Saturday, September 8, 2007

Come heaven or hell...

I'm going to do a tutorial on headpins!!! I got everything set up...tore the house apart looking for my tri-pod..found it...took me several hours of talking myself down from sheer terror of letting the world see my mug live. So..I sit down, press play and start talking...ok, this isn't so bad..BEEP! Memory card full ..what? What??! And only a minute in! Now it won't let me delete all the pics on it to free it up. I hate modern technology somedays. Give me a good old toothbrush and I can figure it out...I did get some pics of the tools involved after changing the settings and freeing up space, but not enough for a video.So if I have to show a pic of each step , I will. For now, here are the tools involved...



Ever wonder wonder what to do with that creme brulee' torch you bought on the spur of the moment after you had a partucularly good custard?? Look no further! Makes a perfect torch for thin gauge fine silver. If you have a local cigar store, they sell butane fuel in XXXX super clean burning fuel (don't want to ruin the smell of that ol' stogey eh??)





Next is a set of long tweezers...these are a must have to hold the metal as it gets extremely hot!I bought these at my local bead store for a grand total of $3.50. I'm sure they are easy to find on ebay or Rio Grande if you have an account with them.




Next is a firing brick. I also bought this at the bead store for $5.75 but can be found online. They are sort of soft so you can make a gouge in it to hold your metal when you are fusing rings.And one of the most important things...22 gauge fine silver. This is relatively inexpensive at around $1.50-$2.00 a foot depending on where you purchase it.


If you are going to be working indoors, I would strongly suggest you put an old cookie sheet under the firing brick.The very last thing you will need is some sort of bowl with water. After you use your torch and make a headpin or fuse something, you want to dip it in the water to cool it.
So..there is the list for the "class" ..it's not expensive to get into fusing metal at all unless you get into the heavier gauge metal. But we'll start small..now ..off to the Canon website to find out how to delete all these photos....

1 comment:

Over The Top Aprons said...

All of that information is quite interesting .... and gives me a better appreciation of all the work that goes into beading. I enjoy your blog.