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Making Balled Ear Wires By Oksana Trukhan
by Judy Ellis, Wirejewelry.com
Wire Jewelry Tip for August 8th, 2017
Making Balled Ear Wires
by Oksana Truhan
This is a very fast and simple way to make your own elegant ear wires. You can use 19- or 20- gauge sterling silver wire. Both will be sufficiently strong ear wires. However, you’ll find that sterling wire doesn’t ball cleanly in the torch due to the copper in its composition. (There are no such problems with fine silver.) But there is a way to get smooth beautiful balls on the sterling silver. Just use powder of borax or flux.
Bend the wire at right angles, immerse it into the borax or flux and heat with the butane torch. Be careful – silver melts very quickly.
Now bend the wire to the shape of a hook and flatten it with a hammer at the curve to strengthen them.
If the hook is too thick for the ears, use the file to make it thinner and more comfortable.
Happy Wrapping!
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Kay Hara
August 8, 2017 at 6:55 am
Always appreciate your tips.