Sterling and Fine Silver Wire to Make Jewelry
Create Unique Handmade Earrings, Necklaces, Rings and More
Mar 17, 2007
Silver is one of the most popular metals for wire artists and wire jewelry makers to work with. There are many reasons for this, the key ones being that it provides the jeweler with a combination of an affordable material that is malleable and has pleasing visual qualities. Silver is an excellent background to beads and gemstones, helping to show off the rich color of the materials used. Many beautiful items of jewelry are made using little more than silver wire and beads,
Fine and Sterling Silver Wire
Silver is generally available in two grades – Sterling and Fine silver. Fine silver is 99.5% silver (literally pure silver) and as such is very soft and malleable. This is great for wire workers who need to bend and work the wire without fear of it cracking through becoming ‘work hardened’. One other benefit of fine silver is that, because of the high proportion of pure silver, it doesn’t tarnish – again making it ideal for intricate wire-work items that can be difficult to polish.
Sterling Silver is 92.5% silver and 7.5% copper. The addition of the copper brings additional strength to the silver whilst still allowing the silver to retain much of it’s malleability. Sterling silver is the most common form of silver available, and is found in most findings where fine silver would be much too soft to use.
Wire artists or jewelers who work a lot with silver often opt to use fine silver for the main work, and combine this with sterling silver for the findings and other components where strength is required. The choice largely depends on the item being made and, of course, personal preference.
Silver wire in both grades is widely available from jewelers suppliers stores such as riogrande.com and firemountaingems.com. Silver wire is typically sold either by the reel or coil at a fixed price, or priced by weight from a bullion dealer.
Bali Silver and Other Forms of Silver
There are other ‘types’ of silver marketed, for instance Bali silver is often found mentioned in findings. This often described as a pure silver or at the very least having a high proportion of silver, but as it is often bought over the internet, where the origin is unknown, it is very much a case of ‘buyer beware’ and the buyer should satisfy themselves completely as the quality of the metal before buying. This is important for hallmarked goods as a low quality finding (for instance jump ring) can result in the entire piece being rejected. Another metal to watch out for is ‘Nickel Silver’ which is not silver at all, but a silver colored alloy. Some jewelers like to practice with nickel silver as it is low cost, and to make prototype items from this metal before starting work with sterling.
See Working with Wire for more information about making silver wire jewelry and How to Make a Silver Wire Ring for an unusual project.
