New Record on Gold Prices

OK, my jewelry-making friends...take a deep breath. 

Gold hit a new record today, so I thought I'd quickly post the latest gold, silver, and copper prices.  As of today, April 18, 2011 those prices are:

• Gold....... $1495.00 per ounce--record high
• Silver...... $43.31 per ounce
• Copper....$4.26 per pound--that's only $ .27 per ounce!

If you recall, I blogged about the prices of these metals back in August of this year. 

Yikes!  Silver has more than doubled in price since August, with an increase of almost $25 since then, and is approaching the record high price of $48 from January of 1980. 

Gold has increased by $299 since August 11, and today's price is an all-time high.

I didn't record the copper price last August, but if you're using copper to make jewelry, it's still a bargain compared to gold and silver.

Of course, if you're a plumber or electrician, both of whom use large amounts of copper, this price is painful because it, too, has increased.

Good thing we don't need to use oil in jewelry-making--but I'm not going to get into that!

My New Job: Jewelry Instructor at Michaels in Rutland, Vermont

Gee, it's been a long time since I've posted a new blog.  I've been working hard to lose weight since early November including lots of exercise, which is taking up quite a bit of my time.  I ski two to three times a week and play tennis three times each week--I hate to do traditional exercise, but playing sports that I love works for me.  I need to find a flat place (I live in the mountains) to roller blade when the snow is finally gone.  I'm also following Weight Watchers, more or less--I've tweaked it so that I'm eating lots of fiber and NO white carbs.  Sort of a combination of Weight Watchers and South Beach.  Thanks, Dr. Goulding for making the suggestion!  So far, I've lost 23 pounds, but I still have more to go.  My goal is to be thin for my 60th birthday this July.  But this is not what I'm writing about today...


I recently received my Bead Cornerä  Design Academy Instructor Certification, and will be teaching Jewelry classes at the Rutland, VT, Michaels store.  Today I'm doing a four-hour demo at the store.  I used to teach One-Stroke Painting there, but Michael's took a break from offfering all classes except for Wilton about 2 years ago.  I've really missed teaching classes there and I'm excited to be back.


On Tuesday, March 22 I'll be holding a Bead Night.  It's an informal setting where people can bring their unfinished projects and work on them at the store.  I'll be there to help them when they need it. 


Once the store receives all of the Instructor supplies, I'll be scheduling regular classes.


UPDATE, JULY 8, 2012: 

• Click here to see my current class schedule.
• Click here for class descriptions.

Choosing Wire for Jewelry Part 2

It's been awhile since I posted Choosing Wire for Jewelry Part 1, where I talked about solid wire.  This post is Choosing Wire for Jewelry Part 2 and is about craft wire.  In the future I'll write Choosing Wire for Jewelry Part 3, which will be about flexible beading wire.

• Solid wire refers to gold, silver, copper, and brass wire.
• Craft wire can be copper, brass, aluminum, and colored copper wire.
• Flexible beading wire, such as Tiger Tail, Beadalon, Soft Flex and others are most often used for bead stringing.

 CRAFT WIRE:  is a type of solid wire which is used for wire-wrapping, jump rings, and coiled wire beads.  It's usually made from a base of copper or aluminum with a colored coating.  The coatings can be silvertone, goldtone, or a variety of other colors.  The coating on most of those wires is a bit more delicate than the plating on gold-plate or silver-plate wire.  Hammering and handling with pliers must be done carefully so that the coating isn't damaged.  The thickness of craft wire is measured by gauge, the same as solid wire. 
  

Typically craft wire does not come in different tempers.  It's usually somewhere between dead-soft and half-hard, but closer to dead-soft.  Of course, the larger the gauge (the smaller the number), the more difficult it becomes to work with the wire because of its thickness.  Craft wire will work harden with bending and hammering.  Be cautious, because too much bending will harden the wire to the point that it becomes brittle and it will break. 
  

