Wire: dead soft or half-hard?
Question:
I've just bought a couple of your fab jewellery tutorials but I'm not sure that I've bought the right silver wire. Would you mind advising me please?
Is the 18 gauge wire hard or half-hard?
Is the 26 and 28 gauge soft or dead soft please?
Answer:
normally you choose the wire as follows:
Between 14 ga and 20ga: half hard OR dead-soft.
Between 22ga and 30ga: only dead-soft.
The reason you want to have the thinner wire be dead-soft is because it becomes harder and more brittle with manipulation. So always start with deadsoft wire when using any type of fiber technique.