Artistic wire help

[Former_Member]

Hi! I'm new here, to Etsy, the group, and wire itself. (Forgive me if I'm doing this wrong) I had a question I was hoping someone could help me with.

I got a bunch of non tatnish silver wire from Artistic Wire to make some tree pendants with. I'd heard it was supposed to be top notch quality wire. I discovered that after twisting it, it seems to have a clear coat on it that flakes off. Now I have fuzzy looking trees which just doesn't work for me. I'm curious if anyone else has had this problem, or if I just got a bad batch?

Has anyone here worked wwith this brand of wire before?

[Former_Member]

Hi Freia, welcome to Wire Geeks =) I can't say I have tried the brand you are speaking of, I went straight to copper and Sterling . Is it Sterling with a tarnish resistant coating? I have heard of sterling with this coating on it. I know that you cannot tumble it with this coating .That is enough to turn me off.
I mean if you are going to invest in Sterling wire, you might as well go all the way and tumble your jewelry. I use 930 Argentium Silver, it is tarnish resistant and cost not to much more than reg. Sterling.You can tumble it and it shines beautifully.
Nothing is really non tarnish. It will tarnish eventually, at least Sterling and Argentium can be easily polished back to it's original glory without a flaky residue.
Doesn’t sound like a good wire you are using even if it's just silver plated, flaky is not good for wire wrapping. That wire needs to be able to take some abuse ;)
I would suggest you switch.
Check out www.riogrande.com, they have a good selection.
Here are some Wire Geek threads u might find interesting;

http://www.etsy.com/teams/10722/wire-geeks/discuss/9120364/page/1

http://www.etsy.com/teams/10722/wire-geeks/discuss/9089420/

[Former_Member]

I had the same thing happen to me when I started - I was playing around with some Beadalon wire that I found locally. That is the only brand that has done that for me, though.

[Former_Member]

I haven't had this happen with "artistic " brand wire but lots of plated wire are sold as "artistic" wire. I've had this happen with another brand called "wrap it".

I agree with Joanna, definitely check our riogrande.com

[LittleRedWitch]

Artistic wire is silver plated copper. When you twist your pliers into the wire the plating comes off and you have pinkish colored wire. It is tarnish resisitant meaning it won't discolor like sterling . Argentium won't tarnish but you do get tool marks which can be filed to remove. You can't remove tool marks with artistic wire because you will have happen what happened to you.

[Former_Member]

I have been using sterling silver wire (anti tarnish/coated) (copperwire base) from Joanne's and seems to work ok for me, for now.

[SleepyCatJewelry]

This happened with some brass wire I got from the local craft store. The anti-tarnish coating was coming off. I had to throw the wire out. Coincidentally, I was using it for some trees I was making too. Like you said, fuzzy trees are not good!

[Former_Member]

Thanks everyone! I went over and checked out Riogrande and just decided to start using the sterling wire from them. Just finished my first sterling tree last night. :)

[Former_Member]

Hi Freia, I`m new here too :)
I have used copper wire with a non tarnish coating on it before but never had any problem with it other than it felt a lot different from a "raw" wire...but I was just using it on a wire jig.
Riogrande is a very good place, I have some silver filled wire from there with the best price I was able to find at that time, good luck! :)

[Former_Member]

Hi TimelessGardens :)

I've used quite a bit of the non tarnish copper wire, never had a problem before. That particular one just decided to protest. Which sucked since it was a special order tree.

I just ordered some of the silver fill wire from Riogrande too. Never worked with silver fill before. I've high hopes for it. :)

[Former_Member]

The brand I use is Artistic Wire...and I have been using it and twisting it for years and never had that happen....

[Former_Member]

Oh Freia, I`m really sorry for your special order tree...
I don`t think you should have any problem with the silver filled, I have made some ear wires out of it and so far so good, I believe it can take the twisting too :)

[Former_Member]

Hi Patricia :)

Yeah, I'd heard good things about that wire so when I couldn't get a hold of the brand I'd been using from my local store I thought I'd give it a go. It really hated being made into a tree. Maybe I got a bad batch. Haven't tried with the other spool I bought yet.

[Former_Member]

@TimelessGardens: Oh good. I was wondering how the silver fill would do for ear wires. I'm hoping my order should be here in a few days, can't wait to try it out.

[CherylParrottJewelry]

I use artistic wire all the time. Typically 28 to 30 gauge. I do have to be careful when using my pliers. I just started using BeadSmith craft wire. The one that is very dead soft. I think it is more flexible and easier to use than Artistic. I haven't noticed a problem with flaking.

[Former_Member]

try chemical clean? maybe bleach?

[Former_Member]

I also use Artistic Wire regularly. I've noticed some flaking with some of the colored wire from this brand but never the silver. But you do have to be careful with it since it is coated and seems more vulnerable to chipping.

I usually wrap my pliers with tape before working with mine. This seems to help a bit. And I've read elsewhere that you can coat your pliers with a substance called "Tool Magic" which coats the tool with a rubber coating. Here's a brief description from Fire Mountain: http://www.firemountaingems.com/details.asp?PN=H152055TL.

[kaitlinkreb]

The Google Oracle says nail-polish remover (acetone) is the only way to remove all the coating. Lacquer remover will work, but it's noxious. If you have time and it's a small batch, they say boiling in water with soap or vinegar can work.

I just started my first serious wire-wrapping project with Artistic wire, and noticed the fuzzies happening. The Artistic wire without the non-tarnish finish is half the price. That's a better choice for student work.
I'm going to try to salvage my piece with black Guilder's paste or Vintaj black patina.
Artistic Wire makes bare copper and bare brass. As far as silver wire, I'm going to buy real silver from now on.

[Former_Member]

I experienced the same exact problem specifically with Artistic Wire Non Tarnish AND the metal under the coating is terrible and tarnishes and smells if it goes long enough, its the worst! I have actually written them before just to put it out there, they don't seem to care.

I love the color coated wire from them, so long as you don't scrape off the surface its fine doesn't flake off from over manipulation and the wire under is mostly copper and doesn't tarnish badly. Its really only the non tarnish from this brand. They do have color coated silver and gold, but its more expensive which is totally lame haha.

[KGemstoneCreations]

Hello :) I am looking for a non tarnish and non flaky wire which I can easily bend. Unfortunately I already tried purchasing wires from various shops 3 times and they are all awful. One of the wires apart from breaking very easily began to tarnish after wearing 3 times. Another wire is way way way too hard to bend I ended up hurting my fingers and breaking parts of the crystals and it was labelled as jewelry wire. And the other one I think was actually sprayed with colour and it started to chip off :( a friend of mine has a shark tooth and he's counting on me to wire wrap it for him. It has sentimental value for him and I don't want to break the tooth or end up with a tarnishing/ rusty wire. Can someone help me please?

[Former_Member]

I'd like silver wire that I can patina, not anti tarnish. Is there silver filled wire that isn't anti tarnish?

[Former_Member]

I buy sterling silver filled wire from scientific wire company - it's not coated in anything, looks, acts and wears just like sterling silver just significantly cheaper.