A week ago I would have said that craft wire only comes in a round shape, but in this month's beading magazines I've been seeing advertisements for wire that comes in other shapes.  It's a bit hard to research all the wires available because some manufacturers only sell large-quantity wholesale and require registration to access their websites (which I didn't bother with because I can't buy those big quantities).  Here is some manufacturer-based information that I was able to find.  I'm sure that there are other manufacturers of colored craft wire.  These are the ones that I'm most familiar with:

• Beadalon is known for the manufacture of Artistic wire, which is round, copper wire, colored with an enamel coating.  It is dead-soft and comes in 55 colors and 13 different gauges.                                                       http://www.beadalon.com/artisticwire.asp
• Beadalon has a "German-style" silvertone wire, made from copper and brass with an anti-tarnish coating.  This wire comes in four gages, "medium" temper (half-hard), and five shapes.  They categorize this wire for wire-wrapping.  http://www.beadalon.com/germanstyleplatedwire.asp
• Beadalon makes a stainless-steel wire for wire-wrapping that is about half-way between half-hard and full-hard.  It comes in round, half-round, and square.  It's available in 20 through 26 gauge sizes, depending upon the shape.  It is already more difficult to bend than half-hard wire and will work-harden more quickly than other wires.  http://www.beadalon.com/stainlesssteelwire.asp
• BeadSmith manufactures round craft wire.  I found one website that sells 22 gauge in silvertone, goldtone, and copper, as well as 18 gauge in a variety of colors.  Because their website requires registration, I did not find out exactly what they have available.
• BeadSmith is now advertising "pro quality...non-tarnish copper craft wire."  It comes in 18 and 21 gauge and comes in half-round and square shapes.  The four available colors are Silver-plated, Gold Color, Pure Copper, and Vintage Bronze Color. 
• Darice is another manufacturer that makes colored wire, in a variety of colors and gauges, but only comes in a round shape.                        http://www.darice.com/ecom/Products.aspx?ct=CRAFT%20BASICS-CRAFT%20WIRE%20AND%20WIRE%20SHAPES-2013&oid=99
• Parawire manufactures round, permanently-colored copper wire, with a non-tarnish coating.  They have a large selection of colors (I counted 36), which come in various gauges.  It appears that some colors come in 12 gauge through 32 gauge, while others come in limited gauges.                                              http://www.parawire.com/craftstore.html
• Soft Flex Craft Wire is a new product.  It's another permanently-colored copper wire, which comes in 18 through 28 gauge, round, and 23 colors.  Not all colors come in all gauges.                                        http://www.softflexcompany.com/CategoryProductList.jsp?cat=Soft+Flex+Craft+Wire

If you know of any other reliable manufacturers of colored craft wire, let us know.

To see "Choosing Wire for Jewelry Part 1" click here.

© Copyright 2011 Linda's Art Barn. All rights reserved.

SLIDESHOW OF MY WORK

This slideshow is a collection of some of the jewelry I've made.  Included here are:  hand-knotted pearls and lapis lazuli necklaces; chain maille bracelet and earrings; beadwoven bracelets; and a variety of other pieces.

   
JUNE 1, 2012 UPDATE:

It has recently come to my attention that the website providing my slideshow has closed down.  Because of that my slideshow no longer exists. :(

I'm looking for another source for slideshows.  If I'm unable to create a new slide show, I'll be posting my work in still shots in the near future.

September 11 Beaded Tribute

On Friday night, as I watched a 9/11 documentary, I finished my first square-stitch cuff bracelet, a design showing the Manhattan skyline with the Twin Towers still intact. 

I first saw the pattern, by a wonderful designer named Irene Landaw, in the June 2008 issue of Bead & Button magazine.  When I saw the Twin Towers in this pattern, I immediately knew that I had to make it--even though I had no idea at the time what the square stitch was.  Irene told me that she finished stitching her bracelet a month before the Towers came down.  The pattern was so popular that it will be included in a book that Bead & Button is publishing in 2011.  Irene has another pattern being published in the upcoming December/January issue of Beadworks.

