So I tried to create a decorative copper cactus using bending, cutting, and soldering techniques. The result was a lop sided cactus with insanely sharp edges and 2 pounds of solder holding it together. This project has beed an incredibly messy learning process.
I created this "cactus" by cutting a sheet of copper into 7 pieces: the main body and 6 wavy fins, but it is hard to get nice curves using tin snips.
I then tried to solder it together with stained glass zinc flux and lead solder. This was a huge mess. Solder ran all over the sides and most of it was too difficult to remove. I wanted to bead the solder on the edges to give the appearance of pricks, but this only made the cactus look sloppier.
From far away my cactus doesn't look too bad, but there is a lot of room for improvement. My hope is that it will look better after sitting in my backyard for three months and turning that greenish color.
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