Solder or not

      My earring extravaganza class at Arrowmont was chockfull of techniques; one of which was soldering.  Up until that week, it had been 40 years since I had done any soldering.  (Oh my word I feel old!!)    I really did get pretty good at soldering way back then (as my students use to say.... when the dinosaurs roamed.)    But, all these years later I was really nervous when we had to solder during the earring class.  It was surprisingly easy and the nerves weren't really warranted.  

   Metal clay can be soldered, but for the most part I don't think I will be soldering very often.  The metal clay paste with lavendar oil added, works just as well (without the nerves.)  As long as there is a flat surface to attach the paste I'll be pasting instead of soldering.  

     This is a fabricated piece (made during my college years) that I sawed out of sheet metal, filed, domed  and soldered the domed front piece to the domed back piece.   Then I soldered a pin to the back........ in the middle.  Wrong thing to do.  It flops down when worn. (Which means it hasn't been worn in years.)  But I like the way it looks.  Someday I plan on duplicating the design in metal clay. 

    I've soldered posts on earrings and pasted them on too.  Both methods achieve the goal.   I'll post some photos of both sets of earrings as soon as I get some good photos.  (Still battling that demon.)