At a glance, a jewelry work tray seems inconsequential. But the difference a tray can make on your first practice session can seem remarkable. Without a tray, wire scraps, loose jump rings, beads, cabochons, clasps, ear wires, and other loose bits and bobs scatter everywhere.…
Cutting can happen quickly, but in jewelry it is one of the steps that are often the most difficult to correct. A piece can be reshaped, rough edge refinished, and a loop readjusted, but a short piece is often a test piece. It is the…
A jump ring can be easy to overlook. A tiny circle of wire seems as if it can’t do much. But a jump ring often holds your jewelry piece together. It might attach a charm to a chain, a clasp to the end of a…
Take two lengths of practice wire that look nearly identical and hold them in your pliers. You may quickly find that they act like completely different metals. The first yields with hardly any force, yet the second requires pressure to bend, picks up tool marks…