Bracelet help please

[Tropikatz]

I made the attached bracelet as a commission piece. I connected the large stone components with 18 ga. 4.5 mm jump rings and then slipped little bead charms onto the rings as well. The owner is saying that the little bead charms are slipping through the jump ring opening. I thought I was careful with the closure but apparently not careful enough. I guess I need to consider soldering. How do others solve this? Should I make fine silver jump rings and fuse them? I have never done this but see a class offered at Bead and Button on fusing. Can I use a creme brulee torch? Help!!

Karen

[Andee]

Karen - soldering will not help you with this particular bracelet because you would have to completely redo it - I doubt any of the stones and pearls would stand the heat of the soldering torch. What you could do here is either replace the jump rings with split rings or use two jumprings instead of just one.

[claire.c]

Absolutely - do NOT heat this, you will ruin the stones. As Andee says, you have to double up either with split rings or double jump rings. What cut of ring do you use? If the jump rings have an angled cut they are supposed to hold better, and thicker wire stays in place better than thin.
If you really, really want to solder you will have to take the whole piece apart and reorganise how you fit it together, all the solder work must be done before the beads are fitted so you can't use headpins, you have to make the loop first then attach the beads last and do a wrapped loop at the bottom to keep them on. You will also need to pickle and polish after soldering and before adding the beads.
In emergencies it is sometimes possible, with care and a lot of isolation paste, to solder while stones are in place. In general this is only done for repairs, and not with pearls. Always look up the heat tolerance of your stones before trying to solder. And no fusing, that requires more heat than soldering.
It's a very pretty bracelet btw.

[BlindCaveFish]

I agree with Andee and Clare, don't heat it up whatever you do
I would double up the rings and link them together as a mobius ring...Check out the first pic of this tutorial, that's a mobius ring.

http://www.mailleartisans.org/articles/articledisplay.cgi?key=8588

I've never had charms fall out of them

[Tropikatz]

Thank you, everyone. Now I am worried though, because the client took it to a jeweler who said they could solder the rings. Do fine jewelers have micro torches or something so they don't damage the stones?

Karen S.

[claire.c]

As I said, you can use isolating paste, but it is risky. Yes you can get very fine torch tips for jewellery work but it would be hard to keep the heat from conducting to the stones. I wouldn't risk it myself.

[Starrr]

You could also purchase soldered jump rings in different gauges if you didn't want to solder them.
Edie

[kjscrim]

What about putting a crip where the jump ring meets? Sometimes it can add a nice design touch too.
Kathie

[ingeniouslycreative]

Karen, Beautiful bracelet! When I make these I use closed jumprings and put them on each section before I finish wrapping the loop. I had the same problem with on bracelet and never want that again! But to fix this one I agree with doubling the jump rings.

Let us know what happens.

Marie
www.picturetrail.com/ingeniouslycreative

auctions
http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZingeniouslycreativeQQhtZ-1

[Tropikatz]

Great minds think alike. I was just ruminating this problem today and for future bracelets came up with the idea of the soldered ring and then wire wrapping the large bead components and the small charm components to it. Of course, it is not a tray on the lap in front of the tv project anymore.:( But it would certainly solve the problem of losing the charms.

I like the idea of the crimp bead if it was decorative. Maybe this new crimper that makes the crimp look like a bead if I could match the jump ring to the doubled .019 flex wire. It is definitely something to check out. Thank you!:cat:

Karen S.

[aks141]

I would offer to fix it for her, no charge as part of my learning process and for customer satisfaction. If the jeweler ruins it, all 3 of you will be unhappy.