Daily Wire Jewelry Making Tip for
October 19, 2011

Question:

Dale, I’m fairly new to this wire wrapping thing but I’m loving it…I wonder how you (and others) store their wire so you can find a particular gauge and if it’s half round, round or square without having to hunt and study ends with a magnifier? Thanks for any help!

-Bonnie in San Manuel, Arizona

Answer:

Hi Bonnie, welcome to our “twisted” world! As a “newbie”, when situations come up, you can find a lot of answers to your questions right here on our blog! Yes, I know that there is so much information on here, that it can be difficult to find things, but when you have time you can explore each of the categories in the left menu, especially Free Wire Jewelry Videos!

Separating and storing jewelry making wire can be done in several different ways. A while back, faculty member Sherrie Lingerfelt made a video showing some ideas titled Organizing ALL of your Jewelry Wire! that may help. We also had a great discussion in May, Organizing Jewelry Wire where lots of our fellow wire artists shared their favorite storing and labeling methods in the comments section. I hope you find a technique that works for you!

One method is to use a large binder with clear sheet protectors, great for when you have limited space (like the dining room table). You can find packs of binder sheet protectors at office supply stores. Rose is a school supplies junkie and stored her coiled wire (with the original bag & label) in this binder when she started wire wrapping, and still uses it for frequently-used-wire. Just don’t drop the binder!

Answer contributed by Dale “Cougar” Armstrong

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Daily Wire Jewelry Making Tip for
June 30, 2011

Question:

I have a question about verdigris. How can you clean old pieces of jewelry (copper, brass, sterling) that have this powdery blue/green substance on it? Why does it grow on some pieces and not others? Will it spread to other jewelry in close proximity?

-Teri in Granite Bay, California

Answer:

Yes, verdigris (the natural patina formed with the oxidization of copper) is not only a pain to clean, especially from intricate antique costume jewelry, but it is also a toxic substance. Verdigris is also a corrosive agent, meaning that this naturally-formed coating is actually eating away small bits of metal as long as it is allowed to remain untended for long periods of time. Verdigris forms as a result of oxygen, moisture and other pollutants the metal has come in contact with over the years. The pollutants also include body sweat and oils, make-up, perfumes, hair products, and lotions. This allows dust and small dirt particles to coat the jewelry, adding even more fertilizer to the formula. I think of this substance as a contagious disease to vintage jewelry because yes, it can spread amongst pieces that are stored together.

Verdigris grows on pure and alloy forms of copper, brass, and bronze, including items that may have once been plated with silver or gold. When a small amount of the plating has been removed or worn very thin, the surface is prepared for verdigris to germinate, especially if there is already a bit of it near the scar, chip, or nick, such as being stored with other items already infected.

Vintage, prong-set rhinestone jewelry in brass and rhodium plated settings. Private collection, Dale Armstrong

From about age 9, I have been collecting vintage rhinestone costume jewelry and I have always used cheap toothpaste and a soft brush to clean any verdigis from the metals. Now, you cannot get this abrasive cleaner (most toothpastes contain pearlite – a form of volcanic glass) near any stones, especially if they are foil backed, or pearls – natural or manmade, and you need to keep both toothpaste and water away from any parts that may be glued. I begin by using a dental pic, toothpick, straight pin, and small scrap pieces of twisted jewelry wire to get as much of the crud off as carefully as possible. Then I have a go with a child-size soft toothbrush and toothpaste, always brushing in the direction of the metal. I rinse the piece off bit by bit using water dampened scraps of t-shirt and cotton swabs and when it has been cleaned enough for me (all of the verdigris gone but leaving some nondestructive patina), I store these pieces in a velvet lined box, each individually bagged in plastic – unless it has a natural pearl, those pieces are in little velvet bags. To clean the tops of any glass stones, I use a cotton swab dipped in ammonia, and then rinse with a clean swab and dry with another. No, none of the stones in the vintage jewelry that I personally collect are either foil-backed or glued.

There are many other ways that other folks clean antique costume jewelry. Some use vinegar, others swear by lemon juice, still others like to use either ketchup or Worcestershire sauce! Whatever you do, remember that after spending hours fastidiously cleaning these special pieces, make sure they are completely dry before storing them.

Answer contributed by Dale "Cougar" Armstrong

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Daily Wire Jewelry Making Tip for
May 10, 2011

Question:

Dale, how do you organize your beads? I’m now doing it by color. Do you have any suggestions?

