SOLDERING ON!

June's Mixed Media theme for a group swap on our PaperArts group was Microscope Slide Pendants. We only had to make one but I, as usual, got carried away and made four...a couple of which are for some special people....but not telling here 'cos it will spoil the surprise! One was for the swap and the fourth for me, and I intend to make a couple more for my daughters.
The two three inch ones were constructed the copper foil way, using the wavy edged tape and soldered over. I used scrapbooking papers for backgrounds, snippets of lace and small pieces of gold paper doilies. The images are from a Paper Whimsy Collage sheet. I added tiny German Scrap stars to the women's heads and drew veins on the wings with a gold gel pen. Also added the gold gel pen to the children's images.
I added metal/brass corners to the tops and charms to the bottom of each, which I coated with the soldering patina solution to darken.


With the square ones, I used Ranger's two inch square Memory Frames.
The masculine one is covered with plain copper foil tape and soldered. I used scrap booking papers for BGs and added my own text. The male images are from found sources, altered to suit, using party hats from an Artchix Collage sheet, reduced in size, and then drew on the clown face with gel pens.The clown face side is the front. Again, I added metal/brass charms etc. and coated them with the patina solution.
For the feminine one, I used the wavy edge copper foil tape, and added metal/brass charms to the top. It has a found image of Theda Bara on the front and the child image on the back is from a Tuscan Rose Collage sheet. I used Derwent watercolour pencils around the images to give depth and a little dab of pink went onto their cheeks. I used scrapping papers and lace with these also, but as the lace was on both sides, it made the insert too thick to fit into the frames with the two pieces of glass so, after trying to force it in or bend the frame open more...to no avail, the "light" came on and I used a piece of clear acrylic of the back (the child's image side). The only drawback with that was that I had to be SUPER careful with the soldering iron....it would melt if even slightly touched by it, and as it turned out, it also swells a little, which you may be able to see in the photo, but I feel all in all, it turned out OK and it was a good solution to the problem.