Melting solder into molds

The first thing I did today was start my earring project over again, this time using a silver colored wire so that the solder would match.
All I had was cheap aluminum wire.
I spent a long time making the jump rings, only to discover that the low temperature solder I was using, doesn't stick to cheap aluminum wire.

I went outside for a bit of fresh air and I found a small dragonfly-like creature in the fish pond.
This is called a damselfly.

It is different from a dragonfly not only because it is smaller, but it carries its wings pinned behind its back instead of spread out.
We used to have a lot of these, but I haven't seen one in 6 years.
Ever since Sam the dog disinfected the fish pond... that's another story.
It's nice to see life coming back, like the big dragonfly earlier this year.

I went back to melting solder into the silicone molds, which is working better than actual soldering.
I bought a couple different molds at Michael's over the weekend. They cost about $7 each.

I got a donut sprinkle effect by using microbeads, which is a kind of glitter that is made of tiny balls of glass.
I put them into the mold first and then melted the solder on top of them.
This was not so great, because there were a lot of extra little beads that didn't stick to the metal.

Tonight I thought about using some of those flat glass marbles that go into vases.
I put them into the mold with the round side down and melted the solder around it.

This worked out really cool and I will be trying this again.
Overall,I think everything is a little lumpy.
I think I need to be using a torch and not a hot iron to melt the solder.

I'm afraid to go to Hobby Lobby, because I know they have tons of stuff like this.
And glass canes, to make into beads...