In June of 2008 I had just begun to learn about bead weaving and all of the stitches seemed incredibly complicated to me.  Nevertheless, I was determined to learn how to make this bracelet, so I went to a bead shop and asked one of the clerks to help me choose the beads.  For whatever reason, she picked out iridescent beads for me.  If I had been a little more knowledgeable I might have held out for plain beads.  I'm so glad I didn't because I love the shimmering colors that I see in the bracelet now when the light hits it certain ways.

I put the beads and the pattern aside, waiting for a time when I knew how to do the illusive square stitch.  This past June my husband, the dog, and I went to our summer cottage for a long weekend and there was no room in the car for my usual trunk of beading or painting supplies.  But there was room for the Manhattan skyline bracelet supplies.

After two years of bead weaving, I was no longer so intimidated.  I went to the back of the magazine and tried out the generic square stitch instructions.  It was surprisingly easy!  I started the bracelet. 

Three months, about 25 hours of work, and almost 3000 beads later, I've completed the bracelet.  The first photo above is how the bracelet looks when the light is flat.  The second photo shows the shimmering pinks, purples, and blues that appear when the light hits it a certain way.

This bracelet is the most special piece of jewelry that I have ever made. 

God bless the souls who were lost on September 11, 2001 and the people who worked so hard to rescue them.

Choosing Wire for Jewelry Part 1

Several things must be considered when choosing wire.

• Solid wire refers to gold, silver, copper, and brass wire.
• Craft wire can be copper, brass, and colored copper wire.
• Flexible beading wire, such as Tiger Tail, Beadalon, Soft Flex and others are most often used for bead stringing. 

Today I'll be talking about the solid wires.

GAUGE:  is the thickness of the wire.  There are gauges of wire that are much thicker or thinner than traditional jewelry-wire gauges, but there's no reason to discuss them here, so I won't! 

• The lower the gauge, the thicker the wire.  The higher the gauge, the thinner the wire.
• The typical gauges for jewelry range from about 10 to 30 gauge.
• 10 gauge wire is probably the thickest wire used for jewelry as it is very difficult to bend. 
• The best gauges for rings are probably 10 through 16.  You want ring wires to be thick and stable.
• Bracelets and necklaces are sometimes made from a base which is a single piece of fairly thick wire.  Other times they are made from smaller sections of wire, such as jump rings and shaped links.  Typically, necklace and bracelet wires will range from 16 to 20 gauge.
• Earring wire is usually 18 through 22 gauge, with 21 gauge as the preferred gauge for ear wires.
• 24 through 30 gauges are most often used in wire wrapping, wire knitting, and wire crocheting, where fine, flexible gauges are needed.
• If you are stringing beads onto wire, you must use a gauge that will fit through the bead holes, which can vary considerably, with pearls usually having especially small holes. 

SHAPE:  Jewelry wire comes in four basic shapes.

• Round wire is used for a variety of jewelry items.  Round is the traditional wire shape.
• Half-Round wire is like a piece of round wire that has been sliced down the middle, leaving it to look like a half-moon when viewed from one of the ends.  It's good for wire wrapping because the flat side sits against the bead and doesn't slide around as easily as round wire will while you are wrapping it, but it appears like Round wire on the outside.
• Square wire has four flat sides, which makes it good for wire wrapping because it sits against the bead without too much sliding around.  It can be very attractive because three squared edges are visible. 
• Twisted wire is sometimes made from square wire.  Twisting turns square wire into textured round wire.  If you have a pin vise or a drill you can twist your own square wire.

TEMPER:  is the hardness of wire.  For me, this has been the most difficult thing to grasp about wire because there are so many variables that affect the hardness of a wire.  Hard wire can be softened by being annealed, which involves heating it.  Soft wire can be hardened by hammering, tumbling, or "work hardening."  I'll talk hammering and tumbling wire on another day.  Work-hardened wire is just what it sounds like...the wire gets harder as you work with it.  Have you ever bent a piece of wire back and forth until it broke?  That's because it will eventually become brittle and break if overworked.  As wire gets thicker, it will feel harder because thick wire is more difficult to bend.

