Pendants created from microscope slides, a little stained glass tape and lead-free solder along with drawings that I did with oil pastels and graphite on vellum. Each pendant has two sides. I have one that my mom and I made last spring and it's by far my favorite necklace. These will hopefully be sold to the gallery this week, they are part of my newest work. Fingers crossed that they like them.
So now, you want to know everything about making your own microscope pendant slides, don't you? Well, since these are the very first ones I've made on my own, I can only point you in the right direction and then it's off to the work table for you to experiment and see what works best. First, directions and eye candy.
You can find the directions to make the pendants here and here. The queen of microscope pendants is Sally Jean, you can listen to her tips and tricks on HeartsArt Radio, which I found very helpful.
I treated myself to a soldering iron this week. It works wonderfully. If you are using lead-free solder and if you are making jewelry, it should be lead-free, you need an iron that runs at a hotter temperature. On the HeartsArt program Sally Jean suggested using a Weller iron that runs between 60-80 watts. I picked mine up at Lowes. You can find mircoscope pendants all over the place, but here is a very nice supplier at a price you can't beat! I just ordered from them and will be making Christmas ornaments later this month.
Well, that's it. Off with you now to create amazing and beautiful things.
I love your new drawings for the pendants.
Great links you found for getting you started. Now I want to pull out my soldering box and get busy on Christmas pendants with vintage pictures. You are a very clever daughter!!
Love Mom
Posted by: Mom | November 07, 2005 at 09:46 PM
Thanks so much for this, Heather! Your pendants are beautiful and I have had the supplies for making these for months. I did make one, but I need a lot more practice with the soldering iron ... and didn't realize how yucky the fumes would be, too. Anyway, there really is an art to holding the solder and the iron and applying just the right 'flow,' (though they're not supposed to look 'perfect,' that's the whole charm of them). You've just inspired me to get back to them and make some more. Thanks for the links, too ... I think that's just where I got my microscope slides, in fact. I look forward to checking out Sally Jean and the other instructional links, too.
Good luck with the gallery! I hope they buy up your whole batch.
Posted by: maria | November 08, 2005 at 07:38 AM
Aren't these fun to make? Thanks for the link to microscope slides at an awesome price!
Deryn
Posted by: Deryn Mentock | November 08, 2005 at 08:31 AM
These are lovely, and aren't they fun to make? I've been making ornaments for a few years, and have made a few pendants here and there. Something that adds even more dimension is to stamp the slide with StazOn and then have the background showing through. My best friend is a chemistry teacher, and she didn't even realize these were slides until I told her!
Posted by: Cindy Ericsson | November 08, 2005 at 07:44 PM
Such beautiful jewelery! I really love the colors!
Posted by: Misty | November 14, 2005 at 09:34 PM
Wow, it looks like what you would find if you opened a treasure chest at the bottom of a blue lagoon. Beautiful work!
Posted by: Paige Keiser | November 17, 2005 at 09:34 PM
I am thinking to make some of these for gifts and ornaments this Christmas, and I am so glad that I found someone who has experience with it to ask this question -- what about the soldering iron? Were you happy with yours? I have seen such a range of prices. I don't want to spend more than necessary, but I also don't want to sabotage my efforts with poor-quality tools. May I benefit from your experience?
Posted by: Rebecca | September 07, 2006 at 06:25 AM
Hi
Great post. Thank you for sharing. Have a great and reflective day.
Posted by: Lektriext | December 02, 2008 at 10:06 AM