WigJig Newsletter 030831 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 design for the Lock Back Earrings shown at right. These one-piece earrings are made from 20G 1/2 hard Sterling Silver or Gold-Filled wire with beads. Instructions for making these earrings can be found here. These earrings are great for really active people who tend to lose regular earrings.

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Lock Back Earrings

Tip of the week:
This week I received a question about nickel in jewelry wire. Many people are allergic to nickel and need jewelry that is free of nickel. I did not have a good response to this question so I had to do some research. Here is what I found:

Some silver wire is made as an alloy that does include nickel. The nickel helps to harden the wire. The way to avoid nickel in silver jewelry is to purchase either Fine Silver or Sterling Silver. Sterling Silver is also called 925 silver and frequently has 925 stamped on it. Sterling Silver is an alloy of 92.5% silver and 7.5% copper. Fine Silver is 99.9% silver with only traces of impurities. Both Sterling Silver and File Silver are nickel free and should not cause allergies due to nickel content.

Gold is almost never used in jewelry in its pure form. Pure gold (24K) is too soft to be used for jewelry and is therefore alloyed with other metals to add color and hardness. 18K gold is 75% pure gold (18K/24K=.75) with the remaining 25% being made up of other metals. 18K Yellow Gold is made up of 75% gold, 15% silver and 10% copper. 18K White Gold is sometimes made of 75% gold and 25% palladium. White Gold can also be as an alloy of gold, copper, nickel and zinc. For this reason, if you are allergic to nickel you should avoid White Gold.

14K gold is 58 1/3% gold (14/24=.5833). 14K Yellow Gold is made of 58% gold, 25% silver and 17% copper. 14K Rose Gold contains 58% gold, 32% copper and 10% silver. 14K White Gold contains 58% gold and 42% palladium.

Select here for a web page with good information about gold and silver.

Announcements:
Vacation Celebration. During the past two weeks we did not have a winner in the Vacation Celebration. 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 "Wire Bead Necklace" 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 Over 1,400 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 still 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.

This WigJig jewelry making newsletter is provided as part of WigJig University. We try to provide interesting jewelry projects using beads, jewelry wire and other jewelry supplies. We hope that these pictures will provide you enough information for you to complete this project. Some of the skills and jewelry making techniques have not been discussed here. For beginners, we suggest that you visit our Beginners Start Here pages. These pages discuss the skills necessary for making jewelry in the detail that beginners need. We also suggest that beginners to jewelry making might need to visit the WigJig University College of Jewelry Making Techniques for additional information about some of the skills and techniques shown.

Most, but not all of the jewelry supplies shown here can be purchased in our WigJig store. We try to have a complete selection of jewelry supplies in our store including chain, wire, glass beads, findings, watches, tools, etc.

.gif 6MM Swarovski Cream Rose Crystal Pearls	.jpg Flush Cutter Economy
.gif Cup Bur Premium (Pin Vise Not Included)	.jpg 6mm Swarovski Violet Bicone Beads
.jpg Wacketdown for hardening larger wire components	.gif 20G Artistic Wire Natural Silver