• Dead-soft wire is best for wire wrapping, wrapped loops, knitting, and crocheting because it is so flexible and does not work harden easily.  It is not good for something that must keep it's shape, like a ring. 
• Half-hard wire is the temper that is used most often for jewelry.  It is relatively easy to bend, but hardens somewhat as you work with it.  Sometimes, work hardening isn't enough.  I'll talk about hammering and tumbling on another day.
• Full-hard wire is not good for projects that require flexibility.  It is hard to bend and quickly becomes brittle, causing it to break easily.
• Spring-hard wire is very difficult to bend.  When made into "memory wire" it springs back into its original shape after being bent--perhaps that's where it got its name.  It is also used to make pin backs and other items that need to maintain their shape.

When you purchase solid wire, including copper wire, from a bead shop, it should be labeled with its temper.  When you buy copper wire from a hardware store, it won't be labeled but will usually be half-hard.  Craft wire is soft and won't be labeled.

To see "Choosing Wire for Jewelry Part 2," click here.

© Copyright 2011 Linda's Art Barn. All rights reserved.

Copper & Pewter

This is a follow-up to my blog from the other day, "Gold & Silver Prices." 

Copper:
A lot of us have started using copper for our wire and findings instead of gold-filled and sterling silver.  Copper is also a commodity and is subject to fluctuating prices, but it's not nearly as expensive as gold and silver.  The day that I posted the gold and silver prices, I saw that copper was a little under $4 a pound, which means that it's less than 25 cents per ounce.  That's a great price if you compare it to gold and silver.

Copper can be very nice on some pieces, but in my opinion, it doesn't work with all colors.  For example, I just don't like the idea of using copper with red, because it's like mixing orange and red.  You might like that look, but it bothers my eyes--probably goes back to the days of my youth when you weren't supposed to mix red, pink, and/or orange.  Of course, you can patina the copper so that it turns a dark brown if you like--I usually don't care for this patina very much because it's dull and looks like tarnish to me and I tend to prefer my metals shiny.  There are recipes for creating a verdigris (green) patina on your copper.  I love the color of verdigris, but it's a form of corrosion and it will flake off.  You might be able to protect it with some spray sealers, but I'm not sure.  I suspect that the sealers would quickly wear off, which makes this a bad choice for items to sell.

You can buy ready-made copper findings for reasonable prices in many local or online bead shops.  You can buy your copper wire in a hardware store--it's usually even cheaper there.  If you can find a hardware store that sells copper wire in various gauges without a plastic coating, you've hit the jackpot!  I understand that Home Depot used to sell small reels of 20 gauge, round copper wire, but I haven't been able to find it recently.  I have bought some copper wire by the foot in their electrical department, but they mostly don't seem to have the gauges that I want.  If you're doing wire-wrapping, you'll need to get your half-round or square wire from a bead shop.

Something to consider...Often the copper wire you buy in a bead shop is treated to resist tarnish.  The copper wire you buy in a hardware store is not treated.  I once made a necklace out of copper links from 2 different gauges of wire.  After a while the larger links (hardware store copper) turned a dull brown while the smaller links (bead shop copper) maintained their color and shine.  In this case, it doesn't bother me because I can occasionally soak the necklace in a vinegar/salt solution for a few minutes to remove the tarnish.  I know that the focal bead I used won't be harmed by the vinegar and salt because it's not porous. 

Lead-Free, Fine Pewter:
Another inexpensive alternative to sterling silver or gold-filled findings is lead-free pewter, also known as fine pewter.  It's made in gold-tone and silver-tone.  Fine pewter doesn't tarnish, which makes it superior to base metal findings.  While the silver-tone looks like sterling silver, the gold-tone can sometimes be a tiny bit brassy.  One downside to fine pewter is that it's brittle and cannot be "work hardened" so you'll only find ready-made findings.  You won't find wire, earwires, open jump rings, or clasps with moving parts made from fine pewter.  There are some wonderful fine pewter spacer beads, bead caps, cones, charms, and toggle clasps available.

For much of my jewelry, I use fine pewter toggle clasps and spacer beads with sterling or gold-filled jump rings and earwires.  Of course, I always list the types of metals I used in my items for sale in their descriptions.