Several months ago my eldest designed a vector graphic of the Abyss Shriek, which is a spell in the game Hollow Knight. (Very very cool graphics in this game; it is a platformer, so I suck at it, but I love the texture and feel of the world.) She used the Cricut to cut out the image in permanent vinyl, then carefully (oh so carefully, so many teeny tiny lines) she weeded out the vinyl. I found a piece of glass in my stash that set off the image nicely and applied the vinyl to the glass. Then it sat. And sat. I had ordered the parts to make a hanging frame for it, the parts had arrived, but it required a bit of soldering. Soldering and I have been historically wary companions. So it sat some more. Finally, when I was avoiding cleaning where the art was sitting, I decided to give the frame a go.

The glass had one rolled edge, which both my eldest and I liked, so the idea was to create a frame that left the top open. It was short work with a jeweler’s saw to cut the came to length, even with the angles, and also easy to drill small holes at the top for the chain. Then came the soldering.

I did a test solder first on some scrap came, and was pleasantly surprised when the soldering iron and solder did was it was supposed to do. The tip cleaned well on a bit of brass wool, the came heated up nicely, and the solder flowed well from the tip to the piece. Color me shocked. So I moved onto the actual piece, but the back, in case my usual soldering skills came to fore. They didn’t. I was able to solder the back two joints, then flip the piece and solder the front of the joints. I did use a small file to clean up the sharp edges, but the joints were holding! Huzzah!

I did add a bit of super glue to the top of the frame. The chain holds everything in place nicely when it is hanging, but when it is not under tension there is a risk of separation, so a little insurance helped. It took hardly any time to put the frame together and get the art hung finally. Embarrassing really, that it sat so long, but I’m glad it is now done. And perhaps, perhaps, I may attempt more soldering in the future.