Wearing of the Green Four Leaf Clover

For a person whose favorite color is green, I am always scrambling to find something green to wear on St. Patrick’s Day.  I don’t look good in green, so I don’t wear it much.  One day while wondering through a craft store I came across a package of dried, pressed four leaf clovers.  I then realized I needed to turn these into a necklace and my yearly search for something green to wear would be a thing of the past.  So with the help of my youngest daughter, here is how to create a necklace pendent, using a four leaf clover.  Let’s get started.

Supplies:
A large piece of wood (this is to protect your work area, so it can be just a junky scrap)
2 – 1” square pieces of glass (found at glass supply stores around $.25 each)
½” wide copper tape (found at craft stores $18 for 50 ft. roll)
Soldering iron with stand- multilevel temp control- and a small tip (from $20 - $40)
Silver solder- (8 oz. roll, $16.00)
Flux (liquid or paste - $7, this is a must for it allows the two metals stick together)
Cheap paint brush (for spreading the flux on to the metal)
Small clamps
Glass cleaner (whatever you have)
Sponge – heavy type ($1)
Golf tee (it allows you to smooth the copper tape without tearing it, get one from someone who plays golf)
Needle nose pliers (check your tool box, or cheap at Harbor Freight)
Pointed tipped scissors (for cutting the corners)
Real 4 leaf clovers (Dry Pressed $6 for 24 at www.naturespressed.com)
Jump rings ($3-5 a pkg.)
Tweezers
Paper/cloths for cleaning the glass squares
1 inch squares of paper

Warning, warning, warning, soldering irons are so hot they can burn you to the bone.  Be careful when working with a soldering iron!

 

Lay out all your supplies and plug in your soldering iron.  Set the temperature somewhere closer to the warmer side of medium.  (My soldering iron has a high side, a low side and medium right in the middle.) Wet your sponge. Uncoil the silver solder so that it looks like a snake ready to strike.

Clean the two class squares, because I wanted the 4 leaf clover suspended between the two pieces of glass, so I especially wanted no smudges on the inside of the glass.  This may be the hardest part, getting the glass really clean and keeping it clean.  We learned that laying the glass on the edge of the roll of copper tape seemed to prevent dust and smudges from getting on the glass.

I didn’t want to see the inside of the copper tape through the glass, so I used my personal electronic cutter to cut a 1 inch square piece of paper and then cut about ¼ inch from the outer edge, like a little mat.  This worked really well, so I put the little mat between the two pieces of glass and I used the tweezers to put the 4 leaf clover in between the two pieces of glass on the diagonal.  Hold this glass sandwich together with a clamp.

Hold this glass sandwich together with a clamp.

Cut a piece of copper tape a little over 4 inches long.  Pull the paper way from one end of the tape.  

Lay one edge of the glass sandwich (close to one corner) as close to the middle of the tape as possible. 

Go around the corner and place the next side on the exposed sticky surface, again as centered as well as you can.   Keep covering the edges of the glass until you get back to the beginning of the tape.  Use the scissors to trim off any excess tape.  The excess tape can be put on the board for future reference.

Using the tip of the golf tee, lift out the 4 corners of the tape on both sides of the glass.  Use the golf tee, to smooth down the tape where it already touches the glass. 

With the scissors cut each corner to the glass. 

On one edge, use the golf tee to smooth down the tape onto the glass.  Repeat on the edge opposite.  Now take the scissors and cut the remaining corner on the diagonal (you will cut off a little triangle of the copper tape) then fold each side down onto the glass.  Turn the glass over and repeat the whole process on the other side. 

Use the golf tee to make everything smooth and look nice.

Lay the copper encased glass sandwich, down on the wood in front of you. Get out the flux and paint brush. 

Use the paint brush to spread the flux on the copper.  The silver solder will not stick to the copper without the flux.  The solder will not stick to the glass at all.  Spread it on all four sides. 

Your soldering iron should be hot, touch the tip to the sponge to make sure it is clean. Then touch the tip to the solder, it should melt some off the coil, if it is hot enough.  Then touch the silver solder covered tip to the flux covered copper wire and draw the tip along thefluxed copper tape.  It should be a smooth easy draw with a hissing sound.  Do all four sides.  Let it cool a little.  Flip it over and repeat on the other side.

Use a clamp to hold the glass up on one of the edges.  Repeat the flux and solder process like you did on the other sides.

When all the sides (3x4=12) are done, lay the glass on a flat side and touch each corner with a little more solder.  This will make it look a little nicer.

Look at the completed glass and decide which is the nicest looking side, this will be the front.  Put the glass bottom side up with the corner nearest the top of the four leaf clover closest to you.  Pick up the jump ring with the pliers.  Put flux on the jump ring and the top corner.

Pick up some solder with the soldering iron and solder the jump ring to the top corner.  Make sure to cover the jump ring where it touches the back corner of the pendent.  Add any solder where it may be needed.  Let it cool. 

Clean the glass and string the pendent on a chain of your choice.  It turned out great!

Things you need to know:  Keep your soldering iron clean, keep using the damp sponge for this purpose.  The more you do, the better each one will be, this is truly a case of practice make perfect.  If you make a major mistake, don’t throw it out.  Use a straight edge razor blade and scrape off the copper/solder combination, clean the glass again (WD40 will take off the adhesive) and start all over again.  If you get an excess of solder on your iron tip, put flux on the little piece copper you set aside and then touch the tip to the copper and the excess solder will go to the copper.  Then wipe the tip on the sponge and you are ready to go.  ENJOY!