WigJig Newsletter 030914 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 Interchangeable Ear Wires shown at right. These earrings are made from an ear wire made of 20G 1/2 hard Sterling Silver or Gold-Filled wire combined with a removable and interchangeable bead dangles. Instructions for making these earrings can be found here. These earrings are great for people who want to have a lot of different colored earrings with little work.

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Interchangeable Ear Wires
(Bead dangle can be changed.)

Tip of the week:
Last week I discussed nickel in jewelry wire. I received a very nice e-mail from Jill Fenn who noted that in Europe, nickel in jewelry wire is all but prohibited. Jill noted that the EU has a directive that limits nickel in alloys used in earrings to 0.05%.

This past week I received a question about how to use the Nylon Jaw pliers to harden a wire component. Nylon jaw pliers are a very versatile tool and are often used to help "work harden" a wire component. "Work hardening" is a term that describes the hardening that results from small movements of the wire. Most of us have had experience where we needed to break a piece of wire, like a coat-hanger, and did this by bending it repeatedly back and forth. With each bend the wire becomes stiffer, until finally it becomes brittle and breaks. With jewelry wire, we frequently want to take advantage of the hardening that happens as the wire is bent back and forth, but we obviously want to stop the bending well before the wire breaks. Using Nylon Jaw Pliers is one way to work harden wire.

When making wire components on any jig, there is a tendency for the finished wire component to be slightly three dimensional. At the beginning of the piece the wire is near the bottom of the pegs, touching the jig. As you continue to wrap the wire around the pegs, the wire tends to climb and is higher on the pegs. This is a natural tendency and really can't be avoided. The result is that wire components come off the jig as a three dimensional piece. Most jewelry applications call for the wire component to be as flat as possible. For any wire component that can fit into the jaws of Nylon Jaw Pliers, the pliers are an excellent way to squish the three dimensional wire component into as close to two dimensions as possible.

Whether you are trying to squeeze a wire component into a two dimensional shape, or just to harden the wire so that it will be a permanent shape, the process is the same. Place the wire component into the jaws of the Nylon Jaw Pliers and squeeze. Start squeezing gently at first and change the orientation of the piece in the jaws of the pliers with each squeeze. As the piece settles into its final shape, start squeezing harder. At the end you should be able to give it a good hard squeeze without seeing much movement in the wire component. The end result is that a three dimensional wire component is made as two dimensional as possible and in the process the wire component is work hardened.

Work hardening will not take place unless there is some movement or bending of the wire. You can not harden a straight piece of wire by just squeezing it, but you can work harden a straight piece of wire by pulling it through the jaws of the Nylon Jaw Pliers repeatedly providing that you orientate the pliers so that the wire bends slightly with each pull.

The alternative to Nylon Jaw Pliers are either using your fingers (ouch), your fingers protected by a piece of cloth or leather, a Whackitdown, or a hammer and anvil. Fingers can work, but for most people they are not strong enough to work as well as the Nylon Jaw Pliers. A chasing hammer and anvil works very well for wire that does not cross itself, but can not be used effectively where one piece of wire crosses another. In those instances, the Nylon Jaw Pliers are really the right tool for the job.

Announcements:
Vacation Celebration. During the past two weeks we had two winners in the Vacation Celebration. Please congratulate Wendi Pierce and Lori Nachtwey for winning vacations. 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 "Delphi Chains and Links" 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.

.jpg Sterling Silver Ear Wire with Bead	.jpg Bali-Style Washer 7.5x2.8mm
.gif Cup Bur Economy	.jpg 6mm and 4mm Swarovski Sapphire Round 25 facet Beads
.jpg Gold Filled Oval Curb Chain - Medium	.gif 18G Artistic Wire Natural Silver