Hardening Wire/Making Permanent Jewelry Making Wire Components          Page 4

Hardening Wire Page 1          Page 2          Page 3          Page 4

Orientation

Our final topic in making permanent wire components is orientation.  How does the orientation of the wire component in your piece effect the permanence of the piece?  The answer to this question is rather simple.  Many wire components are built with an inherent strong axis and weak axis.  If the piece is oriented in your jewelry so that the forces pull on the wire component along the strong axis, then the piece will be strong and permanent.  If the forces on the wire component pull along the weak axis, then it may be possible to pull the wire component out of shape even though you used large/stiff wire and hardened the piece properly after you made it. 

Please see the piece at right showing both the strong axis and the weak axis for a wire component.  The simple test for this is to use your fingers and pull the piece first on the strong axis and then on the weak axis.  If you pull the piece by grasping the top loop in the picture in one hand and the bottom loop in the picture with your other hand you will find that you can pull pretty much as hard as you can, and it won't pull apart.  By contrast if you pull by grasping the initial loop at the left side of the wire component in one hand and the final loop at the right side of the wire component with your other hand, you will see that if you pull hard enough, the wire component can be pulled out of shape. 

How do you use this information?  The answer is simple, when connecting components in a bracelet or necklace remember to consider the strong axis and weak axis.  Connect the chain in your bracelet or necklace to the strong axis of your wire component and the finished jewelry item will be much stronger.  Please see the two pictures below to view necklaces connected on the weak axis and strong axis. 

Weak Axis	Strong Axis

Some wire components won't have a strong axis.  When you are making new wire components you should consider the strength of the basic wire component.  For earrings, you can align your component along the weak axis because if the piece were to be pulled hard enough to change the shape of the wire, the wearer of the earring will be mighty unhappy.  For bracelets, you should almost never orientate your wire component along the weak axis.  Bracelets can get snagged while being worn and will pull out of shape.  For necklaces, with proper hardening and wire size, you can orientate your wire component along the weak axis for your personal use, but we don't recommend selling jewelry with wire components oriented along the weak axis.  Best practice is to always orientate your wire component along the strong axis. 

Hardening Wire Page 1          Page 2          Page 3          Page 4