Thank you for sharing, today, because of your wonderful tutorial, I managed to make my first balled, copper headpins! I am absolutely delighted as I've tried before after watching tutorials by other people but I just couldn't get my copper to ball. I think my success on this occasion was due to you showing us exactly where, in the flame, we need to hold the end of the wire. Once again, thank you so much, I really do appreciate you sharing your knowledge ❤️
Excellent! Congratulations! In my experience copper is much more difficult to use heat techniques with - as it transfers the heat so quickly to everywhere else! So keeping the wire end in the hottest part of the flame is critical. It's so great to be able to make headpins from whatever gauge of wire you want though! 😃 And I'm glad to have helped!
Ok read all the threads making sure I didn't miss any already asked questions. What the heck is pickling? And what is the product you used for it? Thank you for the tutorial 😊
Thanks for sharing. I didn't realise copper would ball like silver until seeing a couple of your videos, but it works quite well. I whacked some of mine with a hammer to get a flatter sides - a nice effect.
Thank you for all your videos. They are extremely helpful, well explained, and easy to understand. Do you finish your copper jewelry with anything to help avoid the skin discoloration issue?
Thank you! I'm glad you enjoy the videos! Yes, I do tend to seal the copper and I'm testing a few things. Probably the best I've found so far is Evercoat's Protectaclear. I love Renaissance Wax too.
I've watched A LOT of videos on balling wire for a head pin. Your video is BY FAR the best. I have no questions, unlike most other wire balling vids I've watched. Thanks so much! Have you signed up with Patreon? I'd support you. I've learned more than I can say or remember from watching your vids. I pin each for future reference. Lovely necklace too!
Hi Rosa, yes, I love working with copper! The 'green skin' effect is likely to happen whether the copper is oxidised or not. It can be minimised by keeping the copper piece clean, but the best option seems to be to seal it. I'm hoping to run a little experiment on the options for this soon!
Thank you, for the enlighting video! Somehow I never had the courage to try this with copper - since they only show this method with silver in every other similar videos. - I always thought, a torch-flame would not be enough for influencing the shape of copper or that it probably would not ball-up at all. Now I just became curious, if aluminium would also do the same. :D Unfortunately, the piezo-trigger in my welding torch died long ago, so I cannot just quickly run and try these. :( Another thing, which I was curious about, whether you know a method of DIY-ing a plastic-cover to a regular pair of pliers at home, since a plastic-nose pliers are a rarity (and also an expensive investment) where I live and all my copper-wires are just too quinky to work with. And they all came with a thin layer of laquer on them so that I am just unable to run them between my bare fingers to get them smoothed out. I just do not want to scratch them during this process... Maybe, I should not try to run them between pliers but between some other kind of silicone-pieces, I just do not know, which regular household-objects would do the job. Any ideas?
Thank you! Better get that torch sorted out! I managed to get some cheap nylon jaw pliers, so that's what I tend to use when my wire needs straightening. I do also have some cheap plastic clamps which might also work, so possibly anything made of reasonably soft plastic that you can hold the wire between. The wire will leave grooves, though, so don't use anything that you want to keep looking nice!
Good idea! - Now I just recall having seen cheap clamps in the craft-shop, which I did not buy because I thought, they'd press too strongly: maybe, I should try to cover their noses with any soft plastic in order to get a cheap nylon-jaw pliers (sort of).
I wish! One day maybe... 😃 For recommendations, it depends what area you're interested in I really started this channel because there didn't seem to be anywhere that collected all the copper-related information in one place, so I tend to have several references, then experiment!
Thank you! This is a really good reason to get one 😄 If you don't want to use heat there are a couple of other methods you can try: you can hammer the wire end so it is wide enough to hold the bead, or use a coil, spiral or small loop as the 'stopper' Depending on your bead hole size, you may also be able to hold it on with just folding over the wire end so the doubled up wire is the stopper.