11/30/05 | Poll: Jewelry Metal
Our latest poll involved the type of metal that jewelry makers utilize in their designs. Although many beginning jewelry makers start out with simple bead stringing projects, eventually the time comes when they make a foray into using either base metal or precious metal in their designs. Some designers even use metal exclusively or as the focal point of their jewelry.
Here are the results from the poll, which turned out pretty much how you would have expected:
The majority of designers polled used Silver Metal in their designs. This is no surprise since the wire of choice for wirewrapping is often silver. It is easily workable, and comes in various malleabilities (half-hard, completely soft, etc.). It is also readily available everywhere, and though not extremely cheap it won’t break the bank to get started.
While silver is very popular for wire projects, when you start to get to silver findings and other smaller objects, people start to take a look at either silver-plated or silver-colored findings. Because wire is so thin and relatively easy for companies to draw out, the cost isn’t as great. When you get to findings which contain more silver metal and may also be partially handmade, the price starts to go up quite a bit. It can be a bit disconcerting to buy these tiny findings that cost more than a dollar a piece! With silver charms and larger silver pendants, the price truly starts to skyrocket unless you buy in bulk.
For that reason, many people turn to base metals such as nickel, brass, or pewter when it comes to anything that requires bigger pieces of silver. And actually, base metal wire is a great way for beginners to start off, or even for more advanced jewelry makers to practice a new design or technique. We keep a few spools of base metal wire at various gauges from 20 to 30 around the house for this reason. I am a bit surprised that more people didn’t say they were using base metal in the poll, but that’s perhaps chalked up to the fact that they use BOTH base metal and silver in designs, so they just picked silver since there wasn’t a choice that included both.
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