Jewelry wire for work in the Wire Wrap technique is a wire for making unusual and original jewelry. Working with wire, you can implement various creative ideas and projects, but before that you will have to work a little and gain some experience, then these labors, of course, will be rewarded.
Various products can be made from wire, starting from key chains and ending with elegant jewelry. For example:
Now let’s start getting acquainted with this wonderful creative material. There are wire measurement units: American Wire Gauge, AWG — American Wire gauge. The smaller the number, the thicker the wire. It has been used since 1857 mainly in the USA. In the table you can see the translation into millimeters. The wire can be of different stiffness. Semi-rigid and soft are used more often, and less often rigid. Using wire to create jewelry that you can buy:
from 12g to 16g for decorative hooks, spirals, connectors, rings.
from 18g to 20g for a variety of locks, connecting rings, seams.
from 20g to 24g for elements of earrings, loops.
from 24g to 36g mainly for braiding various decoration elements.
Consider the main types of wire: Art and jewelry, which differ in composition and price.
Art wire is an inexpensive material for making jewelry.
- Enameled (with color coating),
- Copper is an inexpensive, good material for practice.
- Galvanized – has a silver matte color, perfect for practice.
- Silver-plated and gold-plated with micro-coating, by electroplating, soft, but has one significant drawback for jewelry, as it wears out quickly (erases). It is sad when a piece of jewelry that has been made, in which a lot of soul is invested, begins to lose its attractiveness due to such shortcomings. So these four types of wire are good for practice, due to their low cost.
Jewelry wire includes wire made of precious metals or with a significant content of such. Often, craftsmen use Sterling Silver 925 sterling silver wire (92.5% silver content) silver coated with 24 kr gold, or Silver-filled and Gold-Filled, which has a more attractive cost and, not unimportantly, different stiffness (Half Hard is medium, i.e. semi-rigid and diadsoft is soft).
- Gold wire is the most expensive, rarely used, a good alternative and not so expensive is Gold-field (Gold Filled) see below…
- Silver – made of 99% pure silver, used, but not very often, as it is very soft and subject to mechanical influences (micro-scratches, significantly impairing the appearance of the product).Send to Send
- Sterling Silver (Silver)- made of 92.5% sterling silver, this is one of the most popular types of wire for jewelry making, its advantages are softness, the possibility of various processing, durability: it will not peel off over time, as silver-plated and more resistant to micro-scratches. It looks great already in finished products, an inexpensive alternative can be Silver-filled (Silver-field), see below…
- Silver-filled and Gold-Filled are brass, less often copper wire with a 6% layer of rolled silver (0.999 samples) or gold. Such a wire practically makes it possible to work with silver or gold, it is easy to process and it can be soldered, flattened, and all this at a completely different cost. Therefore, this is the most acceptable option for making jewelry. Your products will not lose their attractive appearance with prolonged use.
If you are interested in this amazing material for creativity, you can buy jewelry wire in our store, namely the jewelry wire section, where the subsections are: artistic, here copper wire Craft Wire and Artistic Wire coated and pure copper, Silver-filled and Gold-Filled (special coating), as well as silver and silver-gilt.
Wire Wrapped jewelry tutorials PDF
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