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okay we're going to go ahead and do am a
very basic ring and the first thing we
need to do is get wire for me to use so
sterling silver wire with this one I'm
going to use and this is a 16 gauge
sterling silver half hard round wire and
what we're going to do is we're going to
go ahead and if you have a measuring
tool to measure out how long you need
your ring that's fine if not you can
just go ahead and guess if you're just
starting out you can guess that's fine
too I'm going to use my ring mandrel
here that let's see this one's not it
I'm going to use the other one one's got
a notch in it for stones I'm going to go
ahead and use this one but I normally
say that if you go to ring 1/2 a ring
and a half our size and a half down or
two sizes down you'll mostly get the
size that you need so if you need a
seven maybe start five five and a half
and just go ahead and wrap it around
and if you want if your fingers are
strong enough you can go ahead and wrap
it around and if not you may need to use
some pliers and we'll just make a mark
right there with a with that marker and
you can use a sharpie I use a red
sharpie I can be back to where I was it
stretches out what you let go of it kind
of really don't fingers for this thing
okay so I'm going to go ahead and mark
it a little bit back let's see I'm going
to go ahead and do it right here and
again if you have a measuring tool you
can do that I have a ring sizer that you
can download if you want to I'll attach
that here with the video you can go
ahead and download that and then you can
measure out your sizes and I'm going to
use these are German sheers these are
made to cut metal
they're not regular scissors they're
tougher so these are great they're
putting spent inexpensive I think these
ran me 1215 bucks something like that it
wasn't too bad I don't think for these
and it cuts right through the middle we
need to leverage a little bit so there
you go your piece is going to look
something similar to this maybe maybe
both ends are straight
and what we need to do is we need to
file down each edge the German shares
help because they make a straight cut
but if you don't have German shears and
you're just sniffing like with wire
cutters like a regular cheap pair of
wire snips you can use those and you'll
need to file it down or go ahead and
file this is actually a jewelers file
now if you don't have one it's okay you
can use a really rough filing stick like
for your nails I made out of a manicure
set those are really inexpensive to get
if you don't have one of these big metal
files that's okay
that's what I started off using was
manicure sets and I still use as you'll
see like here I'll use this little tool
later this is a manicure stick a cuticle
stick that I still use so a manicure kit
will get you a long ways in jewelry
making if you're just starting out so we
just want to go across in one direction
to smooth it out I'm going to spin it
around and do the other side
one side may be rougher than the other
did you switch your file until you get
till you get it down to where you want
it till it looks nice and flat otherwise
if you have a groove then it might show
after you soldered it and you can either
like I'm doing you're kind of pulling it
toward you or you can push your file out
whatever works best for you
get this side down a little bit more
okay now we're ready to go ahead and
sign this okay my soldering ready this
is my silver solder this is an easy flow
paste my interlocking tweezers big handy
tool and then my broadcast art it's
boric acid and denatured alcohol in a
covered sealed glass jar now go ahead
and grab my tweezers and I've got my
lighter here I'm going to dip it into my
solution and swish it around make sure
that is totally covered pull it out
dangle it a little bit make sure they
get all the drips off and I'm going to
light it on fire with my torch or with
my lighter it's going to turn green if
you didn't see it I'll go ahead and do
it again you just need to do it once but
I'll show you again if you didn't see
the green flame there we go some green
and don't blow it out don't wave it out
just let it go out on its own make sure
you got everything then up we'll give it
a white protective coating all the way
around your whole piece and you want
that coating on there so you don't burn
your silver
the next thing we want to do is to make
sure I probably should have done this
before I did it but you can do it either
right still a little hot what we want to
do it some freezers here we want to bend
it
normally if you do this before you prep
it you put it in the fire cutting
solution it's probably best bend it down
and it's going to look a little funky at
first it's not going to look like a
perfect green and that's okay
