WigJig Newsletter 030525 on Jewelry making, Jewelry Supplies, Beads and Wire

FREE JEWELRY MAKING DESIGN:
With every newsletter we provide a free design from WigJig University to spur the creative juices. This newsletter's free design is the Cage Dangle Earrings shown at right. These earrings are made using a wire cage around a 6mm bicone bead and use a 2 inch head pin to hang the cage from the ear wire. Instructions are provided here or by clicking on the pictures or text at right. This isn't a figure that can be easily made by a machine, so you won't find too many similar earrings. The cage figure can also be used as a component in necklaces and bracelets.

Wire Cage

Gold Cage Dangle Earrings

Jewelry Making Technique of the week:
Our WigJig University wire-working technique for this newsletter is how to smooth the ends of wire once it has been cut. When cutting wire with a flush cutter, the first tip is to cut the wire with the flat side of the flush cutter toward the finished piece. This is necessary because wire cut with a flush cutter will have one relatively flat (smooth or dull) side and one sharp side after the cut. You want to leave the sharp side of the cut on the piece of scrap wire you throw away and retain the smooth side of the cut on the finished piece.

For ear wires, even the flat or smooth side of the cut wire is not smooth enough. Very small burs, or sharp pieces may remain on the wire. To remove these small imperfections, you need to use a tool called a Cup Bur. This tool is essentially a very small cup with diamond dust glued inside it to file the ends of the wire. It is used as shown at right and twisted/spun by your fingers. Twist the Cup Bur and not the wire. It is also very helpful to twist the tool both along the axis of the wire as shown in this figure and at an angle to the axis of the wire of about 15 to 20 degrees all the way around the end of the wire. Do this for about 30 seconds to a minute and you will be left with a very smooth, rounded wire end. Just the thing for the end of an ear wire.

The economy Cup Bur comes with one cup on its own wooden handle. The Premium Cup Bur comes in a set of 6 cups but requires that you use a Pin Vise as the handle.

Smoothing the ends of cut wire

Announcements:
Vacation Celebration. In our last newsletter, we had three winners of vacation celebrations. We did not have another winner during the past two weeks. Please view the bottom of our WigJig Home Page to see our Vacation Celebration banner. Select this banner to enter the contest to win a free vacation for yourself.

Online Books. If you are looking for new and interesting projects -- try one of our Online Books. Our most detailed jewelry making instructions are for sale online. Please select here to view our selection of online books. This week our "Great Bracelets" Online book is on sale for 20% off.

Shipping Policy. We ship all retail orders over $60 for free within the US. For International orders we ship via FED EX International and charge $34.95 (our average cost) for this expedited shipping service. Please select here to view our entire shipping policy.

WigJig University. We provide 1358 pages of free information, tips, techniques and free designs in WigJig University. We encourage everyone to view this information as a source for new ideas, projects, or a way to learn new techniques. We now have a page in WigJig University that shows you designs by type of WigJig tool. Please select here to view that information.

International Vendors. We do have vendors who sell our WigJig products outside the US. We encourage customers to contact these vendors in their home country. Please select here to view our list of overseas vendors.

Classes. We are working to develop web pages showing who has jewelry making classes where. If you are interested in classes, please select here. If you know someone who has classes in using our WigJig tools, please ask them to send us an e-mail so that we can include them in these pages. Please send the e-mails to custsrv@wigjig.com.