Ok, I finally went to the supplier and bought some flux. I have hesitated for so long because I feel it's harmful to both me and the environment. But I have explored all the alternatives, and there's no way to solder without flux. Fusing fine silver gets very expensive and unnecessary to use for frames, and it's also too soft. I want brass!
So now I have test soldered a couple of circular elements in brass, using the "W-flux" that I'm guessing is borax. I don't want to know. It works - I'm happy. I pickle in an environmentally friendly way, though. With citric acid solution in very high concentration. It takes a little longer, but I'm slow to start with, so it doesn't matter, really.
Now I can begin do make the designs I really want, relatively effortlessly. I need to upgrade the solder, though. Why use medium hard solder on a simple element which will be worked on once? Because I want to make things more challenging I suppose.
The other break through is my purple love from russia. I have searched high and low for some affordable charoite beads to use in my latest lavender/green creations, and found everything from amethist, dyed jasper, expensive large irregular chips (which I dislike) and unpolished slabs on eBay. Not to mention the one piece (1!) round 12mm bead from a Swedish bead store for 65 Skr! Or a full strand from the US for $100 and then some. I'm a scavenging container rat for F's sake! I don't buy beads unseen for that kind of money (unless I find a lot of money in some container some day).
But now I've found some hopefully reasonalbly good quality from a dependable source to a price where I can afford to just take a chance. If they're not good, my son can have them to make christmas ornaments or use as marbles...
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