Recent Posts

Hi,

I've never seen one of the cable chokers come apart, but I can see where it could.  The last 1/8" of the cable choker looks like it has a little extra sealant on it, to prevent it fraying while the end is unsecured.  It's likely this has been accidentally peeled/scraped off while putting tight-fitting beads onto the choker.

Can you re-seal it -- perhaps with some superglue?  After re-sealing it, you might need to snip off stray ends.  This should allow you to get the last beads on, and then fit the loose end into the crimp end.

I know this subject has been covered before and I have used the reamer as instructed BUT ... I purchased the cable choker and smart beads that were listed to make the "Caramel Cubes Necklace", now the cable choker is coming apart.  Do you have any more tips on how I can do this process?  leo808

Here's a Facebook comment from Diane Crow-Brown about this thread.

Welcome to our forums!!

I'm glad to see you don't give us a tough question for  your first post!   

Without having your beads in my hands or spread out on my table I have a terrible time helping design.
For a "Native American" look I can suggest looking at a site with a lot of good turquoise in Santo Domingo Pueblo designs at http://www.skystonetrading.com/pueblo-jewelry-4/  Most of these are heishi based. Another page http://www.skystonetrading.com/all-necklaces-20/ has a few more nuggety designs.

A focal pendant might help but what sort would you like?
I've used small silver or silver colored metal heishi as spacers. Dee restrung one of my necklaces with small vulcanite (African plastic black heishi wafers) as spacers, just to keep the beads apart at the center of the necklace.

I'd not pick Crazy Horse stone to use with turquoise but I''ve seen some Oregon picture jasper in similar colors but bolder patterns that worked well with turquoise. So it might work well either as a center stone or accents.

I don't think I've been a lot of help for you tonight. Maybe someone can jump in who can picture your beads better than I?  If you have a LBS (local bead store) you might find some advice from stringers there when they  can handle your turquoise.

I have done a fair amount of ACS and glass firing. Ultimately - I do not think that the silver clays are 'compatible' with the glass. That said, I have had good luck with glass and ACS fired together. I usually fire a footing using overlay paste on the glass [1st firing]. 

Then I build my clay fitting/finding/etc., and attach with paste [& usually some overlay paste] then fire again [2nd firing].  Frequently - at this point there are a few repairs to be done at the glass/silver interface - but they are in the clay [not the glass].  So - I repair and fire a 3rd time - usually good at this point.

I think that if you build with large areas of contact - you will have expansion/contraction problems which are usually what we refer to as compatibility problems.  I have found that if I set the design up for contact or point fusing [does that make sense?] then the glass and the ACS do just fine.

I cannot address the PMC3 question as I have not used the product.

Hi
I have some blue turquoise stone, barrel shaped (22mm x 16mm) and blue rough oval nuggets, heavy in copper veins (15mm x 15mm) and smaller blue nuggets (10mm x 10mm).  I have spent hours looking for spacer beads and some focal beads to put in a necklace that will have an American Indian appearance.  I have been trying to get charms from a Navajo charm bracelet and I have also looked at crazy horse stone (from limestone).  Would the crazy horse stone be too light for the heavy barrel stones in the necklace?  Or would that help to keep the overall weigh of the necklace down.  Any ideas of necklace design or materials would be appreciated. thanks

Glad I could help.

I'll make a guess here.
If they melted it down to the size of a quarter it's probably a very soft, very malleable tin/silver alloy like "Tix" and "Sta-Brite.
That would be very similar to lead free pewter which is usually safe to wear.

That's just a guess since I've not seen the pendant.

Thank you so much.  Yes, I will have to ask what they used since it was melted to the size of a quarter and then formed.

Thanks for your quick response -- I really appreciate!

Hi there! Welcome to our forums!

I can't tell  you for sure. There are 2 things that might be called "lead free silver solder."

Low temperature "soft " solder for use with a soldering iron or electric soldering gun is a tin/silver alloy. It is very soft, very malleable. Common brands are "Tix" and "Sta-Brite."

Solder for use with a torch for "hard" soldering (or more accuratey "brazing") to assemble  silver sheet and wire into jewelry is an alloy of silver, copper, zinc and, sometimes cadmium. Cadmium is much less common today because of safety concerns. Solder for brazing is much harder and stiffer than "Tix" or"Sta-Brite."

If the pendant is melted and puddled "lead free silver solder" then it is of the "Tix" or"Sta-Brite kind. If it is made from hard, stiff wire, then it is likely to be silver brazing solder.

Look at the definitions at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solder for more details.  You will have to ask your friend which kind of "lead free silver solder" they used.

Glad I helped, Anita.

I think the markings have some  legal meaning in China very similar to what they mean here. And even if they meant something different, it would not be legal to import them into the US if the markings are not up to US standards. The FTC guidelines are the right place to start to  understand exactly what they mean in the us.

Let me tell you a sad story.  UK and Europe and fussier that we are in the US. We allow a little slop in the quality to allow for solder which has less precious metal to allow it to flow at a lower temperature. Some friends manufacture sterling and turquoise jewelry in Albuquerque. They use sterling and real stones. They shipped to a customer in France a package of goods marked .925. French customs decided to test some. They pull the stone and melt the piece and assay the ingot. It tested less than .925. That made it illegal to import into France. French customs ran all the jewelry through a crusher and returned it to my friends. Totally ruined!!! An expensive lesson.  Now anything they ship to Europe is stamped .800 because they know it will assay at least 80% silver.

Tell  your supplier who said that they were told the markings were decorative to threaten to report the importer to US customs based on the  FTC rules.
The FTC guidelines are on line. See http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/guides/jewel-gd.htm