I have spent at least 3 hours today soldering and yesterday I probably spent another 2.  I am soldering the decorative rings on the second chasing & repousse canister I am making. I finished the first two rings I started yesterday and I also finished the second two (There are rings at the top/bottom of each piece and on the lid and the body where the two halves meet)

The primary purpose of the two canisters is of course to hold my chasing & repousse tools. But the other goals of these projects were to:

• use a lapped seam on one canister
• use a keyed seam on the other canister
  
• make a post slide and twist locking mechanism
• improve my soldering skills.

I have to admit that I have never been good at soldering. Part of it is my fear of getting burned.

I spent two summers in college doing welding and brazing (mostly with copper and aluminum) and I got caught in a torch "explosion". The torch was not put on the hose correctly by someone else and then when I lit it, there were flames  everywhere and it started to melt the hose. I did not get badly burned but I certainly got singed.  

I am not afraid of fire nor do I have a problem with my little butane torch, or when I am annealing with my propane/air torch; my problems happen when I am using big torches and soldering. I don't like getting my hands near the flame to apply the solder.   

As a result, when I am soldering big pieces I usually get solder everywhere because I won't hold my hands near the flame and then they start shaking and I just want to get it over with and have bad heat control.

Over the past 2 months that i have been working on these canisters (with Deb's help) I have learned that:

• The piece won't melt right way.
• Use lots of flux and learn when it gets glossy and up to temperature
• Place a few pieces of solder on the joint so you know when the piece is hot enough and the solder will flow. 
• You can move the flame to the side to place more solder. 
• How to feed the solder in using the stick soldering method (and if you aren't nervous, it wont shake and get ALL over the place)
• Control the heat and you really can see the solder flow down the joint
• GO SLOW and BREATH.

And today I have to say I did an excellent job. I won't have a massive amount of solder to clean up and I stick fed almost all of it. Right now the halves of the canister are in the pickle but below is a picture of my left hand showing the result of my time at the soldering bench.

Another item has just been crossed off my To-Do list. (14 completed).

I started this tray back in April of 2010 before my second workshop with Nancy Megan Corwin. I pulled it out of the  pitch for that class and never got back to it until now.

Last weekend it went back into the pitch, face up, and I finished the lining and undercutting. I then planished the design and added the texture around the flowers. That texture took 4 hours and several thousand hits to make all of those little dots. 

Overall I spent probably 6 hours on it last weekend alone.  I think there is about 4 hours for the repousse and then today I rolled the edge over and finished it. 

Wednesday, I went to the San Diego Fair for exhibitor appreciation night and first thing I did was go to the hall of Gems & Minerals to see how my piece fared. I was very nervous walking up to the case and so I approached it from an angle so I could not see anything until I looked at it face on.

THERE WAS A BLUE RIBBON WITH A #1 THERE.

I WON THE CATEGORY - \0/ \0/ \0/ \0/ \0/ \0/ \0/ \0/ \0/

I was so excited my hands were shaking. I wanted to jump up and down but all I kept saying was "I won, I won. Oh my god, I won".

So after taking a look around at the other pieces in my category, and all the other winners too. I finally took a picture of my piece. 

Then later in the evening, i was able to see what my score was and even talk to the judge.

I received a 95/100 points. Talk about being happy. 

I lost two points in workmanship (58/60) because I had issues with a solder joint when I mitered the corners. I knew the gap was there but it does reinforce that next time, I should do better.

I lost two points on uniqueness/design (18/20). The design was very unique – he loved it but he had a issue with the squid head not being centered and the area just under the head was a little empty. I had thought that myself when I was making it and I thought I should have gone back an put even a little starfish in to occupy the area, but did not.

I lost one point in Quality of Material (9/10). I did not ask why, but should have. This may also tie back to the solder joint as that does lower the quality of the piece.

I had a 5/5 on presentation. The judge normally does not like rotating turn tables but he said that in the is case it was the perfect way to display the cuff. He also said the black velvet on the stand made it pop. So Erich and everyone who convinced me to change it was right!

I had 5/5 on my Label. I spent 4 hours making that damn thing – looking for a good font, messing with the alignment and spacing, writing the description. I was one of the only people who had a nice font that was not hard to read and was not the plain old Arial or Times New Roman – nor was it a light font or too “script” making it hard to read.

SO, with all of this the judge said that I am good a determining what needs to be “fixed” so next time I can/will do better. He also has done some C&R and thought my technique was very good considering I have only been doing it for 3 years (and not constantly)

Before I left, I asked if we get our ribbons - real ribbons when we pick up our pieces when the fair closes. The answer was NO. They don't give ribbons anymore as there is no place to put them in the cases. WHAT? Wood gets real ribbons and they are quite big; the other competitions do; but for this competition they don't. I was quite disappointed at this news. 

Enjoy this picture with my "PAPER" ribbon.