Wire Breakage

by Rachel
(MI)

Hi everyone! I've enjoyed reading so many of the posts here and have picked up a number of helpful ideas that have been incorporated into my work.

While I've been making jewelry for quite awhile now, I've only recently decided to venture out and start my business and doing shows. I started by doing a small home show that went very well and was a lot of fun. I now have a much larger show set up for a few weeks from now and very excited but also a bit nervous because I've recently had a number of breakage issues.

From what I have seen thus far, the breaks are all happening at the bottom of the necklace which I'm sure has the most strain from where a pendant would fall or someone would be playing with it, looking at the necklace, etc.

I had thought that I figured out the issue and corrected it by using a heavier gauge wire because it was a fairly heavy piece. But, in the last week, I've had 2 more break (thankfully they were my own pieces) that were both very lightweight. The 1 piece was well over a year old and had never had an issue with it! The other was brand new and never worn.

Because I also do soldering work, I use tarnish resistant wire for all of my creations. For necklaces, I use either 16, 18, or 20 gauge wire depending on the weight of the necklace.

Any helpful suggestions are VERY much appreciated! I love creating new pieces and everyone who has seen my jewelry loves it, but I'm worried that I'm going to continue to have breakage and want to correct this before another piece breaks!

Thanks so much!
Rachel