we'll deal with that later we're going
to bend it to where it's all blown and
it's flat we're going to make sure that
they're flush together now the best
thing to do is to squeeze it past
squeeze each it and past each other like
that and then very carefully pull them
apart and slip them together is you want
that tension you want to make sure that
the silver is touching each other
because if it's not your piece will not
solder together make sure it's flat and
you make sure it's tight tight to
squeeze like to squeeze together so
we're going to use our silver solder
paste again this is my manicure cute
I'll cuticle stick but I like it for
putting my paste in small areas to pick
up
go ahead and put a little bitty dab you
don't need but it doesn't take much at
all especially for a little ring just a
little bit of solder and this is solder
with flux in it I'm go ahead and light
my torch this is a miniature towards
your kitchen torch like a creme brulee
torch I don't make creme brulee so but
that's that's what it is so go ahead and
I turn it on click it on I keep it this
is a high flame I keep it down low a
little bit it doesn't need to be too
high you wanna make sure the tip right
here this blue tip is right on your
silver I just go in a circle keep your
flame moving you want to heat up the
entire piece
now solder will always flow toward heat
and there goes ooh it flew it flowed
there right quick let me go ahead and
make sure it's then melt it a little bit
if you want a melted look but not too
much and I've got a little I use a
little a shot glass it's a little Pyrex
get in any glass dish is great just a
little bit of water in it go ahead and
Sint um quench it cinch it quench it
you'll hear a little it's just nice and
cool don't want to burn your fingers and
you will burn your fingers it just
happens and there you go your soldered
together it's a little bit rough you can
use either a dremel to kind of file it
or you can use your file again I'm going
to kind of do this with my file just
kind of go over a little bit get a
little bit of the solder off while I'm
doing it there'll be a little bit solder
on it
or you can use your Dremel like I said
or a manicuring filing kit if you don't
have a nice jewelers file yet they are a
little bit expensive these big heavy
ones are expensive and another thing if
I can be doing a lot of rings you want
to get what's called a half-round now
this one's a little bit rusted it's an
old one it's got half of it is flat and
half of it is round it's awesome for
rings you can put it right underneath
there and get on the inside if you don't
have one of those okay use your dremel
got a dremel really inexpensive you
don't have those about to run out of
batteries this one I'll show you I got
it at Walmart rechargeable battery plug
it into the wall let's get a little plug
with it then you're ready just pop it in
and you're ready to go it's got two
speeds high and low this is a dremel 4.8
volt cordless I've got it at Walmart
it's like 15 20 bucks and like that it's
awesome especially if you just start now
it's awesome half okay so the next thing
we want to do we've got our ring is now
formed so we want to put it on a mandrel
if you're going to be doing rings go
ahead and suck it up and by your mandrel
you'll you'll be glad that you did and
since I have a little ones in the house
especially like right now my little ones
napping so don't wake her up so I put it
on a cloth or you can just lead it if
you're on your desk or whatever but I
put it on the cloth so I don't wake her
up this is my rawhide hammer
great to have you're going to be making
rings now this is not rawhide is not
supposed to Mar your silver it's just
supposed to form it so it's a great it's
a great tool have rawhide I'm gonna be
doing rings you're going to need a
rawhide hammer diameter doesn't really
matter I don't think I think this one
with two two and a half something like
that no maybes less than that maybe is
one and a half inches I don't know
anyway get there's no different
diameters you can buy okay
this one is turning out to be an eight
so now if you wanted to make sure you
knew what size you were going to get
go ahead and measure your wire before
you start I'm just guessing here I wear
when I do wear rings I wear anything
from a a six to and eight eight and a
half depending on what finger on mark
you know let's go ahead and hand it all
the way around and now you've got your
ring and the next thing you want to do
if you don't want to add anything to it
if you're going to solder a stone to it
or something else you can do that if you
just want a basic like this is a
stacking ring what I would call stacking
ring I'm just going to go ahead and put
it in the pickle mix and my pickle mix
is I use a
a natural pickle mix and I just softly
boil distilled water into a little crock
