Byzantine Necklace Take 2: What Worked Better

So I gave the first Byzantine necklace to a charity fundraiser, but since I made it once, I wanted to try making it again, better, to submit to a competition. I know a little bit more now, and wanted to try a few things in a more refined way.

I made the central motifs in a slightly simpler way, but I still joined them together first. I was also more attentive to how the points of contact worked with the outer rings. When joining them to the outer rings, I had eight individual points of contact that needed solder. I used easy solder this time, and that ended up being an okay choice. Tiny bits of solder will melt and ball up just like any other metal. I balled up my tiny bits of solder before placing them at the joints. For some reason, probably because of the beaded wire's grooves, these were much easier to place, and much more stable.

After torching:

The other thing I did differently was when attaching the bail, and unfortunately I don't have a photo of this. But I reversed what was being held in the third hand. I put the bail on the charcoal block and held the filigree motif in the third hand. The third hand acted like a heat sink while the charcoal reflected heat back on the bail, letting it heat up faster and more thoroughly. This made the operation much smoother than the other way around, since the filigree is going to heat to temp much faster than the bail.

Overall, this one was much easier done.