Types of Wire for Jewelry Making

Video Transcript

"When making wire jewelry, one of the most important decision is what type of wire you'll use. Down here we have several different types of wire to choose from. Here we have a very pliable silver coated wire. This is great for coiling and doing any type of accent jewlery that's going to involve a lot of twisting and turning. That's a great a wire. This is actually tarnish steel and it's also very pliable, similarly to the other pliable wire. This right here is memory wire. These are very popular lately. It's a very thick stainless steel type of wire. You do need to be careful with what pliers you use with these because the wire is so thick it can actually damage your pliers. Keep that in mind and make sure that your pliers are professional quality and they won't be damaged by this particular wire. This is a 32 gage wire. It's a silver wire and it's about the size of thread. This is good for small beading projects. Then we have our actual silver wire, which is great for anything, especially if people have allergies for earrings, you can use the silver wire and that shouldn't cause any problems. Then we have last but not least, our industrial wire. You can get this at any home improvement store. You'll find it in the aisles with all sorts of cables and things like that. It does have a certain type of material on it that may come off on your hands, so you may need to clean it with the steel wool ahead of time. You do need to use heavy duty wire cutting pliers for these. Do not use your standard wire cutters because it will damage them. These are the different types of wires that you have available. Now all you have to decide is what project you'll start."