Friday, November 7, 2014

Decorative Soldering - How To Easily Create Accents To Your Stained Glass Suncatchers

There are several decorative soldering techniques used to easily create accents for your stained glass suncatcher projects that cost very little if anything to implement.

Some single strand copper wire is all you need to give a flower, a fish or an insect a more realistic looking appearance.  An extra bead of solder strategically placed on your project can also add an interesting look.

You can purchase single strand copper wire from many sources online or you can strip the wire insulation from any scrap piece of single or multi-strand wire and use it in your decorative soldering.

Decorative soldering accents can be made to any project by simply tinning and bending copper wire to shape and tacking it to your pattern.

An otherwise drab looking butterfly can be jazzed up by bending a couple of copper wires to the shape of an antennae and tacking it on the head.

An extra little "blob" of solder tacked on the ends also adds a unique realistic look.

The same technique can be used to jazz up the butterfly's wings.

Tacking thin pieces of wire across the wing areas can more realistically simulate a butterfly's wing pattern.

This also can be done to add scales to fish patterns.  A strategically placed piece of wire makes a gill look like a gill. 

Flowers and leaves can also be enhanced by adding thin pieces of tinned wire.

Veins in plant leaves almost never look "right" in a finished project but, when you add wire veins to the leaf or flower petals you get a totally new look. 

The Maple leaf to the left is an example of how much more realistic you can make your suncatcher look.

Solder beads can be added to many otherwise drab looking projects to give them some personality. 

The starfish and the portion of the jewelry box below demonstrate how decorative solder beading on an otherwise dull project can enhance the overall look of the finished product.

 

The technique of using copper wire accents to provide a support for solder beads is used in many freehand projects.  This is also used with flowers and a multitude of other original freehand projects. 

Below are examples of this technique.

The next time you plan your stained glass suncatcher project, try some decorative soldering techniques to create accents that will distinguish yours from the many other projects available in the marketplace.

Decorative soldering with copper wires, some extra solder and time costs you nothing except your time.

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