Happy accidents

Not too long ago I sat down at my bench and spent time working on some pieces for my Heart Collection. When using the hydraulic press to "puff" the sterling sheet I "pressed" too hard and put a nice big tear the silver. "OK that sucks. This better not be one of those days where everything I make turns to crap" I thought to myself because I have had days like that in the past. So I looked at the piece again and thought "Maybe I can still use this. What's the worst that can happen? It's already headed for the scrap pile so I can't really do any more damage." So I continued on. I cut, filed, "puffed" some copper pieces for the back sides of the pendants, etc, etc. Then it came time to solder all the pieces together. The first few went together perfectly. But the fourth one had solder run the wrong way. "Not that bad I can fix that" I thought to myself. Now it was time to solder the torn heart. I set it all up, turned on the torch and began to heat the piece. Before I knew it the solder flowed and so did the silver. I accidentally melted some of the silver around where the tear was. "Just great" I said out loud. Threw the piece in the water to cool it off before I put it in the scrap bucket and went back to the other pieces. When I finished with the "perfect hearts" I went back to the one I was now going to be scrap. I pulled out of the water and took another look at it. This might not be as bad as it looks. I cleaned it and finished it like I did the other pieces and in the end it became one of my favorite pieces that I ended up keeping it for myself and wear all the time! Gotta love happy accidents!