second ring

Krazy, that is right on par with the experts. Good work. The reason you almost cooked the ring, easy or medium solder will erode silver when soldering. When using hard solder it "prints" just before the silver burns. Easy and medium boils and erodes. The same with gold solder.
Using hard solder, you can use more heat with more control. It also polishes and oxidizes the same as silver.
Looking good. I cannot wait untill you Zam it! I also use cratex for polishing.

Cookie, those rings that are for a few dollars, are either loss leaders, or they are not made with sterling silver.
I cannot tell you how many "sterling" ".925" rings I repair that obviously are not sterling silver.
As KD can tell you, sterling solders in a certain way, with certain chemicals. It acts in a certain way when heated, put in pickle, and polished. I cannot tell you how many rings I try to repair that will either reject the solder, form little shiney bubbles when heated up to the flow point, or turn shiney red when pickled. I am talking about expensive chains, expensive rings, expensive pendants.
Yesterday, I had a necklace repair. I soldered it. It seemed to be kinda like sterling, except the solder didn't flow like usual. I then put the soldered end into the pickle. I also threw a piece of my sterling in at the same time. The very expensive necklace turned bright red in the pickle, while my sterling got dull silver. I steamed the necklace, ultrasonic cleaned it, polished it, steamed it, ultrasonic cleaned it, ionic cleaned it. ultrasonic and ionic cleaned it. Repolished it.
It took hours to bring it back to shiney and the polish made it look like rhodium. It was stamped
.925
ITALY
For those who are interested, .925 ITALY is not sterling. .925 Italy is. The same with gold bracelets, rings, necklaces, pendants. 14K ITALY is not 14K gold. It is 14K solderfilled.
14K Italy is 14K.
KD, great job. Keep at it.

I think that looks great!
For a first, I don't see any flaws or anything. I think it's terrific.
I know you are your own worst critic, but it sure looks good to me.
What kind of torch do you use, and any kind of special head on it?
That has got to be fun!
Stressful, I imagine, but fun.

-Banjo

I am very impressed!!! Great job on the ring. I am proud of you.

Pho

that's just beautiful kd. do you know everything you need to know to wing it now?

kim

It is not that they use the cheapest materials, or get paid .02 cents a day.
Trade law allows for labeling an item with a similiar name if they always did it. As for the .02 cents a day, we import directly from Bali, and Thailand and India. None of the custom factories we import from have people employed in anything but programming. No one handles the items. They are legally called handmade as one person puts the stone, or top in position to be electrically soldered. Even the stone setting is done by machine.
Sterling from Mexico is not .925. Sterling from Denmark is not .925. An earring is considered gold if the ear post is karat gold, and then the entire earring can be sold by gram weight based on current gold prices. With a necklace, only the clasp has to be the sell by metal. Under trade law, if the clasp is gold on the necklace, the entire necklace is considered gold and sold by gram weight, even if it is vomit stone, or granite, or bone. In India, and Bali, Sterling is considered a trade name, not a metal designation.
People on cruises going to the Bahamas, Belize, etc., purchasing gold, or silver, gems or other items jewelery related, when it is repaired they are in for a suprise.
14K gold, when the item is made, the highest piece melted for casting is considered the karat designation.
I cannot tell you how many pieces of carribean jewelery I have tried to repair that have had lead, pewter, brass melted into the casting metal. Diamonds are double graded, tanzanite can be CZ with a layer of colour, emeralds can be rock crystal coloured by radiation.
Most commercial black onyx is coloured shell, most amythyst I have seen is coloured quartz, it goes on, and on.
Krazy, your work reminds me of when I started. Everybody told me I couldn't get the price I needed. Make it in front of them to their size, and let them watch and you can get 40$ all day for each ring. There is a real market for real handmade.
You will like the single gas torch. The silver will solder much easier. The oxygen mixture either adds too much O2 to the flame, enrichening, or too little, reducing. The single gas flame is how most silver is done in this country and it is the best way. It is quick, clean, and the heat is more controllable.
Hold the torch upside down so the tank is above the torch head, and solder on a 2 X 6 or larger. The resulting charcoal absorbs O2 so there is very little firescale, and since with silver the entire piece needs to be heated, the broadcast flame is quicker. Make the blue cone no larger than 1" from the torch tip at all times, even melting for casting. Hold the torch to begin with about one foot from the work, and bring the torch tip down to the work. Wave the flame to control the heat and if the wood gets too smokey, or makes too large an hole, sprinkle our old friend borax on the wood. Saturate the entire piece with flux before, during, and after soldering. You will only have to pickle once that way.
I do not know what your teacher was trying to teach you by not letting you use tweezers to hold your shank to the bezel. Use whatever you have available, soldering tweezers, binding wire, pins, tongs, wood blocks, steel blocks, ceramic pieces, concrete. Anything that will hold the piece in position while the flux fluffs untill it settles down.
If the solder won't flow easily, use your pick to drag the bead untill it does flow. Sprinkle borax on a stuck joint. Pickle does make good flux, especially if you are soldering two sheets one over the other. Forge while the silver is red hot. Suspend the piece, lay the piece down on wood, use charcoal, hold the plate with one set of tweezers, the bezel with the other. Tack down one point of the bezel, then grip the bezel with large tweezers to make it lay flat. Make big, file small, the filings make good casting grain when melted.
Melt gold filled with sterling to make an interesting casting.
Bernzomatic makes a great torch for silver smithing. It has a regulator, flexible hose, and small tip. It costs about 50$. A small tank of propane lasts about a month with that rig. Great control.
You have done good. The more you do, the better and more comfortable you will get with silversmithing. Experiment, learn, make mistakes, you will get better, and better.
My pickle pot is a ten year old crock pot, and I use pool acid for pickle. My silver torch is the torch you got. My best work is done that way. Use whatever it takes to get the result you are looking for.
A trick I do, is to pre tin the plate and use the pretinned silver to solder the bezel down. The plate heats the bezel and the solder flows between the two. It does not flow up the bezel. When I put twisted wire at the juncture, the pre tinned silver connects the wire to the plate and bezel without losing detail. I polish my turquoise in the bezel!
Perhaps some day, your work will grace my shop! I'll put it in the public eye. One day, if I ever get time I'll set the stones Sands sent me, I have been trying to get time to finish the one I am making for Sands but we are so backed up with work, they are sitting in my case.
I am looking forward to seeing what you can do with a few behind you.

That is just gorgeous KD!!
I can't believe how fast you are learning!!Not everyone can do fine metal work adn I've seen people who have tried for years and not done even 1/2 as good as you are!!

Why did you choose Crazy Lace??It's not your favorite,,,,,,is it?? LOL

You've come a long way baby!!

Thanks,,,,,,,,,

Tom