|
|
|
|
|
WigJig News: We had a lot of interest in classes in the Washington, DC area in September. As soon as we can select a hotel facility to hold the classes, we will contact everyone who responded via e-mail that they were interested. We appreciate the interest in these classes. We will attempt to select a date that will satisfy the largest number of respondants. As many of you are aware, we have had a lot of trouble with the Artistic Wire Natural Silver, silver-plated wire in 18 and 20 gauge. The folks at Artistic Wire have had and continue to have problems with the manufacturer of this wire. Our anticipation is that the problems in obtaining this wire aren't yet over as the last batch of this wire that Artistic Wire received had to be returned to their manufacturer. Now for the good news! We have some 18 and 20 gauge Natural Silver wire in stock. Our supply won't last long, but you can view our 18g Natural Silver wire here and our 20g Natural Silver wire here. We have had a great response to our new, shorter lengths of precious metal wire. As a result of this response we had to reorder several sizes and we have added some 1/2 round and square wire in these same shorter lengths. Please view our gold-filled and sterling silver wire in round, 1/2 round and square to view these new lower priced wire selections. We have ordered 24 gauge and 26 gauge round wire in our new Anti-Tarnish Argentium Sterling Silver and are waiting for this wire to arrive. We anticipate having these new gauges of Argentium Sterling Silver within the next month. In our next newsletter we will present the results of a recent vote that we had, asking the New Jersey Bead Society to vote for their favorite earring jewelry making project.
On Sale: |
|
|
| Free Jewelry
Design: With every newsletter we provide a new jewelry design from WigJig University to spur the creative juices. The new design for this newsletter is the design for the V Shaped Yoke for our Interchangeable Necklace as shown at right. The yoke is the centerpiece of this necklace. The interesting thing about this necklace and yoke combination is that the yoke is interchangeable in this necklace. You can easily make a yoke to match your earrings and change the yoke as you change your earrings. This particular yoke design is intended to compliment our V Shaped chandelier earrings both in the shape of the yoke and in the beads selected. To view our instructions for making this yoke please select either the picture or the name of the earrings at right. To view our instructions for making our Interchangeable Necklace please select here. We believe that this design for an Interchangeable Yoke necklace will be very popular and an excellent compliment to your chandelier earrings. I like this design because I can spend 30 minutes making a new yoke for an Interchangeable Necklace instead of sending over an hour to make an entirely new necklace. (Yes you are right, I am lazy.) |
|
|
Past Techniques: We maintain a techniques web page that provides links to the discussion of techniques in our prior newsletters. You can visit this web page here. Follow the links on that page to the discussion of the technique in that newsletter. |
|
Jewelry Technique: This weeks jewelry technique is a discussion on nickel in jewelry wire. For most people, the nickel content of jewelry wire is not an issue. For some, this is not the case. Quite a few people are allergic to nickel and are very sensitive to any nickel content in the jewelry they wear. Because of this there is a law in Europe that requires acknowledgement of the nickel content in any jewelry. As it turns out, nickel is an unintended by product of both silver plating and gold plating. The nickel is used to create the electrolyte bath used in the plating process. For this reason, most silver plated and gold plated wire will contain minor amounts of nickel as a trace impurity in the wire. For this reason, if you are allergic to nickel, you should avoid any plated wire or findings. Normally sterling silver, Argentium Sterling Silver, gold and gold-filled wire do not contain nickel, even in trace amounts. For this reason, many people who are allergic to nickel find that they can wear expensive jewelry (sterling silver, gold or gold-filled), but not inexpensive jewelry that may contain plated wire or findings. Some jewelry may be made with expensive links, but inexpensive plated findings like the clasp. If you have shopped in our Internet store you will notice that sterling silver and gold-filled clasps cost much more than their plated counterparts. People who are allergic will react to the nickel in a plated clasp, even though the remainder of the jewelry item might be solid gold or silver. In Europe, some jewelry is made from an alloy sometimes called German Silver or Nickel Silver. As it turns out Nickel Silver has a lot of nickel in it, but absolutely no silver. Obviously, if you are allergic to nickel, you should avoid any jewelry made with this alloy. In Europe, the jewelry made with this alloy would be marked with a warning about the nickel content. In the US and many other countries the jewelry would not contain this warning. When making jewelry
for other people and in particular when making jewelry for sale, we
suggest that you consider the nickel content of the components you
use. We recommend that if you use plated components, that this
fact be noted on the item. |
|
|
We are continuing to improve our newsletter, so please feel free to provide feedback at custsrv@wigjig.com. Announcements: Shipping Policy. We ship all retail orders over $60 for free within the US. For International orders we ship via UPS international service 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 2,000 web pages of free information, tips, techniques and free jewelry making 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 our designs by sorted by the WigJig tool used to make them. 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. We are also happy to sell our WigJig tools to stores. Please send us an e-mail if you are interested in selling our WigJig tools. Classes. We have a listing of various jewelry-making classes using our WigJig tools that are offered by bead stores throughout the country. 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 at custsrv@wigjig.com so that we can include them in these pages. FREE SHIPPING ON ALL ORDERS OVER $60.00 SHIPPED to USA - Customer Care - WigJig, PO Box 5124, Gaithersburg, MD 20882; (800) 579-WIRE (phone), (240) 597-2262 (fax), custsrv@wigjig.com (email). Privacy Policy. All content on this web site including jewelry and wire designs are copyrighted by WigJig. WigJig is a registered trademark. Last modified: January 11, 2008 |
WigJig Jewelry Making Tools, Beads and Jewelry Supplies Home
See
our selection of beads, wire supplies and jewelry tools.
View Prior Newsletters
01/09/2005 01/23/2005 02/13/2005 02/27/2005 03/13/2005 03/27/2005 04/10/2005
