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I'm going to make a pair of small fused earrings for my daughter. I've read about wire inclusion and know to use nichrome. Can I leave a loop outside the glass to attach to the finding, or would it burn away? What guage of nichrome should I use?

Nichrome is high temp wire and so it won't burn away.

Use whatever gauge will look best with the rest of the finding. I'd guess 18-24 gauge might be right.

Geri

Easier to get than Nichrome, and pretty too,is brass wire. Clean it with steel wool before encasing and it will look like a cross between brass and copper when you're done cooking it.

Fine silver works good too. If I am making dangles, with a loop at the top to attach the finding, I hammer flat the small amount that goes between the top and bottom piece of glass. I find less slipping that way. Also it comes out perfectly clean. You can get it from Rio Grande.

Is this sterling silver like you would use in wire-wrapping?

You can use fine silver in wire wrapping, but it is not traditionally used. Fine silver is 99.5 pure silver(or some percentage close). It will be labeled as fine silver. Everything else will be sterling.

Fine silver is actually 99.9% pure silver, whereas sterling silver is an alloy of 92.5% fine silver and 7.5% something else. Traditionally the something else in the alloy is copper.

The reason that most jewelry is made of sterling silver, rather than fine silver, is that the addition of the copper makes it a harder metal that holds its shape better.

Fine silver is very soft and doesn't hold its shape as well in large pieces.

That being said, many jewelers, myself included, use fine silver bezel wire for cabochons because its easier to bend when setting a stone than sterling would be.

Geri