Jewelry Making Supplies Wire

You need oodles of patience and practice if you want to use wire to create jewelry designs. The most cost effective and cheap wire that you can use as a beginner is 18 gauge copper wire. This wire is available in plenty at local crafts stores, hardware stores or online stores and you should first master and practice the fundamentals of wiring with this elementary piece before graduating to other varieties of wires.

Before deciding on the kind of wire, you need to make sure about the kind jewelry piece you will be creating, the type of metal, its color, hardness, cut, size of jewelry to be made and carat (10-24). Based on that you need to decide on the shape of the wire.

The diameter of the jewelry to be made will determine the size of the wire. Thinner the wire, higher is the gauge number. By gauge I mean the size of the wire. Gauge is a term used in USA.

You need a thick wire to create jump rings. A thinner wire will be sufficient for an earring wire. Gold wires are the toughest. Silver is much more soft, malleable and ductile. Sterling silver is more hard and durable. Fixed gauge copper wires are the softest and the most ductile of the lot. It is because of their immense malleability that they are recommended for beginners.

The hardness of the wire will depend on whether they are being used to make jump rings or connectors or clasps. You can choose from 3 degrees of hardness based on your needs – full hard, half hard and dead soft. The hardness will depend on whether you are using gold filled wire or a silver variety.

A wire will become harder and harder as you increase the number or frequency of times it is pulled through the tool. Dead soft happens to be the first variety of hardness. As the name suggests it is very malleable and ductile.

Half hard wires are comparatively stronger but they can still be bent into desired shapes with ease and are ideal for necklaces, bracelets and earrings.

Full hard wires are used to eliminate the need for soldering pieces together.

The available shapes of wires are square, half round, round among others.

When you have graduated to a seasoned pro from a beginner, you can move on to more expensive wires like gold wires, white gold or rose gold wires having a carat of 14 or 18 or 22. 24 carat gold will be too soft.

You can also use the nylon coated wires.