pot that I just used for pickling I
don't use for anything else and so I'm
gonna go ahead and put that in there and
it's going to make it it's going to
clean it it's going to clean all of the
gunk off from the solder and any not
burn marks but any don't that's going to
be on your silver it's going to take it
off of there and then you can buff it up
and shine it into a sterling silver
shine or you can oxidize it if you want
to go ahead and do that some liver of
sulfur this is an 8 a cute little
stacking ring there we go so let's go
ahead and pickle it
okay we have our ring it's all ready to
go you can see there's a little bit of
solder on it and it's not perfectly
formed yet I may do some more um
hammering on it after I'm done pickling
it but you can see it's got some dark
edges right it almost looks kind of
coppery so we're going to go ahead and
we're going to take that off in the
pickle mixture so this is my crock pot
and this is my pickle this is a natural
pickle mix it says it's it's all natural
safe effective fast easy to use it's
exactly what it is it's perfect so I've
got my crock pot is about this much full
of water you don't need that much he's
just doing a few little rings just
enough to cover the piece that you're
pickling so you put in about maybe a
tablespoon of this per cup of distilled
water and just drop it in there and let
it let it be it's gonna sit for a few
kind of show you there you go just sign
in there it's going to go ahead and and
start boiling and then we'll take it out
and we'll buff it up okay our ring is
all ready to take out of the crock pot
it's been in the pickle mixer and we
want to use some plastic tongs to pull
it out of the pickle mixture picking get
a hold of it sometimes as harder than
any okay we'll pull it up the side okay
now we're going to put it into a little
bath of water and baking soda and it
will feel a little bit cancer it up
okay in the baking soda will neutralize
the pickle mixture so now it's a
beautiful it's got kind of a white sheen
to it you can see it's a lot shinier
than it was so the important thing that
we need to do is to buff it up with a
brass brush and I'm just going to go
ahead and buff part of it so you can see
the difference yes you have been mommy
make a ring okay so here we go here's
our ring you can see I didn't get it
perfectly lined up so there is a bump
right there so I guess that goes to show
that you need to have it perfectly
straight you need to make sure that it's
completely filed flat before you
slaughter it together now it will stay
it is soldered together but there's a
little bump now if you don't mind that
if you like that look then you're just
fine I do like to make a lot of pieces
that look melted that have more of a
rustic naturalistic look and so that's
great especially when you're starting
out that's fine that means that you know
you could make a little mistake here and
there and and you're fine it works well
for you so we're going to go ahead and
buff the rest of it so my little one
tells me a story yes I hear your story
and let's rinse it off a little bit in a
little bit more water it's got a little
bit of baking soda on there that I
didn't get off spinner once that you pat
dry
and what about a little bit more now if
you want to oxidize your piece which
means to darken it and oxidation takes
off a layer of silver so you can make it
look darker and then give it kind of a
scuffed matte finish you can go ahead
and oxidize it with a pickling solution
I think I'm going to go ahead and leave
this one - I kneeling so far I think
it's really pretty
get in there with your brass brush get
it all buffed shined up and then if you
have a tumbler you can put it in your
tumble tumbler and let it tumble with
some steel shot I have a tumbler that I
love to use you just turn it on put your
piece in ever put your piece in there
with some water distilled water and some
like a drop of dog dish soap and mine
takes about a pound pound and a half of
steel shot and just let it tumble for an
hour or two depending on how shiny and
how buffed you want your piece to look
and it just comes out just lovely and
also the tumbling will help to harden
your piece now this is like I said
before this is a 16 gauge wire so it's
pretty strong it's pretty thick it's
gonna stay most of the time where you
want it to stay especially for a ring I
mean I'm trying to bend it and I can't
so what makes a good ring a 16 gauge
makes a makes a good good size for a
ring so there you go there's a little
stacking ring easy to do just takes a
few tools and a little bit of know-how
and and you're on your way to breaking
accreting sexy legs okay I better go I
think I'm getting someone so there you
go okay thanks I hope you're having a
great day bye bye
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