To start out you need:
- Fine Silver wire - I use 1/8th” x 26 gauge
- Sharp sizers dedicated to thin fine silver wire
- Compass
- Cabochon gemstone
Aligning the long side of the cabochon, hold the end of the fine silver against the stone with your right hand (if your right handed) and use your left hand to wrap the wire around the stone. Keep the wire against the side of the cabochon and make sure the bottom of the wire is touching the table. Wrap the fine silver wire all the way around so it overlaps the original end.
Use the sharp side of your compass to mark where the the wire overlaps. Keep in mind that you can trim the wire if it’s too long, but you must start over if the wire is too short. Use your scissors specifically dedicated to the fine silver wire and cut perpendicularly to the wire.
Using your half round pliers, bend the edges of the ends to face each other in the same direction. Bend the wire up and down and overlapping back and forth until you see the ends lightly touching with no gap.
Moving to the soldering station, first cover the joint of the wire with flux. Then cut a piece of hard solder at a length that is the same as the height of the bezel wire. Using the “feathery” end of your torch, hold the torch perpendicular to the soldering block and evenly heat the wire in a circular motion until the solder flows.
]]>This video demonstrates how to solder a jump ring closed. Solder is made of mixed metals making the melting temperature of it lower than the sterling silver. That allows to solder to melt into the seam of the jump ring without melting the sterling silver itself.
I buy my solder from www.riogrande.com where I purchase all of my silver.
In order to solder a jump ring, you must first close the jump ring so each side lines up and touches. Since we used the flush wire cutters when cutting our jump rings, each side of the jump ring has a straight cut allowing each side to line up without leaving any gaps.
Once we have bent the jump ring so the ends touch, we add flux to the jump ring which will allow the solder to flow. Without flux the solder will not melt onto the silver.
Once the flux it covering the sterling silver, we place the solder so it is touching the silver along the jump ring seam. As we heat the silver with the torch, we must heat all the silver evenly or the silver will melt. You may use a soldering pick to keep the solder in place making sure it is touching the jump ring. Since the jump ring is in the shape of a circle, we want to make small circles with the torch to make sure the silver is heated evenly.
As the silver and solder reach a certain temperature, the solder will melt onto the seam closing the jump ring. Now we can solder the jump ring to any other piece of jewelry we are making without there being a seam.
]]>This video will show how I make jumps rings. I use 18 gauge wire that I get from www.riogrande.com where I purchase all of my sterling silver.
Wrapping the wire around the ring mandrel will create perfect circles. Once the coil has been made, stretching out the coil slightly will give enough room to cut the rings with smooth edges. Flipping the flush wire cutters back and forth will allow a smooth cut on each side of the jump ring.
Jump rings are used in making pendants, earrings, and connecting two stone settings together. Watch my video to see each step in creating your own jumps rings at a low price.
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