Me, Myself and I Versus Soldering ( Simple Soldered Jewelry & Accessories by Lisa Bluhm )

Hi Everyone, I hope you are all having a very beadful day.  Today I want to talk about Soldering.  I am not the sharpest tool in the shed when it comes to Soldering at all...So I try to read as much as I can and watch millions of you tube videos in order to better my techniques... Well I have learned a lot about what I nor my hubby were doing when Soldering....I was going through a stack of books I have here to review and am way behind on....I have so many irons in the fire, it is sometimes hard to get them all taken care of totally, if you know what I mean...Oops I think that was a run on sentence...so sorry bare with me people...lol...Anyway while going through all the books, I came across one that really screamed read me...The title is   "Simple Soldered Jewlry & Accessories by Lisa Bluhm.  It has like 40 plus brilliant projects in it.

I have been  designing and creating jewelry for over 15 years now and yes I am an infant when it comes to Soldering correctly as you will learn...When I start a new project I get all excited and discombobulated...(is that even a word?)...I get my cart before the horse...Then when it doesn't turn out perfect I want to chunk it at the wall... Can any of you relate to this ???  So I decide to breath deep and really study this technique of Soldering ...

This Book by Lisa Bluhm really showed me all my mistakes and how to correct them ...I learned I was missing  several of the essential tools to do the job properly.  I mean who knew what Grozing Pliers were, right , well not me...  It is also vital that you have the perfect enviroment and set up for soldering.  So work Space is very important.  Then don't get me started on flux...There are so many different fluxes that I didn't know which one to flux with.  Of course I chose the wrong one.  Oh and let me tell you, files girls and boys are very important also... Then knowing the right width of foil tape to use is a must.  Oh and don't get me started on the glass , wire, findings, embellishments, etc etc....

Then there are the safety issues.  Let me tell you first hand that tip on the soldering gun thingy gets beyond super hot people and the fumes are not pleasant...So safety glasses and dust mask are a must.  
Now for me I am not a glass cutter so glass slides are the way to go for me...Amazon and ebay to just name a couple can help ya there.  I learned that I was foiling the glass all kinda wrong.  Oh and skipping a step or two is my down fall.  I learned I was supposed to trim and neaten up the tape after applying it and why I should do so.  Burnishing the foil was a good idea also , who would of thunk it right...lol

Applying the jump ring at the top was a dilly for me to accomplish.  By the time I was finsihed it looked like A giant snowball had melted all around the darn thing.  But thanks to Lisa I learned a lot about that...

My finishing techniques were boring for sure but Lisa showed me just a few simple tweeks and wala.....Beautiful if I must say...lol

Sanding and Polishing, was a hard thing to do for me because I was so anxious for the finished product....This is where the deep slow breathing came in for me...I had to slow myself down , take the extra time ...go that extra mile and I would be rewarded in the end with something spectacular.. 

There is a mountain of more amazing knowledge to be gleamed from this publication.  Lisa Bluhm you rock girl, I have to give you your Props on this one for sure because you saved my little soldering pea pickin heart honey...You really know your stuff , well duh right, after over 20 years of soldering and teaching you are the master solderer for sure.  Thank you Lark / Chapelle for publishing this brilliant book...It gets two thumbs up and ten stars from me for sure...
And thats all I got to say about that....lol...Thanks everyone for stopping by and reading my little review...bye for now Jackie!