-Ni in Columbus, Ohio

Answer:

The choice is up to you, Ni! Most of the WS Faculty members and I separate our beads by color, too: either mixing individual boxes of crystals and stones into the same master container (or drawers in a hardware cabinet); or separating crystals and glass in one container, and natural stones in another. Mine are arranged like a rainbow: white/clear across the top, with one drawer being crystals, the next stones, then reds – graduating from light red through dark. The next is are pinks, then orange, browns, amber colors, yellows, greens, blues, violets and blacks. In this manner if I am working with a certain palette, it’s easy to know where those colors are. While working, I pull out each drawer that has the colors I think I want, play with them, and then put them away. In some drawers I use small “Tic-tac”-like containers, or miniature zip-loc bags, so I can separate small sizes and shapes individually. This also makes it easy to see when I am running low on a certain item.

In the article Setting Up Your Jewelry Making Work Space, WS Faculty member Mary W. Bailey shares several ways that supplies can be organized and stored, that are accompanied by several photographs.

I would like to ask our fellow wire jewelry makers, how do you prefer to store and organize your beads?

Answer contributed by Dale “Cougar” Armstrong

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Daily Wire Jewelry Making Tip for
May 9, 2011

Question:

After ten years in our current home, we are moving to a larger home where I am so fortunate to have my very own jewelry studio. I won’t have to share that space with anyone, so I want to take this opportunity to set things up perfectly.

So my question is, what’s the best way to store wire? Currently I use drawers, which works well for spools, but not so well for bags of larger gauge wires. I want them stored safely (unscratched), and organized, so I can find what I need quickly and easily accessible. Any suggestions? Thanks!

-Jackie in Chapel Hill, North Carolina

Answer:

Hi Jackie, first – congratulations on your new home, especially your new studio space!

It sounds like you already have most of your wire issue taken care of. Keeping spools in a drawer, maybe organized by metal type and shape, is good. Here’s where I go from there.

Organizing and Labeling

For any temper other than soft, I personally prefer coiled wire – that is, wire that is in a wide coil and stored in a plastic bag, often with twist-ties holding the coil together – rather than wire on a spool. I prefer coiled wire because there is no challenge when removing the desired amount and dealing with the “spring” that wants to become a giant slinky. To store coiled wire, most of the WS Faculty members and I place the original bag, or envelope, containing the wire into a gallon-size freezer zip-loc bag. (We use the additional bag so we can just keep adding smaller bags to it.) We like the freezer style because there is a space to write the gauge, temper, shape, and any other information we wish to remember, and it is made of a more durable, heavier plastic. If a bag does not have a label area, simply add your own stick-on label and abbreviate something you will remember, such as 18g R S for 18 gauge round soft wire. For metal type, you can use Ag or SS for sterling silver, Au or GF for gold-filled, C or Cu for copper, Arg for Argentium®, etc.

These bags can then be arranged in a box, file cabinet (fixed or portable), expandable folder, or drawer (using a rack and hanging file folders) in the way you want them to be. A suggestion would be to organize your wire by color and shape. Personally, I organize my wire by metal and then shape and temper. I keep each metal in a different, portable box, separated by home-made poster board tabbed pages. The wires I use most often are in front (for me, those are square and half round) and in each section, the wire bags are placed from smallest gauge to largest. So my labels, in order, are: Square Half-Hard, Half-Round, Square Soft, Round (all tempers), Special (meaning larger gauges like 14 and 12, mixed shapes) and Pattern. I separate some categories with a totally different one, so I don’t mistakenly grab soft square when I wanted half-hard square.

See it in Action

WS Faculty member Sherrie Lingerfelt did a nice video tip, showing both her and my wire storage systems, called Organizing All of Your Jewelry Wire that will show you exactly what I mean. Once you have a system down, wire organization will definitely be your friend!

Answer contributed by Dale “Cougar” Armstrong

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Daily Wire Jewelry Making Tip
June 14, 2010

Question:

As an alternative to plastic bags of wire lying around, could I use empty spools to store my wire? Will it have any adverse effects on the performance of the wire?

-Cal in Baldwin, Wisconsin

Answer:

Many people prefer to store their wire on large spools. If you wish to do so, my advice is to make sure you keep the square wire “on the square,” and to coil any wire shape or temper slowly and carefully around a large spool, so as not to work harden it.

Storing wire in closed plastic bags to prevent tarnish is not all that hard, either. We have several methods explained by Sherrie in this video tip.

Answer contributed by Dale “Cougar” Armstrong

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