Thursday, April 22, 2010

Saturday's Retreat

Last Saturday I attended a retreat for the Altered Arts group that I am a member of. We learned 3 new projects. We etched metal, made fairies and learned soldering. I took a soldering class a few years ago and really needed a refresher in this so I was quite happy to revisit this technique.We started out with soldering.


I have not mastered attaching jump rings yet. You need 1-2 more hands to get this set right. I did find a tool that actually will hold the piece, freeing your hands for other actions. Love it. I am looking forward to using it on the next soldering project.









Jump rings are not supposed to be laying flat.Isn't this just pitiful (LOL). I WILL master this. Soldering is really not hard but it takes a lot of practice to really master it.











This is a piece of glass that I bought at Michael's and I soldered tape onto it to make it look like a gift. It just needs a bow. I am working on that .






Hard at work on my soldering. You really need more than 2 hands.


Next we learned to make Fairies out of chenille, yarn, a bead, fabric strips and florist tape.

They need wings and then they will be true fairies. Aren't these cute?? I love these and they are so easy to make.

Last but not least we learned to etch metal. This works well with brass, tin, copper but does not work on aluminum. Muriatic acid, peroxide and baking soda for the rinse and after 15 minutes or so you have an etched piece.This is not hard to do but you really need to work in a ventilated area and wear eye protection and wear rubber gloves. Here is the end result:



The day was perfect and we had a great time learning 3 new projects.
My thanks to Angie, Carla, Beth and Sandi for their hard work in getting their classes together and for their time.

Well that is it for now, thanks for stopping by, see you soon,

Barbara

1 comment:

creativearts said...

Wow, Barbara! This sounded like a great retreat and you learned a lot! I have never tried soldering but it looks like you are really working at it! Congratulations for attempting this! I'm impressed.