Add soldering to my list....

If someone would have told me 5 years ago that figuring out how to solder would be on my list of to-do's-I would have loudly said, "Yeah, right."and dismissed it...But here I am, obsessed once again with figuring something out.

This is my 6th try at this soldering gig and finally, the lumpy,bumpy blackened mess of the other 5 trys is almost a distant memory.

If you want to try, I'm going to set you in the right direction for some supplies and a few quick tips:

-I made the unfortunate mistake of paying $3.99 for 4 glass slides. ArtChix has multiple sizes and larger quantities at much lower prices.

-Simply Swank has the entire kit (everything you need) if you don't want to shop around. And they have a great gallery for inspiration. Michael's also sells the soldering tool kit for about $17.99 though I couldn't find flux or the glass slides there. I also purchased this little tool which makes attaching jump rings a hell of a lot easier but you don't need it.

-If you should embarq on this little craftivity here are a few tips:

-Make sure you have "burnished" all edges of the copper tape. Do it again if you are not sure.

-If you are getting black marks on your solder, this means you are using too much flux.

-If your solder is not flowing smoothly, you may need to clean your tip. There is a bar called SAL Ammoniac. that will help clean/tin your tip.

-If your soldering tool comes with two tips, use the wider tip, not the pencil tip.

-Practice!

I just googled tutorials and came up with this one. I'm sure there are a million others out there. What did we ever do without Google?