Hi, complete newbie here...I've made some lovely bracelets and necklaces with sterling silver recently and decided that I need to solder the jump rings. Did some research, watched some videos, ordered some silver solder paste and have given it a go. Complete fail! I'm not sure what the problem is but I think it must be to do with the heat. So they are 4 and 5mm jump rings, I am holding them with some pliers with the join at the top, applying a little bit of the soldering paste and then heating with a little torch (microtorch tuv nord) that says it's suitable for soldering silver jewellery. I have tried heating it slowly from far away moving it back and forth and getting closer, and i've tried going closer to it (where the flame is hottest) but to no avail. I've cleaned the ends and made sure it's closed properly and just have no idea what else to try. The ring heats up and turns kind of white, the chain that it's joined to seems to glow red (but the jump ring doesn't?) but the solder paste seems to just stay there and turns a bit white and hard.

Strangely enough, I have managed to do two separate jump rings that weren't attached to anything, just held in the pliers. So i'm wondering if this is telling me something but I don't know what! Any help would be much appreciated as i've watched so many youtube videos and just can't see what i'm doing different! Hubby suggested doing on flat on a ceramic tile or something heatproof instead of holding it in the pliers, would that make any difference?

TIA