How to Choose Wire for Making Jewelry

As you become experienced working with wire, you will develop your own preferences for the hardness, sizes, and shapes of wire that work best for you. However, we all have to beg, borrow, or steal some wire before we can get to that point and it can be disappointing (not to mention expensive) to purchase a type of wire that won't work for our designs. Here's a table of the types of wire I use for different types of projects. In order to help you make your own choices, I've provided more information about hardness, diameter, shape, and size following the table.

For each entry in this table, I've listed my choices in order of preference. I rarely have access to 21 ga wire, but I find it very useful. The three sizes I would never be without are 24 ga, 20 ga, and 18 ga. However, 22 ga is great for strong wire wrapping and 16 ga makes wonderful chain maille rings, armatures for cuff bracelets, and strong clasps.

Project
Wire Hardness
Wire Gauge

earring findings (hooks, loops, etc.)
soft (hammered after bending) or half hard
20 ga, 21 ga, 18 ga, 22 ga

handmade clasps
soft (hammered after bending) or half hard or full hard for simple shapes
18 ga, 16 ga, 20 ga

wire wrapped loops
dead soft or half hard 
22 ga, 24 ga, 20 ga, depends on specific design 

jump rings for chain maille
dead soft or half hard 
20 ga, 18 ga, 16 ga, 20 ga for delicate jewelry and tiny rings, thicker for heavier types 

'normal' jump rings for jewelry
dead soft 
20 ga, 21 ga 

French or Victorian beaded flowers
dead soft? craft wire is rarely labeled 
26 ga, 28 ga, 24 ga, 32 ga 

wire wrapping cabs
half hard, dead soft 
20 ga, 22 ga, 18 ga, square and half-round are great for this 

You can buy wire that is dead soft, half hard, or full hard. Soft wire is flexible and doesn't break as easily when you work it as hardened types. However, hardened wire will hold its shape better than softer wire. It's very important to know that you can't really compare the hardness of wires that have different compositions. For example, hard steel is really hard and springy (think memory wire), while hard gold is still pretty soft and flexible (but harder than soft gold). Hard wire can be made soft and soft wire can be hardened. Wire gets hard as you work with it or hammer it. You can make your wire uniformly hardened by pulling it through a draw plate, which is just a block with successively smaller holes. The way to release the hardness is by heating the wire, which can be risky since you can lose the shape of your wire if you heat it to its melting point.

Wire manufactured in the United States usually is sized according to gauge; most of the rest of the world uses millimeters. Both units refer to the diameter of the wire. A higher number of millimeters means a thicker wire, but a higher gauge is a thinner wire.

You can get wire that is round, half-round, square, triangular, and in other shapes. Round wire is the least expensive. Wire with edges can be especially handy for wire wrapping. The shape you use will be a both matter of personal preference and based on comfort (e.g., no square wire for pierced earring posts).