A few weeks ago I was listening to Jay Whaley’s Blogtalkradio interview with Helen Goga, former editor and publisher of The Wire Artist Jeweller magazine.  One of the things that really struck me during the broadcast was the terminology each of them was using.   Without fail, Helen made reference to “wire jewelry” and “wire jewellers”, while Jay said “wirewrapping” and “wirewrappers”.

For the past fifteen years, I have been exploring various techniques for manipulating wire to create jewelry, both simple and complex.  From thick to thin, I’ve bent, linked, twisted, woven, hammered, fused, crocheted and knitted my way through many kilograms of metal.  The possibilities of what can be made using wire are virtually endless.  Much of my oeuvre has been created without the use of a torch.  This is a deliberate choice:  I enjoy the challenge of figuring out a design based on the constraint of working cold.

I am not a “wirewrapper”.  I *never* refer to myself using that term.  The reason is very simple:  For many, the term “wirewrapping” conjures up images of someone who is unskilled and not serious about their craft.  I’m neither, so when I talk to people about what I do, I tell them I am a professional artist/studio jeweller/metalsmith/instructor who makes jewelry out of wire.  People understand these terms and respond with an open mind.

Helen alluded to the same thing during the conversation with Jay.

Potential clients and metalsmiths alike turn off when they hear the word “wirewrapping”.  It’s like a kill switch.  Seriously, mention “wirewrapper” or “wrapping” and the conversation stops.  Dead.  It doesn’t matter that my work has been published in books and magazines, or that it’s been included in national and international exhibitions.  It. Just. Stops. Dead.

Oppi Untracht, in his book “Jewelry Concepts and Technology”, made reference to three major forms of metal used in jewelry:  sheet, cast, and wire.1  This book is considered by many in the craft to be the Bible of jewelry making.  He devoted 111 pages to “The Uses of Drawn or Extruded Flexible Filaments”.2

Of course, there are metalsmiths who produce work in sheet metal, metal clay, and cast metal that is unsophisticated, but for some reason, the harshest critique seems to be reserved for wirework, and especially for cold-worked wire.

Why?

For many years, and for most of this past year in particular, I’ve been pondering this question.  The answer is rather convoluted, and touches on many different areas, so I’m going to break it down into a series of essays that lay out what I see are the virtues and the vices of wire.

I’m going to look at wire jewelry through the eyes of the various communities with whom I interact:  the general public, who buy jewelery; the wireworking community, made up of professionals and hobbyists, who share my passion for this form of metalwork; the students, who want and need the best quality instruction in order to succeed in their own practice; and, the greater metalworking community against whose standards of excellence wirework is compared and judged.

Please feel free to join in by posting comments below and by sharing anything that resonates with you.

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  1. 1. At the time, metal clay had not yet been invented, otherwise it would likely have been included as well. ↩
  2. 2. Untracht, Oppi. Jewelry Concepts and Technology, (New York:  Doubleday & Company, Inc.,  1985) ISBN: 0-385-04185-3, Contents ix. ↩