Tips on Soldering Glass Pendants?

I have always been an admirer of "wearable" art, so last week I decided to try my hand at art glass pendants.  You know, the artwork sandwiched between two microscope slides and then soldered around the edges...?  Easy enough I thought, and maybe I'm missing something obvious....But it's not working the way I thought it would...

I've spent countless hours getting my images just right, making final embellishments and finally encasing them in glass and putting copper tape around the edges ready to be soldered.  Here's where the heartache begins!  After all those hours of hard work, not a single one has worked out right!  SO FRUSTRATING!  I thought I did my research, watched a few videos and read a few tutorials, but I am missing something...

My attempt at soldering is absolutely pathetic, and I don't know what I'm doing wrong!  I can get the first thin layer of solder ("tinning") down okay, but when I try to put any more layers down it ends up all bumpy, rough, uneven etc...Every time I think I've got one side of the pendant looking decent, I flip it over to find all sorts of lumps and bumps to fix again and it just gets worse from there.

PLEASE!  If anyone out there is reading this,  do you have any tips or resources?  I hate to think that all my time and effort has been wasted!  Here are a few pictures of my current disasters...

All taped and ready... looking good at this point...

And the trouble begins...

...and so on...

...disaster...

...another one bites the dust

This is actually my second go at making these pendants...I tried a batch at Christmas with similar results...Here are some things I learned that may help someone else in the future...

Clean, Clean and Clean your glass again, both sides, careful no fingerprints, dust, dog hair etcetera...

I printed my images onto transparencies and layered them over other papers for a layered look.  It looked beautiful...that is until the heat from the soldering iron either melted parts causing some of the image to stick to the glass or caused condensation inside the glass, thus turning a piece of artwork into artwork ready for the garbage!

I'm not quite ready to give up on this and I'm hoping for success after practice.  I just need to wait to solder my "masterpieces" until I've got the process down.  So that would be another piece of advice to anyone considering trying this...practice, practice, practice the soldering and once you've mastered that, then make your pendants.

This experience has taught me a lesson in patience (or lack of it thereof...) My enthusiasm to dive right in cost me an arm and a leg in time, materials and sanity.  Next time I'm trying something new I think I'll take a little more time learning the ins and the outs of the technique!

Thanks for reading and I'd love to hear your comments!

 

                               

Free Drawing Video Demos of Darrel Tank's 5-pencil drawing method

Free video demos of Darrel Tank's 5-pencil drawing method

This is a free Drawing class that you can take online. I just signed up for it and watched the videos on what materials you need to get started. I want to practice drawing more realistic portraits, and learn to draw in different styles, different facial features etc...I'm doing this because I feel like all my faces look the same and I don't feel like I've come up with a style all my own. I know that it will come with lots of practice, and I can practice drawing anytime, anywhere, and very inexpensively too. There are a lot of free drawing tutorials all over the web. If this one isn't up your ally, keep looking and share what you find!

If you would like to learn to draw, or improve on the skills you have, come join the fun and check it out! I[/pf you have a favorite drawing tutorial/website...please share in the comments section!