Thereby Hangs a Tale...

Worked on a birthday present for my Girlie Goth niece. I've had the various bits around for a while so I decided to finally try one of those glass pendants with solder around the sides that have been popular lately. Mary (The Niece) at one time had pink and purple striped hair, so I decided to go with that color scheme plus, of course, black.

I wanted to do a more Illustrative style picture, so I went with the "big-eyed waif girl" look that is also popular right now. This was also partially inspired by an ATCard I received in trade from altermyworld at ATCsForAll.com.

Click on the picture to see a detailed photo of the finished piece...

I was working with 1" x 1" glass squares, so the painting was officially an "Inchie". The painting took about two hours start to finish - turned out alright for my first attempt at the genre. I do wish I'd thought to put in a mini-mat to keep the glass off the paint...the white gouache is probably going to lift at some point. But then again, with Mary's penchant for losing things, she may never see it happen!

Once the watercolors were dry, I sandwiched the pic between two craft squares and added the metal tape that the solder is applied to. Then I went out on the balcony to solder. Ten minutes later I was back inside trying to figure out why the solder wouldn't stick to the metal tape. It literally beaded up and fell off! Crap! I had used a silver colored tape, so I decided to try some copper colored tape that I also had.

This time it worked. However, the soldering iron had a heat-up, working temp, cool-down, heat-up cycle that made it take FOREVER and I accidentally applied too much solder. It was hideous to say the least! (no, I didn't take pictures).

So I checked a few magazine articles (you know, those EVIL articles that make it look like you could do this in five minutes and sucker you in...) and decided that the extra solder just had to go. Trying NOT to scorch the painting in between the glass, I set it up in the third hand and tried to time the next working temp cycle, then slid the tool down the side of the square and literally swept the excess solder off onto a wet sponge. Woot! This could work!

However, with the wonky soldering iron it took waaaaay too long to get the job done and I finally said, 'good enuf" and used the Dremel to give the remaining solder a brushed finish.

Handed it off today and was please with the positive response! (She especially liked the cleavage...go figure!)