Felt Ball Charm Tutorial

I have had these felt balls for some time now, I always wanted to use them but just didn't know what to do with them. Obviously I had to find a way to incorporate them in my work with out having to use the torch or I would have a fire ball. I wanted the balls to be inside something like a small wire cage, and this is what I came up with.  When I have to make more than one of the same piece I like to try and get a little production line going so first I used my disc cutter and cut out some disc, dapped them, drilled holes in the center of the discs and sanded the edges.

For the upper cage part I soldered some 18 gauge wire to a jump ring. When I do multiple soldering joints I like to put the solder chip underneath because that way it wont jump around when you hit it with the torch. The one thing I don't like about soldering is when that little solder chip disappears into another dimension.

Here are the wires soldered to the center jump ring.

Made a few more in the same manner.

 I domed the wires and sanded the edges so they would sit flat over the domed discs to make soldering easier.

Here they are, they made me think of jumping spiders.

I used something like the sweat soldering technique, first I melted the solder chips on the edge of the disc and then soldered the upper cage part onto the bottom disc. I will admit I had one mishap, one cage collapsed, I was aiming the flame at the top of the cage when I should of been aiming at the edge of the bottom disc, I should of known better. Of course I don't know if this was the best way to make these charms, but it worked for me.

After soldering I sanded a little around the edge of the discs to smooth out the soldered joints

Here they are all tumbled and shined.!

Now they are ready to be assembled. I drilled holes into the felt balls and used my curved nose pliers to stuff them into the silver cages. I balled up the end of  some 18 gauge wire with my torch and passed it through the hole in the bottom of the disc and formed a wrapped loop with my round tip pliers. However that was a mistake, don't close the wrapped loop, at least I only did one.

I used a jump ring as a bail as you can see in the photo below, so first create the loop without closing it all the way, slip it onto the jump ring and then finish wrapping the excess wire around.

                         

Here it is finished, I had previously  soldered the jump ring to the bail and then assembled the charms. This necklace is somewhat different from my style, but I just loved making it, I think it is the vibrant colors that appeal to me so much.

My assistant sleeping on the job!!