At a Glance
6 HD Video Lessons
Reviews
Instructor
Kate Richbourg
Kate Richbourg has been designing and teaching for more than 20 years, starting with seed beads and moving on to soldering. She has been featured on DIY Jewelry and Craft Lab. View profile »
Closed Captioning Available
Micro Torch Basics
with Kate Richbourg
Let Kate Richbourg introduce you to what she calls "the best gateway drug for serious jewelry making" with this FREE Craftsy mini-class!
Butane micro torches are a compact and efficient heat source for soldering, firing precious metal clay, finishing enamelwork and other projects. They're inexpensive, safe and easy to use. In this five-lesson class, best-selling author and teacher Kate Richbourg shows you how to fill, light and adjust your torch and use it to shape, secure and finish metal jewelry. You'll learn how to size rings perfectly and how to choose the right materials. Then Kate shows you her signature stack ring set and a perfect band ring made from half-round silver wire.
Get fired up! Sign up for this free Craftsy mini-class today!
What You'll Learn
- Choose, fill, light and adjust your micro torch
- Set up a soldering station in your kitchen
- Use flush wire cutters and paste solder
- Hammer techniques to size and texture your ring
- How to use half-round wire
- Annealing metal to make it easier to shape
What You'll Make
- No-Fail Stack Rings from 14-gauge copper wire or the metal of your choice
- The Perfect Band Ring from half-round silver wire
Kate goes over a suggested set of tools in this class, including a butane-fired micro torch, wire cutters, ring mandrel and bench block; chasing, texture and riveting hammers; tweezers, soldering block and plastic or rawhide mallets. She also shows you how to substitute household items for many specialty tools.
What You'll Need:
- Jewelry tools
- Beads and gemstones of your choice
- Sandpaper
Lesson Plan
| 1 | Welcome to Your FREE Mini-Class! | 0:51 |
| 2 | Introduction | 4:05 |
| 3 | Know Your Torch | 12:43 |
| 4 | Safety & Set-Up | 5:59 |
| 5 | No-Fail Stack Rings | 25:06 |
| 6 | Perfect Band Ring | 29:07 |
Recent 5 star reviews of this class
Average Review:
Wonderful class!
Kate's a great teacher; her enthusiasm for the subject of the class makes the class that much more interesting. I learned something about metal arts and soldering about 20 years ago but haven't done anything with it. I needed a refresher course, and Micro Torch Basics gave me a start in the right direction. I love the small, portable kitchen soldering station concept.
Wow!
This was such an informative class and the instructor was great. I am a total newcomer to metalsmithing and she made it so easy to understand. I am definitely taking more of her classes.
Awesome
Loved it! I have never attempted soldering previously and had no idea how to even start, but thanks to Kate's amazing teaching I feel more confident in beginning my metalsmithing adventure than before!! Thank youuuu:)
Excellent and easy to follow and understand instruction
Kate Richbourg is excellent for this medium. She speaks clearly, talks at a moderate speed easy to understand and makes the instruction easy to grasp. I have been staring at my torch, wire and tools for a long time contemplating getting started. I have read a couple of books, watched a DVD that came with one, but felt more apprehension after that than before. After watching this class, I feel so good about getting started with this new skill. Thank you Kate for your wonderful teaching ...
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Excellent!
Just to say thanks. I really enjoyed this class & would love to see more. Very clear instruction, enjoyable with a touch of humour. Very professional.
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