Question about store policies
I received the following email about store policies:
"I have a question regarding your store policies. I have some customers that ask me "how secure is wire wrapping?" They are worried that without glue or a screw setting that the jewelry will break more easily. What would your response be to a question like that? Also, I was reading in your journal and saw that the core wire in one of your bangles broke. How did you handle that situation with your customer? Do you have a guaranteed for ?? days policy?"
My answer was the following:
I normally tell them that while I test all my jewelry, hand-crafted jewelry is a bit more fragile than commercial jewelry, so they should care for it a bit more.
The few occasions I've had pieces break, I fixed it for no extra charge, except shipping. No day limitation.
2 Comments:
When I first started to make jewelry, I did a lot of research on methods and techniques and found that wire-sculpted and wire-wrapped jewelry is actually one of the strongest forms of jewelry. It is one of the only forms of jewelry that has been dug up after 1000's of years completely intact. The reason is that each strand lends strength to the others. It is not prone to cracking or breaking unless it has been improperly tooled. I rarely have a piece I have to fix for someone. Of course it does happen no matter what medium or technique you are using.
I know a few platinum jewelers who have a great deal of respect for the technique! Some have even featured my work alongside theirs!
There are a few tricks to hardening the dead soft wire though that are really important to the longevity of the piece. I use a simple hobby rock tumbler on most of my pieces with stainless steel shot. I tumble the piece for about 20 minutes to 1/2 hour with a little burnishing fluid. (I think Dawn dish detergent with a drop of sewing machine oil is a good alternative). That hardens the metal so that all the curves and curls are stiffened so that they don't bend easily. Dead soft metal is metal who's molecular make-up hasn't been compressed. Compressing the metal makes the forms and shapes permanent.
Don't tumble drusy or other crystaline formations as the tumbling will dull the crystals unless you tape and pad the stone. Swarovski and other man made crystals (CZs and the like) tumble fine though. If in doubt, find a way to protect the stone while hardening the metal.
You can also hand burnish the metal and then use some fine sanding and polishing papers, but I am a bit on the lazy side and like it to be a "mechanical - I don't have to do anything but wait" proposition. That way I can move on to my next piece.
Thank you Denise for such a wonderful and thorough answer!!!
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