Terri Brush Soldering Class

I was so excited to finally attend this class to learn how to solder. I am always amazed at the jewelry made with glass bezels, and like so many crafty people we think to ourselves, "I can make that!"  So my hubby Tyler got out all of his soldering equipment and let me run with it. Of course the results were disastrous! I needed professional help! Luckily my girl Maija posted on her blog about this class. So I counted down the days and at last got to terri class. It was in an upstairs studio in Solana Beach. There was an ocean breeze that filtered through the room and she had it decorated so sweetly with all of her equipment and jewelry. Luckily Weller 100w soldering iron

s come in this lovely teal blue color, and she had all the decorations to match!  It is touches like that, that make taking classes special and the efforts are appreciated.  Now for the class, the first half was creating the tiny collages to sandwich between the glass. The second half, we got down to the soldering! First thing we learned was how to wrap our pieces in copper foil.

Then we fired up the irons. Of course I burned myself almost immediately when I tried to pick the Weller up like a pencil! It blistered right up! But I am trooper and just kept going (thanks to me I think Terri might be bringing a first aid kit to class now!) Then Terri did a demo and it all seemed easy enough. The are some really great things about this class. First was that, Terry and her assistant went to each student and helped one on one. Not "here, give it to me and I'll show you" help, but let us hold the iron and coached us through our mistakes.  As an added bonus artist Julie Haymaker Thompson

was also taking the class and added in some extra hints about some other mediums we could use in our jewelry art. It was like two classes in one. Julie is really a great teacher and I am excited that she will be teaching at the Artistic Affaire Les Sirene event in July. Also, this class included all of the equipment and supplies. I was able to decide if I liked doing it enough to invest in the equipment and supplies. Also, someone made some delicious brownies and the food was tasty! With all of that said, get yourself to a Terri Brush soldering class, and enjoy all that she has to offer! Here are some of my creations that I made in to necklaces. One I made for my dear friend Julie, and the other for myself!

-Denise