Apart from mastering the technique of jewelry making, craftsmen also need to understand the wire needed for making jewelry. The reason is obviously because the wire comes in a great number of sizes and materials. Besides, there are also two essential aspects of the wire that you also need to understand: wire hardness and wire gauge. To know them further, look at the following steps on choosing the right wire for your jewelry making:
Step 1
Determine what kind of jewelry making project you are having. Bear in mind that different projects of jewelry making need different kinds of wire. Therefore, you need to choose the right and appropriate wire every time you start a new kind of wire jewelry project.
Step 2
Next, determine the kind of wire material you need to use. There are lots of materials that can be used to make wire such as iron, craft, aluminum, copper wire, gold-filled, French wire, sterling silver, memory wire, tiger tail, and silver plated.
Different materials carry different price and usage. For example: tiger tail that is so common in jewelry making can offer you strength and plenty of color choices. This kind of wire is usually used in wire wrapping.
Another kind of wire is the French wire that is perfect for jewelry accenting. This wire comes in gold-plated, copper, sterling silver, silver-plated, and vermeil. The smaller the wire’s coil, the more precious the wire’s metal and thus the more expensive the wire.
Step 3
The last step to understand the right wire for your jewelry making project is to choose the right size of the wire as needed in your project. If you want to make delicate jewelry making, you need to use the wire with 29 or 30 gauges. This size of wire is perfect for making rings, small chains, weaving, and bead work.
Meanwhile, if you need to create smaller loops and to wrap a bead, you need to use wire with 26 gauges. This type of wire is the beginning of wire’s finer gauges. When working with this type of wire, you need to work with fine tools.
Next, if you want to work with beads but don’t want the beads to be bulky, you can use wire with 24 gauges. This type of wire is common in most of beading projects. The wire’s gauge can fit perfectly through most of beadsbut it won’t be bulky.
In summary, in order to understand the right wire for your jewelry making, you need to understand 3 things: the type of the project, the material of the wire, and the size of the wire.