Types of precious metal wire

Like most jewelry makers, I started out by stringing and knotting beads and then slowly moved to wire before going on to explore the wonderful world of mixed media and metal smithing.  After Ooing and aawing the works of expert wire weavers who use precious metal wire, I too tied my hand at a bit of wire work. Apart from making ear hooks, clasps, eyepins, bails or frames on a regular basis, I do the occasional viking knit or wire crochet. While I am no expert in wire work, it is important to learn to work with wire as its ridiculously easy to create your own hooks and clasps customising them every single time.
However this post is not about making any products with wire but more to do with the basics of understanding wire and is aimed at beginners. It is a culmination of my learning of many years (I still have a lot to learn) so it will include snippets from many books and websites apart from my own observations.

What is wire?

Wire is a usually thin, flexible strand of metal that can be made in many shapes, diameters and hardness. It can be finished using many processes including coating and plating and can be electrically insulated. Thin individual wires can be twisted together to create a cable. Wire, like cord, can be used for twisting, wrapping, bezel making, prong making, weaving, knitting, crochet and macrame while making jewelry

precious metal wire

Jewelry Wire Materials

Jewelry wires can be majorly classified into three categories – Precious metal, base metal and finished wire or wire with effects. In this post, I’ll discuss only Types of precious metal wire with reference to usage and yes, availability (in India). 

sterling silver bangles – Yoola Design

Silver

Most commonly used precious metal wires are pure silver and sterling silver. Sterling Silver or SS is an alloy consisting of 92.5%  silver and 7.5% copper, Fine Silver is 99% pure silver while Karen hill tribe silver is 97% pure silver. Pure silver is nonreactive, less likely to cause allergic reactions and tarnishes slower. Silver that is used to make ornaments like Anklets, jhumkas (earrings), nose studs in India are 80 – 85% pure. The Cost of the wires varies from place to place and from day to day depending on the Share market. In India, any silver jeweller with a manufacturing unit will smelt and roll out silver wire in any gauge that you want (however, it might not be uniform). Locally I have found sterling silver to be more expensive than fine silver.
Argentium® sterling silver is a tarnish-resistant variety of sterling silver that consists of 92.5% silver, 1.2% germanium, and 6.3% copper. It does not develop fire scale easily and makes cleanup relatively painless. As its tarnish resistant, the wire remains shiny for a longer period but it is not very easily available and is not as cost effective as fine silver, in India. Though not as wire, Argentium is available as jewelry and as vessels in premium silver jewelry stores like VBJ and NAC in India

Infinity Wire necklace – Yoola Design

Gold & Vermeil
Though Gold wire is unavailable in India (for retail buying purposes) it is the most used wire by Indian jewellers.  Internationally Gold wire is available in many karat values: 12K, 14K, 18K, and 22K. Karat (K or KT) refers to the purity of gold.  24K gold is the purest gold and is too soft and therefore alloys are preferable. Apart from yellow gold wire, rose gold (red gold) and white gold wires are also available online.

Vermeil is 24K gold electroplated over 925 sterling silver and its purity is gauged using the microns of plating (usually 2-4 microns). To be considered VERMEIL; (pronounced Vehr May) the gold must be at least 10 karat (42%) and be at least 2.5 micrometers thick. Vermeil was initially produced by fire gilding process which was then abandoned as it was considered unsafe. One gram gold is not Vermeil as the one here refers to 1 micron plating.

Palladium

Discovered in 1803 by William Hyde Wollaston, Palladium is an incredibly rare silverish metal. My only knowledge of palladium is that it is used to give white coloring to white gold and it is often suggested as an alternative to Platinum as it is less dense. Only as I was writing this article, I came to know that palladium wires are also available. Experts who have used Palladium wire, please share your knowledge in the comments section.

Silver filled and Gold Filled

Silver Filled and Gold Filled wire are made by bonding a layer of sterling silver or 14K gold onto a base metal core, which is usually a copper or a brass alloy and are finished with an anti-tarnish coating to preserve the shine. Here the layer of precious metal is much thicker than the film on plated metals. The thickness of the silver is denoted with a fraction, 1/20 or 1/10, referring to the ratio of silver to brass/copper by weight, For Example, 1/10 has a thicker layer of silver than the 1/20 variety. The core of silver-filled wire will be visible on the ends of the wire; if wire ends will be exposed, they may need electroplating to cover it, particularly if the wire is very thick. But this can be used to your advantage as you can create many usual textures by sanding or hammering. In gold filled – the ratio of gold to brass is denoted as 14/20 or 12/20 to denote the karat value of the gold 14 stand for 14-karat gold and 20 represents 1/20th or 5% of the total weight of the material.

Cleopatra necklace – Yoola Design

Silver Plated and Gold Plated

These are Copper or brass (depending on the country) wire plated with Silver or Gold and technically come under finished wires. The wires look as shiny as the real metal in the beginning but plating wears off over time often becoming yellowish, greenish or blackish in the process. On over manipulation (bending, twisting and repeated straightening) or on rough handling, the coating will chip away leaving the base metal wire visible. To create a more luxurious product, articles made of silver wire can be plated in Gold water (different from Electroplating) and is often referred to as “Gold dipping” by Indian Jewellers. A similar Rhodium dipping can also be done. 

Dancing fish silver necklace – Ksemi

Tips for Working with precious metal Wire

1.The first thing to do is get yourself a set of good wire working as there is no point in marring gold wire with a cheap cutter or pliers. Coat pliers with Tool magic (or equivalent potions) and use nylon jaws, fingers to wrap wherever possible. 
2. Plan ahead and measure well. A precious metal wire is expensive so it is essential to use only the required length to keep your piece cost effective. It will help to prototype the piece in copper or brass before you work with expensive metals
3. Collect end bits – you can melt bits (of silver) into balls for granulation work and bigger bits can be flattened to use as dangles or ornamentation.
4. Know your metal – especially when you are about to solder or patina it! Silver or gold filled wire act differently when you try to ball them using a torch and develop firescale which is hard to remove. 
5. Avoid using abrasive sandpapers or sticks on the filled and plated variety 

I have also come across Platinum wire, particularly in electronic circles but I am not sure if there are independent artists who use them for jewelry. I have worked with silver, sterling, Vermeil, Filled and plated wires before, though in a limited capacity, and can safely say that you don’t require extremely advanced wire working skills to handle them. I encourage you to go for it, if you feel that it will add value to your designs. Some popular sites to buy precious metal wire are Rings-things and Cooksongold apart from etsy stores. Contact your local jeweller for silver wire and gold and silver plating on the wire.  

Those were my tips on working with precious metal wire. Please share your tips for working with precious wire and your experience of working with them. 

Wire Crochet jewelry pictures courtesy: Yael Falk,  Yoola Designs

I hope you found it interesting 
Cheers

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  1. Cinnamon Jewellery avatar

    Useful post Divya! I've dabbled with the silver filled wire for findings but as you mentioned, the fact you can see the base metal when it's cut put me off it.

  2. bairozan avatar

    I have never worked with precious wire except for the cases when I used 925 sterling silver headpins from old earrings. I have some silver filled wire from Ebay and use it sparingly. In Bulgaria, if I use 925 silver wire for weaving, the price of the final product even with a very small profit would equal the price of metal-worked 925 silver jewelry – not art pieces but those in an average jewelry store. I don't want to go there, at least for the time being. I realize I have to find MY customers, though 🙂

  3. Divya N avatar

    Very true, thats why i don't use precious wire or metal too. I burned my hand once, not doing it again

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