Jewelry Project MANMADE / HANDMADE
11
For a good join, fi le the
middle of the twigs fl at. Hold
the rectangular prong setting on
the twigs where you want it to sit,
and mark the area with a fi ne tip
Sharpie. At the bench, use needle
fi les to fl atten these sections a
little. Flux everything with a white
coating of Prips. Then brush a
gloppy layer of yellow ocher over
soldered details to prevent every-
thing from melting and shifting.
This includes the buds. Place a few
snips of medium solder between
the twigs and the prong setting,
and heat with a torch (#0 tip) until
the solder fl ows. Quench, pickle,
and rinse.Tip: Flux first, then apply yellow
ocher. If you do the reverse, the
yellow ocher will bleed all over
everything and you’ll have to start
over.12
It’s time to add frogs. They are
based on tiny rubber frogs I
found at a novelty store.
Next, use a presoldering technique.
Flux and apply snips of easy solder
to the feet of each frog, then heat
with the torch until they fl ow.
Position them on the twigs, after
applying fl ux and yellow ocher
again, and heat until joined. Add a
closed jump ring to the front toes of
the lower frog.13
Probably the hardest step is to
add six “jump rings” on each
side of this setting so beadwork can
be attached. There is a lot of metal
going every which way and anything
could melt at this stage. So, instead
of tiny jump rings, solder six pieces
of 20-gauge wire onto the back. Lay
them out on the Solderite board,
marking on the board’s surface with a
ballpoint pen where they are to sit.
Before soldering, use a fi le to fl atten
the backs of the twigs where the
wires will be joined. After fl uxing
everything, squeeze Extra Easy
paste solder from a syringe onto
the backs of the twigs. Its stickiness
means it won’t fall off or shake loose.15
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92 LAPIDARY JOURNAL JEWELRY ARTIST