How (not) to make headpins. Part 2: fine silver

Oh my God, making headpins using fine silver is so much easier than argentium. Seriously. I wouldn't even bother with the argentium, but its strength comes in handy for a lot of projects.

Here's the summary of my process for fine silver:

1. Cut wire (I ordered mine from fusionbeads.com) into sections of 1.5 inches - 2.5 inches. You lose up to half an inch when balling the wire, so be careful not to cut it too short.

2. Wave the wire in the general direction of a lit butane torch.

3. Enjoy perfectly formed headpins!

Ok, it's not quite that easy, but...well, it pretty much is. You still need to hold the wire straight up, otherwise the ball will be lopsided. And I noticed that if you heat up the wire too much, not only does the ball get too big, but it turns matte. It's not ugly, but I was going for smaller, shiny balled ends.

The hardest part for me was stopping. I burned through a 75-foot coil of wire like it was no thang, then collapsed all twitchy because I have no more wire left. But hey, I have a great batch of heapins for sale and personal use now!

I also had lots of fun taking artistic pictures of the headpins for Etsy. They're tied with neato hemp string I found at a local stationery store.

Oooh...



Aaahhh....!

By the way, these photos were taken in my ghetto-fabulous photo box, which I will be writing about shortly.

So yeah. I'm not saying my headpins are the best ever, but they pretty much are. Buy them here: [26 gauge, 2 inches long] [1.5-1.75 inches long]

Related: How (not) to make headpins, Part 1