Don't laugh - these are my first 3 attempts:
The earrings were the first. 24g silver plate, 22 g silver wire. You can see blobs of solder that I had trouble getting off, couldn't get under the wire. I was just thrilled to get the wire attached to the plate.
The pet wood was the first cab, it isn't too bad (unless you look at the back, ha!) but the cab is a little loose in the setting. It is silver bezel wire, with 18g square silver wire around the back to hold the cab in.
The dark one is most recent. I think the rock may be magnetite jade, from the way it handles, there are metallic crystals in the rock that don't show in the image. It came from an old collection of rock, so I don't really know what it is. Anyway, it is made from 1mm x 4mm silver wire, backed with 18g silver square wire to hold in the cab. The back is not great, but better than the other cab.
I have a long way to go, it will take a lot of practice. It would help a lot to have 3 hands. I figured out how to melt solder and move it with a pick. So far I can't use wire solder, the 2 times I tried the main piece melted before the solder did. But it's a start.
Thanks for looking.
