Practicing Cold Connections

I like the idea of being able to connect two pieces of metal without having to deal with flux, solder and a flame. So I've viewed some videos, read endless articles, studied pictures and watched a small demonstration at BeadFest Santa Fe. I finally decided I was ready to give it a try so I cut some squares from pieces of metal, dumped watch parts onto my bench and started putting stuff together.

I don't have pictures of that process but here are the links once I had finished cutting, hammering and drilling. Who knew watch parts were so hard. I demolished three drill bits enlarging holes in a few of these things!

 Next was deciding what the heck to do with all those links. Somehow they decided they all wanted to stay together and a bracelet was born.

Once the links were all together I learned they were a bit short for a bracelet (note to self: plan better next time). To fix that I took another link, cut it in half and made half links for each end. Now it fits.

I rather like the way my first cold connection project turned out. So, this weekend my friend Debbie and I are going to go take a couple of classes. Nothing like putting the horse before the cart! I know I'll find out I did a jillion things wrong and surely I'll learn there is an easier way to do some of the things I did but, in the mean time I still like my first project.