How to secure jumprings in jewellery making ..

by Lauren
(US)

Mixed Media Artists Questions - Art Supplies
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Good Morning,

~ I make beaded jewelry and I have a question about jump rings.

~ I need to know how to make sure they stay closed on the piece. Such as using them to add a charm to a bracelet, how do you secure it? Can it be soldered? or is there a glue that will fill in the small gap that is created from opening the jump ring?

~ I have looked for video instruction on soldering and found some but not one of them talks about soldering a jump ring that is attached to a piece of jewelry already to secure it.

Thanks for any help.

Lauren

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Mixed Media Artists Questions

Milliande 's Answer
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~ from my experience with jewellery findings or jewelry :-) .. the jumprings then to respond well when the are opened sideways rather than stretched apart lengthways .. that keeps the integrity of the basemetal in place, allowing for the closure to be quite tight when one bends them back with
Jewelry Pliers

~ jewllery glu can be used ...but it is difficult to obtain a nice neat finish -- something like
E6000 Jewelry Adhesive will do a decent adhering job.. residue can be filed away after the gluing has finished with a small file or artist grade sandpaper

~ as for soldering... yes jumprings can be soldered together... you would need some Soldering Flux that prepares the surface of the base metal for the actual
Solder ..
Depending on whether you use silver metal jumprings or silver plated jumprings you can adjust the type of solder you buy

~ The tricky bit is to get the temperature right on your
Solder Iron ..too hot and can easily burn the solder, to cold and the solder does not melt ..

~ As Jumprings then to be quite tiny it can take a little practice but does work well for soldered charms, attaching jumprings to art dolls and altered jewery etc

~ I tend to use a little gadget that holds my tiny pieces in place whilst I am soldering them... I cannot quite recall what it is called .. but it has a solid metal base with several "hands" that have crocodile clips attached to them .. that way I can secure even tiny pieces of artwork and dont get burned in the process

Hope this helps a little

♥ milliande

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Mixed Media Artists Questions - Art Supplies
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