A few years ago, I had a request from a long-time customer to make a bunch of stone pendants for her employees. She wanted various types of stones, but all similar styles…AND the finished necklaces had to be uni-sex.
I had a boatload of polished agates from Dad, and some of them were perfect for wire wrapping. The problem was, the customer wanted them to be fairly low-priced – no sterling silver!
Wire wrapping stones or cabs can be tricky. One of the easiest ways to do it is with square wire. Do you think I could find square non-sterling wire at that time? NO! So I made my own.
Using a drawplate, I pulled yards of round copper wire down until it was square and ready to use in wrapping. I’ll never forget running into my house one summer evening squealing about my wire to my husband and son, who likely thought I’d lost my mind. I’d made round wire square for crying out loud…didn’t they see the magic????
Problem was, it was also full-hard from drawing, so I had to anneal it. :sigh: For those who aren’t metal-workers, annealing wire (to make it easy to work with again) isnt’ all that hard, but it’s yet another step. And then it’s all dirty and oxidized and has to be cleaned. :double sigh:
Zip forward to last week. I had to place a few orders, including wire…and one of my suppliers had…take a deep breath….SQUARE COPPER WIRE.
I did my usual “hit the payment button and begin stomping feet impatiently waiting for the UPS delivery” dance. Today, my SQUARE COPPER WIRE arrived, and I began playing with it immediately.
It works GREAT. I paired it with some half-round sterling to wrap around a couple of cabachons (which need an LOS bath and some quality time in the tumbler, quit nagging me already)…and I’m drooling to make some rings and work some chainmaille magic yet this week.
Square. It’s the new round.