Yes - to a degree - provided it's a reasonably good one. You need to practice a bit to get to grips with the temperature of the torch. Try adjusting the flame to about ½”. The hottest part is just beyond the tip of the blue part. If your torch is particularly hot, you may have to hold the torch a little farther away.
You can easily make headpins with it - but I would recommend using fine (.999) rather than sterling silver - just heat the end until it balls up and quench. Sterling is less easy, and will need pickling and polishing. I wouldn't try doing the same thing with plated wire, the copper won't work in the same way, and the plating will almost certainly just frazzle off. Plus the pickle will remove the plating anyway.
As for sterling jumprings, I have to admit I can never be bothered to solder them (not enough of a do everything yourself purist!). If I want a perfect closure I tend to just buy closed ones. You can do it, but it is a very time-consuming process and you need a steady hand (as well as other soldering supplies). Larger rings are easier, and soldering these is fine. You'll probably find solder paste (which contains its own flux) easier to use than strip, which needs to be cut into tiny squares for this sort of thing. You'll also need flux (borax) to brush onto the joins before you start so the solder flows down onto them. Then you need pickle to remove the oxidisation afterwards. Plus a water and bicarb solution to neutralise the pickle. The end results can look lovely - remember that you have effectively annealed the silver though, so you might want to harden it with a hammer or tumbler.
You can, however, fuse fine silver. Again, heat until just glowing and the ends just magically seem to join together. Useful if you want to try loop in loop for example.
Don't forget to buy a firing block! You can use this type of torch for firing PMC too.
Hope that makes some sense!
george
