Soldered, Stamped Glass Bracelet

Steps:

1. Clean glass with rubbing alcohol. Set aside.

2. Mix two parts Pebeo Gloss or Frost Medium to one part Pebeo Dilutent to one part Houston Art Authentic Metal Powders. Create one or two inks, for the front and back of the glass charms. Use Gloss for a leaf finish and Frost for a raw metal finish.

3. Apply metallic ink for the background stamp to the stamp pad foam . Prime and ink the stamp.

4. Stamp images. Stamp all the backs of each charm.

5. Remix the ink for the top surface of the charms. Apply to stamp pad foam; ink stamp and stamp the front of all the pieces. Allow to dry.

6. Place charms on an aluminum foil-covered cookie sheet and put into the center rack of the cold oven. Bring oven to 275 F degrees to cure for 30 minutes. Shut off oven, open door, and allow charms to cool gradually in the oven.

7. Cut 4 inches of copper tape. Pull the backing away and center the charm's bottom edge on the tape and proceed to wrap all four edges. Overlap the tape on the bottom by 1/2 inch. You want to start at the bottom so that when soldered, the pieces will be the strongest.

8. Use the fid to burnish edges on charm then to turn the edges of the tape over onto the top of the charm. Also miter corners, burnish down, then repeat on back. Do this to all charms and set aside.

9. Use a pre-assembled jig or assemble a jig using a 4" x 4" piece of homasote board and two 4-inch-long strips of balsa. Homasote is fire resistant so it won't ignite when soldering. Drill a 1/16-inch hole centered on each balsa strip. 1/2 inch in from each edge, and cover with measuring tape.

10. Use push pins in the pre-drilled holes to secure one charm between the two balsa strips.

11. Plug in soldering iron and adjust temperature so solder will melt and adhere to the iron, but not drip off. Soldering is best done in an assembly-line fashion so that pieces get a chance to cool.

12. Flux the top edge of the first charm. Important: Remove all jewelry when soldering. Apply flux with a cotton swab on small projects. Too much flux and you'll get little solder explosions; not enough and the solder will not stick. Tin the top edge by picking up a bead of solder on the iron and running it along the fluxed copper like a pencil. Do all the front edges on the charms.

13. Flux and tin the back edges of the charm. To create a holder for the charm, while soldering the edges, place the charm in wooden clothespin, edge up.

14. Flux the side edges now and bead the solder onto the edges by tapping a bead of solder on the iron to edge. The solder self-levels, so let the solder level off. This leaves a nice level, beaded edge.

15. Open the clothespin wide when removing charm to solder the next edge so that you do not pull off the copper tape. Solder all four edges on all beads.

16. Decide on the order the charms will be in and pick up the first charm. This charm will have three jump rings soldered to it: one on the right 1/2-inch down and two 1/4 inch from the top and bottom on the left. Use the measuring tape on the jig to line these up.

17. Apply solder to the jump ring. Close jump rings where the split in the ring is and the area on the charms that you are soldering the ring to. Use a small screwdriver or a pair of needle-nose pliers to hold the ring in place on the jig. Pick up the solder on the end of the iron and apply to fluxed area.

18. All the center charms get jump rings soldered two on each side, 1/4 inch down from top and 1/4 inch up from the bottom.

19. For the last charm: Solder two jump rings on the left 1/4 inch from the top and bottom and one on the right 1/2 inch down.

20. Use jump rings to string charms together and apply clasps.

21. Solder the jump rings closed. Seal the solder with sealer.