this is a

      series if you haven't watched those

      beginning classes jump on over there we

      kind of walk you through to this point

      but in there we talk about the golden

      rules the metal has to be touching the

      metal has to be clean you need to be

      patient and safety

      of course of course in this class we're

      going to use a blazer torch because we

      need that small specific flame to solder

      these jump rings a little pointy yeah

      and last but not least

      take your time to close these jump rings

      and if you need practice

      closing those jump rings we have a

      couple classes to refer you to we have

      the beginning chain mail class yeah over

      on beachcation.com it's a chain mail

      class but for chain mail to succeed your

      jump rings have to be super closed so

      colin goes over how to how to close jump

      rings really well it's the first step

      it's a really cool class or we have a

      product video on closing jump rings but

      again that's going to be key is to get

      that nice and shut

      here i have the chain

      resting on the kiln brick i have a t a t

      pin

      just anchoring the chain down at the end

      so that if i need to pull or

      adjust any of the jump rings it won't

      move too much

      cool yep and then here on the charcoal

      block i have teeny tiny these are

      smaller than normal yeah i see

      hard solder pallions

      we're doing that because the kiln brick

      has all these little pock marks and

      holes in them

      and these little pallians are so small i

      feel like they're all just going to fall

      in those holes so yeah that's why we're

      bringing that in i i use a sharpie

      marker or felt marker to put a little

      dot on you know exactly where the seam

      is

      because the sterling silver when the

      when the jump ring is closed it's kind

      of hard to find the seam

      and once we put the flux on it's going

      to be even

      more of a challenge the second thing

      i've done

      is

      you'll notice here

      you notice that like every other

      link

      i have them facing us

      right

      like straight on straight on

      and then

      the ones that are adjacent on the back

      here

      i have them all laying the same way

      and i'm doing this because and it's it's

      potsy it's really

      um because once we flux and we start to

      heat stuff

      most likely we're gonna lose like track

      of where the seams are but you know that

      all of these ones

      are right in front facing us yep and all

      of these ones are pointing to the back

      good one so

      if you need to solder blind you could

      i'm going to blindfold you and test that

      i think we'll start with just soldering

      this section

      i'm not going to go ahead and adjust the

      whole length of it let's just let's do

      like one third and one third and one

      third okay i think that'll be a good way

      to go about it

      let me show you

      the pit the part where we just melt a

      pallion into a little sphere and pick it

      up with the the solder pick yeah because

      that's a good thing to practice

      [Applause]

      i am going to spray a little bit of

      flux on the solder it's just gonna

      doesn't hurt and always helps

      all right let's go for this one here

      can you just

      go for it just hit it

      see it it's so tiny

      and the reason we're showing it like

      this because once we start pick

      soldering on the chain we're not going

      to be able to

      show you picking it up we want to be

      crazy again

      okay okay

      i'm going to stop start by applying some

      flux to that section of the chain

      we can still see those sharpie marks

      through the yeah that's cool cooper now

      which is very helpful

      you still love your little gadget i do

      you want a really pointy torch for this

      that t-pin is stealing some of my heat

      there we go

      going back off camera to grab another

      little pallion

      i do recommend

      i imagine doing this with

      fairly heavy gauge jump rings

      yes

      yes what are these 18 meters these are

      18 gauge

      six millimeter id

      go in right up to the seam

      and deliver that little solder

      did you see that one went to the right

      so

      let's do it again

      we have to concentrate on not

      melting the one next to it now you'll

      notice too i like i can't talk while i

      deliver the solder it's

      it's um this is very precise work

      and she's also bracing her hand what you

      guys can't see on the outside

      of the table

      just to the right of the brick

      so she's not

      pre-flying and shaking

      you'll also notice that she makes it

      look really easy

      all right

      let's continue soldering the rest of the

      chain what's happening with those two

      pins oh yeah so i have the chain um

      kind of suspended it's not suspended

      because it's laying on the kiln brick

      but i had i had it laying down and i was

      trying to

      put the solder seams like so that i

      could see them with my tweezer

      by the way this tweezer is wonderful for

      this

      and it was just flipping around and

      rolling around so i pinned one end down

      and then pulled it taut with a little

      tension and pinned the other end

      and then when i went to like rotate and

      everybody's staying yeah everybody's

      chill now that's cool yeah

      so let's keep let's keep going

      do any questions before i start

      um

      no cool

      [Music]

      wow

      well done

      i was thinking while you were doing that

      i hope the torch doesn't run out of gas

      so if you guys are doing a project like

      this where the flame is on for quite a

      bit of time just make sure you top it

      off before you jump in

      let me zoom in

      it looks good you know a project like

      this can seem pretty tedious yeah you

      know but

      the practice is really really good and

      actually the rhythm kind of does get you

      in this little bit of like a little

      meditative

      kind of cool thing so i like it

      off to the pickle off to the pickle

      the chain is fresh out of the pickle pot

      here it is

      yeah turned out pretty well

      so of course you'd want to go and check

      your solder seams and go back and

      re-solder any that didn't

      successfully get soldered closed

      right

      it looks pretty good it's cute

      so i was thinking

      that i would show them

      how to

      make

      the circle links and ovals ooh sound

      good yeah let's do it so you could

      do

      we could make each one

      every

      circle into an oval or we could do every

      other yeah

      all right every other so this is pretty

      simple

      we're going to use

      round nose pliers

      and the way that i do it is i just place

      the handles of this pliers so long i'm

      like

      under here

      okay um

      place the jaws of the round nose

      because the metal is really soft super

      soft yeah

      inside your link and then

      pull apart

      all right and i'm not using

      all of my strengths you know

      this is also going to really test the

      strength of your solder it seems right

      yeah

      just like that

      let's do a few more

      and it's done

      i'm going to try to put the solder seam

      on the side but it's not that

      important

      so

      i would throw that in the tumbler when

      it's done would you

      yeah you could throw this in the tumbler

      i would recommend

      um binding it up a little bit before you

      put in the tumbler

      oh so it doesn't get all textured so it

      doesn't get tangled and the way that you

      would do that is you could take a piece

      of scrap wire

      and kind of just thread through maybe

      every other

      link

      you could use a raymade clasp you could

      make a clasp

      yeah easy i know you guys know how to do

      that well and handmade clasps looks so

      beautiful on handmade chain there they

      do so i went through every other

      right

      yeah i like it but not you're not making

      it too tight so they no you want the

      yeah i want the shot to still be able to

      get

      yeah

      around

      so this is a great way to

      to uh tumble chain

      nice

      here's the chain out of the tumbler oh

      my gosh i should look so cute it's

      really pretty and look how it's smooth

      over all those soldering irons it kind

      of hides them so i have made just a

      super simple clasp on here hook and eye

      clasp and it's a basic chain but what an

      awesome exercise yeah this looks great

      [Music]