Jewelry Making

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.

As far as using gold as the metal of choice in projects, I thought there wouldn’t be as many pollsters using it because it’s of course more expensive than silver. But it seems like a lot of jewelry makers have moved up to using gold wire and/or gold findings in their work. I also think that I should have clarified what type of gold I meant… there are of course different purities of gold (14K, 24K, etc.) and also there is Gold Plate which is an entirely different story. I’m not going to talk too much about gold because I don’t use it myself, but to those who have graduated up to using it, Kudos to you!

Lastly, I was interested to see how many people didn’t use metal whatsoever in designs. I can think of a few reasons why that would be: they’re using knotted cord, silk cord, monofilament, or some other non-metallic means of stringing beads, or perhaps they are offering a line of non-metallic jewelry for those who are allergic to it.

I have seen quite a few sites who do offer hypoallergenic jewelry. One of these is Simply Whispers which looks to be pretty cool. Another is The Carrot Box. I’m not sure how common it is to be allergic to metal so that you can’t wear it next to your skin, but I think it might occur more often than jewelry designers think. Hm… that might be a new category of items to offer up on your website!

I’ve put a new poll up… this one asks where you most commonly buy your jewelry supplies. I’ve listed the two big craft stores that are nationwide: Jo-Ann and Michaels. But I suspect that quite a few people shop online for jewelry supplies…