If you are a beginner, you can be very overwhelmed with many different choices of materials that can be used to string beads. Shopping at your regular local craft store may limit you on finding a large variety of wire but if you take the time to shop online, especially at a beading store, you will find a huge selection of wire for beading. The most important element to succeed in making your own custom piece is the type of wire to use for your beading project. You can use different types of materials to string beads but the most popular and sturdy wire to string your beads on is beading wire.
The most important key to know about the beading wire is its gauge. A beading wire gauge is an instrument for measuring the thickness of the wire. The higher the number of your beading wire gauge is, the thinner the wire is. For example, a 26 beading gauge wire is thinner than a 14 beading gauge wire. The most commonly used beading wire gauge in making custom jewelry and other craft items are 14-16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28 and 30. Gauge is basically the standard measurement here in America. Other parts of the world use millimeters instead for measurement.
Most beading wire used is made of base metal. You can also find wire made out of other type of materials such as copper, stainless steel and sterling silver. All this assortment of wires serves different purposes. Using a base metal wire is good for any project and can be found in a variety of colors from the plain silver color to black, white, pink, blue, purple, green and more. The plain silver color metal wire can be found in any of your local craft stores. The colored ones can be ordered online and can be really fun to wrap beads with them or to simply have them show through clear beads.
Another consideration that is most important to skilled artisans is the hardness of the wire. There are three different category of wire hardness. These can be dead soft, half-hard and full-hard.
Dead soft wire is very soft and easily pliable. There is no need for pliers to bend the wire. Using your hands can simply bend the wire. They are used for the free form wrapping of smaller beads such as crystal and pearl onto a base and wire knitting as well as crochet. Dead soft wire is much more breakable than a harder wire. Half-hard wire is a little stronger, less flexible and harder to work by hand. The half-hard wire needs to be this way to be able to stand being pulled through a draw plate. A draw plate is a helpful tool to reduce the diameter of gold or silver wire for a particular metal working project. Full hard wire is pulled more times through the draw plate making it stiffer and stronger. The harder the wire, the more tools you need to work with it.
Another important element to consider when choosing the wire for that custom piece is to know how much weight the wire can hold. The heavier the wire, the more weight it can support. This will simply give you a peace of mind knowing that you are wearing a delightful piece of jewelry without the worry of the wire breaking. The shape of the wire is also a very important key. Wires come in different shapes including round, square and half round. Round wire tends to be more adjustable. Square is wonderful for wire wrapping and half round wire is great to use around other pieces of wire in order to connect them. Try different kinds of wire for various projects to get a sense of what you like. Make your own style of jewelry and have lots of fun doing it.