Artistic Wire, 20 Gauge Bare Copper Craft Jewelry Wrapping Wire, 6 yd

Super soft wire but good quality

I have a lot of sets of round copper wire with multiple gauges, but for some reason, none of my sets came with any 20 gauge wire, which is actually a thickness I would really like to use quite often. So I bought this.Please note this is actually bare copper wire. There is a little confusion with the item description because it seems recycled from other Artistic Wire products (you may have seen other Artistic Wire spools with green or purple or orange coatings, for example). What I received was BARE copper wire with no non-tarnish coating (this is what I wanted). I have played around with patinas and they have taken, which to me is confirmation of no enamel coating and no non-tarnish coating. If you want this not to tarnish, keep it in a small, closed container with one of those 3M anti-tarnish tabs (the same goes for any jewelry items made from it). Or seal it with some kind of sealant or spray, though sealants usually need to be periodically reapplied.This seems to be dead soft. I can manipulate it with my hands though I prefer using nylon-jaw pliers. (Depending on what I want to do, sometimes I just use non-coated pliers. For example, if I want to use bail-making or roundnose pliers, I'll just use the bare steel ones. I have not yet had to anneal it to re-soften it but that is always a possibility if you work it too much. This cuts easily with my small Eurotool flush cutters.I'm not saying my wire wrapping looks very good yet, but that is on me. I just need more practice. I am pretty good at making eyepins (really, something everyone should learn to make, as it's just silly to pay for finished ones that might not even be the length you want) with this so far, and I've made some paddle-type headpins by pounding the end of a cut piece with a hammer.Anyway, this was a good purchase for practice with wire wrapping and for making headpins and eyepins. I'll likely go back to the same product when I run out.

This is a great copper wire for jewelry making, for two main reasons. One is that it is real copper, not copper colored coating. Some stores like Michaels sell coated wire which looks awful when you wire wrap it. Even though copper is cheap, they seem to think you need to coat it and it ruins your project and wastes your time. Plus, real copper can be altered via heat or patina rub, whereas coated wire can't.Another great thing is that the price is reasonable-not inflated simply because it's for jewelry. It's priced similarly to copper wire from a hardware store but is in an easier to use roll.It's thin enough that you don't necessarily need to anneal it like some thicker copper wires. The thicker the wire, the less times you can twist and turn it without it breaking. Normally, on a 20 or 22 gauge I cover the pieces with flux and burn that off with a torch to anneal it and make it flexible. In the case of this thinner wire, I haven't had to do that. I just don't go too long with the strips of wire.One really great look for this is texturing and distressing two separate pieces, lining up holes with a tiny hole punch along both, then wiring them together with the copper wire. Hard to mess up and makes an interesting piece.I hope you find this helpful!

Surprisingly strong and beautifully fine

The wire arrives on time, it is pliable enough for wrapping jewelry. I wish that there was a way to keep the wire from unraveling when opened I attempted to place plastic piece back on to the wire but it brik so I placed in it in a plastic bag. But all in all I love the wire !

Excellent wire

Perfect Quality!

This wire was purchased for a project to make beaded Valentine hearts with an organization. It worked well, as expected, and looks fine. The texture is so fine that the wire does kink really bad if not kept straight, but it is no fault of Amazon.