Hi All, Silverworking newbie here. Would appreciate a bit of advice on the following please....

I've made a bangle by twisting together two bits of 2mm wire which I then flattened with a hammer. I've got the two ends as close together as I can and have been trying to solder them - so far unsuccessfully.

I've fluxed (using the autoflux from Cooksons rather than borax) the whole piece (didn't mean to but it runs down when I paint it) and placed a small piece of easy solder over the joint. I've then set to it with my little blow torch (the small one from cooksons - not a big tank with tube etc). After a lot of bubbling and fizzing as the flux gets hot (and quite a lot of the solder jumping off the joint ... grrrrr!), the solder sort of crusts over in position. I then heat and heat until the silver is almost red hot. The solder sort of looks like it's going to go runny but then it sort of changes its mind and just sits there looking square.

After than point it doesn't seem to matter what I do the £$%&ing solder won't do its soldery thing and I'm left gnashing my teeth and continuously having to refill my little blow torch.

Does anyone have any advice as to what I might be doing wrong please?

Any help gratefully received.
Many thanks
Barclaybear