Why hammer wire jewelry

Twisted aka fancy wire is used to provide textural and aesthetic qualities to wire work. It can be formed from round wires or square wires. When making your own, keep in mind that your finished fancy wire will be a thicker gauge than the individual wires you start with.

Wire Metals You have many choices regarding what metals your jewelry making wire is made of, including precious metal wires and base metal wires. Options include solid metal wire, filled overlay wire, plated wire, enamel-coated colored wire, and anodized wire.

Solid Precious Metal Wire is the number one choice for high-end jewelry and craft designs. Options include. Find out more: "What are precious metals? They're created by using heat and pressure to apply a thick layer of precious metal to a base of less costly metal. Use these when you're making upper-end designs but need something more economical than solid precious metal wire. Solid Base Metal Wire works great for making finished artisan jewelry. It's also popular as a practice material and way to create prototypes for precious metal designs.

Copper wire is especially popular for all 3 of these uses. Other options include stainless steel , nickel silver aka German silver , brass , and bronze wire. Which base metal you choose will largely be based on what color you want your design to be, but learning about the properties of different metals can also help you decide.

Find out more about the properties of base metals. The disadvantage of plated wire is that when it's over-manipulated, the plating can crack and chip, revealing the base metal underneath. As a result, plated wire is best used for designs that do not require extensive bending and wrapping. Enamel-coated wire offers a rainbow of permanent colors that won't chip or crack. It's made from copper wire covered with a permanent colored enamel coating.

The silver plated colors have a layer of pure silver between the copper wire and the final, permanent enamel layer. This adds a brilliant, high shine to silver plated colors.

Artistic Wire is considered dead soft. Although the finish will not chip or crack, take care to avoid scraping through the colored layer. Check out the photo of those earrings today. We shot an informal video in the back room of the studio with help from our impromptu camera person and bead artist Marcia DeCoster. Here are Mark's tips:. Do you have some wireworking lessons to share from your own experiments?

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Please allow a few minutes for this process to complete. Join Now. View All Benefits. No products in the cart. Search for:. July 27, The Trouble with Improper Tools Months ago, I got so excited about advancing my wire wrapping techniques beyond wire-wrapped loops that I had a big success-turned-failure.

Here are Mark's tips: Use the proper tools: No more foraging in the garage toolbox. Jewellers hammers are used for many reasons, including shaping and forming metal and also creating amazing textures in your handmade jewellery designs. With so many jeweller hammers on offer, we've created a simple guide on what each hammer is and what exactly they are used for in the workshop. It is good to start with a Ball Pein Hammer as it is a good all-round hammer with a domed side and a flat round side.

The ball side of the head is ideal for texturing metal while the flat end can be used to hammer Doming Punches with a Doming Block to create curves and domes in flat metal. For more advice on texturising metal, read our advice page. Rawhide Mallet A Rawhide Mallet is useful as it is ideal for shaping metal around a Triblet without marking it.

As it is made of compressed rawhide, the more you use it the softer the surface will become which is nicer to work with and in our experience, it is a tool that will last you forever as it gets better with age and use! Also known as a Warrington hammer, this hammer is great for creating a bark-like texture on sheet metal. It's also a good weight for using with punches making it a good all-around hammer. Jewellers Hammer The Jewellers Hammer is much smaller and lighter in weight than the others.

This hammer is essential for light precision work such as riveting and shaping.