Hardness
of Wires
Cooper wires only available in one strength. It is
quite soft to work with and are suitable for wrapping and weaving projects, it
is also capable in holding shapes too.
Precious
wire
normally comes in 3 different category of hardness, soft,
half hard and hard. Soft wire are recommended for wrapping
and weaving or creating intricate
shape,
half hard are great for creating bigger shape and less movement pieces as it is
harder to twist, turn and curls. Hard wires are rarely use in wire art as it
allow less movements where wire art needed most.
(Soft
wires and hard wires are very often term as dead soft and dead hard)
Shapes
Round
shape
wires are most commonly used in wire art as it is very versatile to create lot
of great works. When hammered, it can be flattened and gives a different
texture to the piece of work. It is also widely available in most craft shops
or online shops in full ranges.
There
are also jewelry artisans that specialized in using square
wires and
it gives a different look to the entire piece. It is not as versatile as round
wires and sometimes it can be quite difficult to
get hold of them as they are not easily attainable at some places and not
available in full ranges. The common gauge being used for square wires are
normally in 18, 20 and 22.
Half
round
wires are mostly used for securing purposes that is, to wrap around a few
square wires to keep them in place.
Other
wire shapes available:
double half round wire, beads wire, triangle wire, fancy wire and twisted wire
which may be less frequently used by artisan as they are more pricy except
twisted wire which can be created by twisting 2 round wires together or by
twisting one single piece of square wire.
You may want to start with a particular style in jewelry making, pay attention to the section where the wires gauges and shapes are mentioned that you will get exactly what is needed. Let me know if you have any difficulties here, I am happy to answer any of your question in this area.
~Maggie~
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