Wire Wrapping Tutorials and Helpful Hints

I have been working with sterling silver wire for a few years - long enough that I have been dubbed by my children “The Wire Bender” (they watch way too much Avatar, a cartoon, where the characters are earth, wind, fire, and water benders). I have never taken a formal class on wire wrapping but have learned lots with the help of some really great wire wrapping books and other online web sites. If you are new to wire wrapping, this is a good starting point for learning about sterling silver wire.

Here is a list of terms and their definitions you will probably hear or read regarding wire wrapping at some time or another:

• Flush cut & pinch cut - A flush cut is created with a flush cutters. When cutting your wire with a flush cutters, one cut creates a nice flat cut on the sterling silver wire and the other cut creates a pinched or wedge-shaped cut. When cutting your sterling silver wire, you want to have a flush cut.
• Simple loop - this is a loop made at the end of your sterling silver wire
• Spiral or Scroll - There are a lot of uses for a spiral. I use them as a stop for a bead and I also make them into clasps.
• Work hardening - Sterling silver wire is made up of large crystals. As the wire is worked with, it hardens. This hardening effect breaks the crystals down into smaller crystals and the wire becomes stiffer and stiffer as the crystals become smaller and smaller. If worked too much, the wire will break.
• Wrapped loop - This is a loop that is wrapped around the stem wire which creates a secure loop that will not pull open.

Gauges of Wire:

Wire comes in a huge range of different sized gauges. In looking at my American Standard Wire Gauge, the smallest gauge is 38 with the largest being 1……why do the numbers have to be backwards in relation to the gauge size?! Very good reason, actually - the gauge relates to the number of times the sterling silver wire is pulled through holes in steel plates with each pull going through a smaller hole to reach the desired gauge so that means that 28 gauge is pulled through steel plates 28 times to get it that small. The smallest gauge I have used is 28 for crocheting and to date, the largest size I have worked with is 14, and I have used everything in between.

Hardness of wires:

• Dead soft or soft - Dead soft wire is very malleable, easy to work with and is very widely used by wire wrappers.
• Half Hard - This wire has some stiffness to it and is likewise very popular with wire wrappers.
• Hard - I have no experience working with hard wire and to my knowledge, it is not commonly used with wire wrapping because of its rigidity.

I primarily use dead soft wire. I do not worry that it is too soft for a project for a few reasons:

1. Working with the wire hardens it.
2. If working with it will not make the wire hard enough, I can work harden it by hammering it with a rawhide or rubber hammer.
3. If I am making a piece of jewelry with a frame, I am going to use a thick gauge (at least 16) and although dead soft, because of its thickness, the wire is stiff.

Types of Silver:

Sterling silver is 92.5% silver and 7.5% copper. The copper component in sterling silver causes the tarnishing effect. Argentium® is a new type of silver on the market. Argentium is also 92.5% silver but instead of copper, there is germanium which does not tarnish thereby creating a virtually tarnish free silver! I love it, and as I am using up my sterling silver wire supply, I am purchasing Argentium. The price difference between sterling silver wire and Argentium is roughly a dollar an ounce last time I purchased wire through Rio Grande - not bad considering all the time Argentium will save you in not having to clean your wire!

Safety:

The number one rule is to use common sense when working with anything that could potentially be harmful. When you cut your wire, for example, you will end up with a sharp edge on the wire. In addition to this, when you snip a piece of wire, it literally becomes a projectile missile. Be smart! I place my cutters at the point that I want to cut and then cup my hand over the area. The last thing I want to do is go to the local emergency room to have a piece of metal removed from my eye.

Cleaniless:

Work with clean hands. Natural body oils, lotions and creams will only help tarnish your sterling, not to mention that lotioned hands might make the wire difficult to hold onto. Even if you are working with Argentium, wash before starting your project. I get asked all the time how I keep my jewelry so clean - simple! Clean hands.

Also, clean your wire thoroughly before twisting and bending it. I use Connoisseurs Jewelry Wipes which I purchase at Walmart in the jewelry department. They are disposable wipes that will clean your sterling silver wire really well. There are also Sunshine clothes but from a dollar point of view, the Connoisseurs are more economical.

Straightening Your Wire:

When sterling silver wire is purchased, it comes in a coil. This needs to be straightened before using it. There are a couple of ways to straighten your wire: Cut the length of wire desired and either use Connoisseurs to clean and straighten your wire at the same time or if the wire is not being cooperative or is kinked, use a wire straightening (aka nylon jaw) pliers.

Precious Metal Scraps:

Keep your scraps in a closable container (not a baggie - the wire ends will poke through). These scraps are not garbage but can be sold back to a refiner. Some refiners have a minimum weight amount but others don’t. Some will issue you a check for your scraps at market value of sterling silver on the day they receive your shipment and others will give you the choice of a check or new material (new material will have a fabrication fee so be sure to ask about this).

Refining Argentium:

At this time if you are using Argentium and you send it into a refiner and ask for new material, you will get back sterling silver. I am sure this will change in the future, but for now, that is the way things are. Also, if you are like me and are using both sterling silver wire and Argentium wire, you do not need to keep them in separate containers - again, I am sure this will change in the future but currently since the refiners are not making a differentiation between the two, you don’t have to either.

I always ask for the $$ when refining since I am transitioning my stock to Argentium only - I am tired of cleaning my wire!

Storage:

Always store your sterling silver wire and finished jewelry in plastic bags. This will slow down the tarnishing effect tremendously. Rio Grande also carries anti-tarnish zip bags. I have never used these - just letting you know about them. If you end up having several different gauges, a good way to keep everything organized and stored is with a Sterilite (again, Walmart) plastic file folder container. I have hanging folders inside with different gauges in each folder.

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 18th, 2006 at 3:55 am and is filed under Sterling Silver Wire Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.