First of all these are the tools you will need
Here is a picture of some of the tools, but not all the tools you need. Also, you need flat nose / chain nose pliers not the round nose pliers as shown in picture.... ooopsies! You have the list above though LOL!
Now that you know what tools and materials are needed let's get this ball head pin finding party started! Whoa! That was a tongue twister!
To begin, you want to measure your wire and cut a 1' 1/2 inch pieces of wire for each ball head pin finding to your going to create as demonstrated in these pictures... measure....
cut...
Finished! Well, not really, but you get the point.
Now that you have measured and cut equal (or near equal) pieces of wire your going to use your tape measure and permanent marker to mark 1/2 inch up the wire as shown. That mark of the sharpie is where you will stop melting the ball to get equal size ball head pins. Well, that is the plan any way perfection is hard to come by... after all, we are only human! Here is a demonstration of where to mark your wire with the sharpie. Don't worry the sharpie will not be permanently marked on your wire. It will come off without a fuse!
Now that you have that all done let's get to the fun part! Don't get me wrong, this is fun but at the same time VERY DANGEROUS. Don't be careless. Exercise common sense and use safety precautions when doing this. Have a fire extinguisher near by. Clear your work area of anything what might catch fire and never EVER have your butane can on the table while using your torch! I recommend opening a window. Having good ventilation is a health conscious decision! Have a big bowl of water on the side; it doesn't hurt to be over precautions! Another thing, I don't recommend doing this with little children bobbin' and bouncing around your house. If you have cats or dogs that might want to run up on your work and check out what you are doing you might want to lock them up in the bathroom or risk having them get set on fire! Now that you are aware how serious this really is let's get started! Bring on the fire!
Grab you wire piece one at a time with you flat or chain nose pliers holding the wire perpendicular which means straight up and down over your water bowl. Hold the pliers with the wire in your non dominant hand. The better you hold it perpendicular the fewer loop sided your balls will be. You will see mine didn't turn out so great, but that was because I was paying more attention to making a great video and pictures for youtube and this blog! Click here to check out my youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/iloveanabel730
I almost got burnt doing this so please comment, thumb up and share this blog! Also subscribe to my blog if you haven't already... but I know you already have LOL:) Just kidding no pressure! With the dominant hand hold the torch and light that baby up! You need more control so make sure that the torch is in you dominate hand not your non dominant had. Basically that means if your right handed the torch goes in your right hand, left handed left hand.
Here is a demonstration of me holding the wire with the pliers. I should have zoomed out more, but you get the idea. It's a good idea to straighten out the wire as well.. it gives it a better looking ball at the end. I had my wire crooked, but like I said... I was paying more attention to getting great pictures and video all while trying not to light myself, camera or house on fire!... that was fun LOL! NOT!
Use the tip of the blue part of your flame and pint it at the tip of the wire letting the wire ball up until it reaches the permanent marker mark on your wire. Try and keep steady because while the ball is forming the silver is molten liquid metal and can easily fall off prematurely if you shake or jerk too much.
Here are some fantastic pics of the process of me using the torch to make silver ball head pin findings!
Once you ball the wire up to the sharpie mark on the wire immediately submerge the ball of silver into water and leave it there until you hear a pop and sizzle or sizzle. This is called quenching the silver. Quenching eliminates the heat from the wire.
Congratulations! You made your first very own ball head pin finding! Now that wasn't so hard now was it? Put the ball head pin finding aside and continue with the rest until your heart is content!
When you done you can throw them into your natural or chemical pickling solution to get the fire scale off or use fine 0000 steel wool that you can easily find at home depot or other stores. A bag of them is about 8 bucks. If using the steel wool please note that it leaves a mess and I recommend using a mask so you don't inhale the particles of the steel wool. If you have a tumbler thrown them the tumbler with steel jewelers mix of shoot for a few hours for added strength and shine! If you don't have a tumbler you wont get a polished shine with your ball head pins but you can still use them! Have fun creating awesome jewelry with these silver ball head pin findings! Please share this blog on Facebook, Google +, Twitter, and where ever else! Comment and join to my blog is you haven't already! The link is at the top left corner of your screen.
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