Hi, today I finished my first piece of crochet in 0.3 mm sterling
silver wire. It was real fun to me doing this work and now I’m
thinking about making more jewelry using the technique of crochet
or maybe knitting. What I would like to know now is: Which is the
smallest wire diameter suitable for this kind of work in
sterling? What about fine silver? Would that be to soft? Maybe
fine silver would look nicer, since it won’t tarnish as sterling
does. I’m also thinking of using multiple wires to achieve a more
dense structure. How thin can these wires be?
I used 36 G fine silver wire when I did this type work at SDSU
with Arlene Fisch. I never used sterling wire tho. FS is easier
to knit and crochet with and even that work hardens. Louise
Gillingham San Diego @lgillin1
Hi; Fine Silver works really well. You can use 30 ga. wire but
it is difficult to keep the stitches orderly. Even 28 ga. is a
little too thin unless you are doubling it. I find that 26 gauge
wire with a No. 7 or 8 crochet hook works best. I’ve also used
brass wire–28 or 26 ga, makes a nice contrast with silver.
Sandra
Mary Hu is our resident expert in this and she’s given me
wonderful advice. I did not have much luck with sterling. I
got 30 ga. fine silver and found it much easier to work with.
It was much easier than the 28 ga. I hope you will post a
picture of your piece!
Regards,
Susan
PS…I’ll let you know if we get to Hannover in March!
I crochet wire into necklaces all the time. I use 24 and 26g
fine silver round wire that I buy from Hauser Miller. It is very
soft, but work hardens well… I have made tubes, cones, sheets,
balls, hearts, it is great fun as the metal remembers the stitch
and you basically can do whatever you want. I have used 30g fine
silver too, but that need reinforcing, or different design uses
as it is extremely fragile.
Fine Silver does tarnish… but a quick dunk in Dip It, restores
everything.
hi
boy, can i answer your questions! i usually use 26. 28 and 30
ga fine silver wire, and it works wonderfully. i have been
writing workshops for Lapidary Journal for the past 2 years, the
next is scheduled to run in February 99. it is a link
necklace/earring set, but there are many to follow, a rose, with
individual petals, an angel pin a tube bead necklace with aqua
crystal diamond shaped beads, an amulet bag in square. . . .
see, i had to have cancer surgery and wanted to get ahead in the
workshops so i did a bunch.
i have also found you can pre string beads of assorted sizes, or
even just seed beads and carry them on the wire as you go.
please visit my website, http://members.aol.com/patmcaudel/2index.html it connects a
general set of pages to my online catalogue.
you are going to love working in fine silver. pat
ps mixing the new art wire and silver is pretty, but i really
like the look i get with copper and silver wire. really nice.
Hi again, as I’m from Germany and not very familiar with gauge
measurements, I’m little bit confused at the moment. I found two
conversion tables for gauge to millimeter. One is Brown & Sharpe,
the other Standard Wire Gauge. So what do you mean if you’re
talking about gauge?
Anyway, thanks for your comments on the crochet issue.
Currently, I’m using 24-gauge sterling. I bought 400 ft, so I’ll
use it up before i try some fine silver wire. Fine silver is
more tarnish resistent.
You can easily anneal the wire before working it. To do this,
wrap the wire in contiuous loops (like when you wrap up the
garden hose or a long extension cord). Then take the final end
bit and wrap some tight spirals all the way around the circle of
wire. It should be a nice tight, compact circle of silver.
Then use a very very bushy torch and slowly heat round and round
the circle until it is a dull orange color and annealed. Quench
immediately in cold water. If you do this slowly, you won’t melt
the wire. Pickle the silver and crochet up something pretty!
:))
After you have crocheted the length that you want. Then anneal
and pickle it again. At this stage, twist the length so that all
the loops are in fairly straight lines. (When you crochet, the
loops naturally leave a spiral effect).
Now for the magic!! Run the length thru a draw plate a few
times–each time into a smaller hole-- until it is the width you
want. You may have to anneal it a time or 2 as you pull it thru
the holes. Depending on how many loops you started with, the
length will stretch 25-30% as you use the draw plate. 25-30%.
I use tabing and fabricate end caps when I’m done,
Hello Virginia I won’t be crocheting in wire - but I love your
description of the process. Have you ever published an article
or book on the techniques? Your writing is very easy to follow
and your love of the medium comes across and makes the reading
fun.
That’s all - just enjoyed reading your post. cynthia