antiqued brass and copper wire/findings

[rosarymom]

I make rosaries and would love to try using soem alternate colors than the nickel-silver or brass/gold color I am used to using.  I found some nice antiqued copper and brass crucifixes and now need to match the findings.  Specifically I need WIRE appropriate for this purpose.  Generally, I use full-hard wire, but does anyone know of any wire to match the antiqued brass and copper that would be suitable?  

Does anyone have experience in how to harden or color wire to meet my needs.

Any and all help is welcome!

Thank you!

RosaryMom

[Polly]

Win-Ox (R&T stock # 86-343) is commonly used for antiquing.

To harden wire before working with it, you can pull it through a draw plate.  (Try googling "pulling wire through a draw plate").
Hammering on wire hardens it as well.  But this changes the shape and size, plus some things don't look right, hammered.

We do sell quite a few antiqued copper findings, includind clasps, head pins, eye pins, and jump rings.  These might be helpful if you can't get your wire to work perfectly. We also stock some antiqued brass findings.

[Russ Nobbs]

If you wire wrap the stations/beads even soft wire should hold up well. Use the heaviest size wire that fits the beads and that looks OK with the beads.

[rosarymom]

Thank you for your help.  

The win-ox is for precious metals, right? I would be coloring plated or finished metals mostly.  The Color Magic stain might be what I need, but I am having a hard time finding it locally to try it out.  Can't even seem to find any info on the manufacturer's website (Eastman Corp.) to see who would distribute it locally.

I bought some of the soft wire from RNTW but am disappointed...too soft for what I need even if I wire-wrap which I don't always want to do depending on the rosary...and not the right color.

I bought an anvil and hammer even...that does work but not sure that I want to spend that much time with the wire.  Certainly there is a manufacturer that offers full-hard or even half-hard wires in brass and other metals.  The rosary companies I use to order my nickel-silver and 20 gauge brass are unfortunately not to helpful in getting other gauges or directing me to where I can purchase other already hardened wires wholesale.  If you can direct me to someone who manufacturers harder wires, I would be eternally grateful.  I know they have to be out there!  

Drawplate....I could do that I suppose...have to decide if that would be worth the investment!  I'd rather buy it predone and spend more time making rosaries than preparing wire.  I'll have to consider that one for a while...

Thank you!

RosaryMom

[Polly]

Win-Ox works on silver, copper and bronze too.  Some plated items are coated with a lacquer finish to prevent tarnish, and this will prevent the "intentional tarnish" of Win-Ox as well.

The intro to our charms catalog has a page with some samples of win-ox on various finishes: http://www.rings-things.com/catalog/charms_cat/PG_H-02.pdf
(The variance doesn't show up very well in the web images; the surrounding text is actually more helpful.)

The February issue of our newsletter has some more info about DIY antiquing.

I've also noticed that it is hard to find hard basemetal wire. Usually they promote themselves as "Soft! Easy to work with!" I haven't had much luck finding basemetal wire that says "Tough and durable! Keeps its shape!"  When I do, I expect it to include a disclaimer about using tough pliers.  '>