Hello from Scotland...

[radioactivesquirrel]

Hi, I've been lurking a bit on the site and thought it was about time I joined and tried my hand at proper jewellery.

I'm on the coast and have found a nice supply of sea glass I want to do things with. Sadly it's not the gorgeous fat rounded pebble type, more the angular rough stuff but it just means you have to be a bit more imaginative with what you can do with it I guess. Also keen to look at shell work and other sea related projects. I've tried soft soldering round pieces of glass using copper tape and solder but I understand it's not good for use against the skin (although it has 3% silver in it). So I thought I'd try my hand at proper silver work - well that's the plan in the long term! I'm also doing a bit of wire wrapping of them with silver plated wire. That's going ok so far.

Got myself a Dremel Versatorch and lots of sea glass... oh and I've got a craft market booked in three weeks! :) Although I do other crafts too so it's not like I have to have lots done of new jewellery done in that time!

Thanks in advance for any help.
Jen

[Nick martin]

Hi Jen and welcome to the forum.

Loads of very knowledgeable folk on here, friendly and helpful all the way. I've also got a Versatorch as well as others and find it to be a really useful soldering tool on smaller items.

Nick

[Dennis]

Hi Jen,

If you've got lots of rocky glass, you might like to look at what I did with bits of car windscreen. I just made square back plates and cut out the centres. Then I drilled holes for these staple shaped prongs placed strategically, drilled holes, sharpened the ends and pushed them through into the soldering block to hold them for soldering.

It looks difficult but is actually remarkably easy. I made them different heights and they held the glass very firmly when pushed home. Welcome to the forum. Dennis.

[CJ57]

Hi Jen welcome from me too. I'm in Fife so cold east coast ish 15 miles away

[Patstone]

When you said you drilled, did you drill the glass, I also live close to the beach at Exmouth and when we walk dogs there I find and keep bits of seaglass too, I have lots of different colours and tried to drill one and it split although I drilled it in a tub of water, tried an ordinary drill bit and then read that I should use a diamond one so changed over and ping. Any ideas where I am going wrong.

[metalsmith]

Hi, I've been lurking a bit on the site and thought it was about time I joined and tried my hand at proper jewellery.

Welcome to the forum Jen

I have a versaflame and it succeeds for most things. For anything bigger, a couple of additions will help: a wire wig can be inverted and used as an insulator or 2) use firecement to make an igloo shaped micro furnace - I've even melted copper with that! (and the end of the versaflame!)

Pat, I suspect you may be trying to drill the glass - it is just too brittle. With the diamond tip, you should exert little pressure and use low revs to let it grind its way through. I've drilled Obsidian this way (which is a volcanic glass).

[CJ57]

When you said you drilled, did you drill the glass, I also live close to the beach at Exmouth and when we walk dogs there I find and keep bits of seaglass too, I have lots of different colours and tried to drill one and it split although I drilled it in a tub of water, tried an ordinary drill bit and then read that I should use a diamond one so changed over and ping. Any ideas where I am going wrong.
Countryfile showed a sea glass jewellery maker last week and he was doing exactly as you under water. He made her drill from both sides rather than all the way through, maybe that's the answer

[radioactivesquirrel]

Hi Pat,

I didn't think I'd be the one giving advice as a complete novice ;-) but I got a set of 30 cheap (1mm I think) diamond drill bits from Amazon, they were about £7 is and have those in a normal bosch power drill. I put the glass in a metal top of a coffee canister on something non slip then fill with water just enough to cover the glass. The hardest bit is getting it to start off as it slides around the top of the glass. But even steady drilling seems to get it going. Some of the drill bits are duds but I've found enough that work to have made them worth the money. As soon as you get a milkiness forming in the water you know it's going through. I'd not bothered turning them over as it works fine just one sided (so far)! :)

Jen

[radioactivesquirrel]

Hi Dennis

Thank you for the welcome. I love your windscreen pieces. So clever, you'd never guess that's what they were made from. I'm not up to making back plates yet but I might look for now for pre-made ones to try it out I'd love to make use of the glass in as many ways as I can. I'll go have a browse through your album now and see what other lovely things you do! :)

Jen

[radioactivesquirrel]

Thank to Nick and Caroline for the welcomes. It seems a great forum and the Cooksongold shop looks like you could spend alot of money in it! I've got some open jump rings on order which I'm going to attempt to solder closed. I guess that's somewhere to start. I'm looking at the silver paste as it looks the simplest to work with as a beginner and you don't need lots of other equipment. Great to know there's so many people here who can help!

Thanks
Jen

[Patstone]

Thank for the tip metalsmith, sorry I dont know your real name. I will give it another go, you seem to find plenty of green glass on Exmouth beach but the other day I found some blue which I think is nice and would make a nice pendant. We do a craft market on Exmouth seafront which would be a great selling point for seaglass picked up on the beach around 20 foot away.

[metalsmith]

Countryfile showed a sea glass jewellery maker last week and he was doing exactly as you under water. He made her drill from both sides rather than all the way through, maybe that's the answer

Under water is good since powdered glass won't do your breathing any good at all! It will also cool the bit, leading to greater longevity too.
Remove the bit periodically to remove / wash out the grounds.

If you drill from 2 sides this has the benefit of easier exit for the grounds, but when your two holes don't line up exactly across 15mm of material you will gain new found admiration for the builders of the Milau Viaduct and the Channel tunnelers! :-D

[metalsmith]

Thank for the tip metalsmith, sorry I dont know your real name.

No apologies necessary...

Chas

[Keia]

A warm welcome from me too =)

[Lynn.D]

Hi radioactive, I'm a newbie too and really don't know very much but funnily enough last night I was researching how my friend could drill a hole in her dichroic glass and discovered dremel do a diamond bit with a coolant that comes with it. The thought of drilling in water sends shivers down my spine.