Getting Ready

I have been so busy in my studio, getting ready for the upcoming holiday season.
I'm working on an order for Woodmere Art Museum in Chestnut Hill where a wonderful, expanded gift shop is set up in one of the galleries for the months of November and December.
I am also getting ready for the upcoming juried shows at Main Line Art Center in Haverford and Community Arts Center in Wallingford.
I'm going to need lots of inventory to cover three venues at the same time, so I'm busy, busy, busy!

Last night's efforts included corrugating annealed copper strips which will be riveted onto some of my etched bangles, etched silver nickel sheets and soldered sterling wire hoops.
I thought that the sterling hoops would be a quick, simple task, but....they were such a pain!
I used paste solder and a small torch, and took great care to make sure that the end of my wire met flush. In spite of my prep work, the heat of the torch deformed the rings ever so slightly. That ever so slightly amount of deforming was enough to create a teeny gap where I previously had a flush connection.
Anyone who has done soldering knows what that means....failure!
Arrrrrggghhh!
After a few attempts, I did get the solder to flow where I wanted it to flow, but only on around half of the rings. Something to work on.

More etching was done on brass bangles. These have had only the initial cleaning with a brass wire brush after being submerged in a baking soda bath. Filing and sanding will complete the cleaning before I start adding riveted layers.