Any metal wire that can be twisted or bent and then hold its new shape can be used to make wire jewelry. Wire comes in a variety of metals, shapes, and sizes. The type you use depends on your personal preference and the demands of each project. Most jewelry wire is sold by the ounce, though some gold and silver wire is sold by the foot.
Table of Contents
Jewelry Wire Metals
Jewelry wire comes in wide variety of metals:
- Coated: Wire with a plastic or enamel coating. The coating gives the wire colors that natural metals don’t have. Be careful not to chip the coating when working with this wire.
- Copper: A dark-brown wire that looks great with other earth tones. Copper wire is inexpensive, making it a good wire for experimenting with shapes or design ideas. However, copper tarnishes and needs to be polished. Always wash your hands after working with copper wire, and store the wire in a dry place—the green verdigris that naturally develops on copper kept in moist locations is toxic.
- Galvanized: A plain wire available at most hardware stores. Best suited for practice use.
- Gold: Expensive but beautiful wire that’s long-lasting and resistant to tarnishing. Because it’s so costly, it’s best to use it only when you’re completely confident in your ability and your design.
- Gold-filled: The closest thing to pure gold wire (and usually much less expensive). It’s almost as durable as gold, resists tarnishing, and is hypoallergenic.
- Plated: Wire that’s plated with a single layer of gold or silver. Over time, the plated layer may chip, exposing the plain wire beneath and marring the wire’s beauty.
- Silver: A purer silver wire than sterling silver. Pure silver wire resists tarnish but is considerably more expensive than sterling silver.
- Sterling silver: A very popular material for beading wire. Sterling silver is more than 90% silver, plus a few other alloys. It tarnishes and requires regular polishing.
Jewelry Wire Shapes
Jewelry-making wire comes in two basic forms: coils and strips.
Coiled Wire
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Coiled wire is used for all basic wirework techniques. It’s easily shaped by pliers and cut with wire cutters. Coiled wire is available in a number of shapes, including round, half-round, and square.
Round and square wires are often used as the main wire in a piece of jewelry, with half-round wire wrapped around it.
Strips
Strips are flat pieces of wire, usually sold in 12-inch lengths. They also come in various widths (across) and gauges (thicknesses). Like coiled wire, strips can be cut with wire cutters, but they’ll have noticeably pinched edges that should be filed down before being used to make jewelry.
Sizes of Wire
Jewelry wire is also sold in multiple thicknesses, which is measured in gauge, or millimeters. The larger the gauge of a wire, the smaller the width of that wire. Jewelry wire usually ranges from 26–20 gauge, with 26 the smallest gauge and 20 the largest. Some pieces may use gauges as large as 14. The table below lists the best uses for different gauges, and, because the thickness of a wire affects its weight, the length of wire you can buy per ounce for each gauge.
| Gauge (mm) | Best Use for Jewelry Making | Length in 1 oz | ||
| 26–24 (.40–.50 mm) |
Good for beads with small holes, such as pearls; creating delicate chains | 76–48 ft | ||
| 22–21 (.65–.71 mm) |
Versatile; good for stringing most beads and making flexible jewelry components such as ear wires, head pins, and eye pins | 31–24 ft | ||
| 20 gauge (.80 mm) | One of the thickest (but still flexible) wires; strong, durable; good for making closures and other pieces that will be handled often | 19 ft |
Wire and Beads
If you’ll be working with beads and wire, make sure to choose fine wire that will thread easily through the beads. For chunkier pieces with larger decorative beads, use a wider gauge range.
Hardness of Wire
The relative hardness of jewelry wire depends on the blend of metals it contains and the way it was manufactured. There are three basic hardnesses:
- Dead-soft: The softest type of wire, dead-soft wire can be bent by hand. It’s good for jewelry made purely of wire but isn’t strong enough to support much weight, such as heavy stones.
- Half-hard: Stiffer than dead-soft, half-hard wire requires pliers for bending. It’s strong enough to support heavy stones or dangling weights.
- Full-hard: Extremely stiff, full-hard wire may require a hammer to be shaped. If you’re just starting out in jewelry making, avoid using full-hard wire.
