Top 5 Cold Connections for Jewelry Making

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“Cold connection” is the perfect phrase for all the ways you can join things together without the use of heat. In jewelry making, my top five cold connections are: rivets, wire, stone settings, adhesive or resin, and findings.

What Are Cold Connections?

From: 5 Riveting Details: When, Where, and How to Use Rivets and Other Cold Connections: “Cold connections are ideal for connecting fragile layers (glass, mica sheets, enameled pieces), low-temp layers (aluminum, tin, and other low-melting-point metals), and flammable layers (paper, fabric) with other layers.“

There are many ways you can accomplish the layering of materials; let’s focus on my top five go-to options.

Bring Things Together with Rivets

Riveting is one of the skills that seems to cause fear in those who have yet to try it. I can’t imagine why when all you have to do is:
– accurately measure the depth of layers you’re assembling
– drill a hole through the layers to the exact diameter needed for your rivet
– cut the right gauge wire to the right height to create the rivet
– heat the rivet without melting it
– strike the hammer just the right way so the wire becomes a rivet
– secure the other end of the wire so it keeps all the layers together.

Gee. I can’t imagine what all the fuss is about. Ha!

Kidding aside, the riveting process really does consist of these steps. The good news is, there have been many advancements and tools made that make the process fairly foolproof. You can purchase manufactured rivets and eyelets, drill bits or hole punches that will pair up with the rivets perfectly, and riveting hammers. There are also great tutorials available, including an overview found in 6 Riveting Tips: Master Cold Connections with Brilliant Tools and Expert How-To’s.

Use Wire to Join Components

Not only can wire be used as a rivet but you can use wire to form loops. Another form of cold connections, loops can be used to link components to your finished design. You can use them to create finished designs, too! Talk about versatile.

One example of creating a loop to finish a design is this simple bead cap tutorial. Form a wrapped loop on one end of a length of wire, secure the loop inside your design, slip on a cap, then finish with another wrapped loop. Not only does this provide a professional finish it’s also very secure as there are no open spaces where your material can slip through like it could with an eye pin. 

Inside Free Wire Wrapping Video: How to Make a Double Wrapped Loop, you’ll find a Beads, Baubles & Jewels video highlighting wrapped loops and their versatility. And, an alternate double-wrapped loop tutorial by Tracy Stanley, excerpted from her book, Exploring Metal Jewelry. Both are great options for a seamless, professional finish and great cold connections.

Findings – You Can Even Make Your Own!

Findings are a very generic term for many, many different components that are all classified as cold connections. Ear wires, headpins, eye pins, jump rings. Many of these are made from wire so maybe I should’ve just said wire is my favorite cold connection material! Wire really is so versatile, and it has so many ways it can be manipulated to do the hard work of keeping things connected.

Eye pins can be linked together or can be used to link clasps to other parts of a jewelry design (clasps are another form of cold connection based on the mechanics), eye pins and headpins can be used to join beads or other components to an ear wire, and so much more. Jump rings. Well, you can make a career out of creating designs using just jump rings. These findings also make a great cold connection by “jumping” between two components or other findings, like clasps.

Whether you run out of store-bought findings, need something unique that you can’t find on the market, or want your jewelry to be completely handmade, making your own wire findings is an easy task that can save you money and add some extra pizzazz to your designs. And if you keep wire on hand, you’ll never know the frustration of running out of findings mid-way through a project. For even more creative options, be sure to check out 10 Ingenious Wire Findings Clasps, Cord Ends, Ear Wires.

Prongs and Other Stone Settings

There are many ways to set a special design. One that allows the beauty to show (almost) fully is a prong setting. Tab settings run a close second. Settings are technically a cold connection between itself and the item it captures. A setting might require soldering to another piece of metal, though, so consider creating a prong or tab setting if soldering is really not possible.

The “Starlight in Her Hair” design by Noël uses silver wire and blue sapphires to create a stunning barrette or brooch. To complete the mostly cold-connection design, prong settings are joined with simple solder joints. You can find the complete instructions for this project in the January/February 2019 issue of Lapidary Journal Jewelry Artist.

Adhesives and Resin are Cold Connections, Too

Have two things you need to join together that can’t be punched, wired, linked, or set? Use a suitable jewelry-grade epoxy or resin. Not only is epoxy a (somewhat) common household item, it’s versatile. “If that’s the case, why do I have over 50 different types of adhesive and a few types of resin in my studio,” you ask? Well, the easy answer is they each have a specific purpose or material they’re best suited for, based on manufacturer’s recommendations and over time my collection has grown. To start, you can choose just one for the job at hand and then add to the list as your materials change. Resin is essentially an epoxy but can do so much more!

Betsy Lehndorff shares an extensive list of things she learned working with suitable “metalsmithing adhesives:”

• Read the directions.
• Make sure all parts are clean.
• Use fresh epoxy. I’ve been using Devcon Home 5-Minute Epoxy, but you have to work fast. Some experts use G-S Hypo Cement, with its needle-like applicator.
• Those same experts say you should avoid using E6000 and super glues. Super glue is brittle.
• When you pick up some fresh epoxy, test it. Glue a sample project together to make sure the stuff holds.
• Wear nitrile gloves and eye protection. Have plenty of ventilation when using metalsmithing adhesives.
• Don’t attempt to glue parts together when you are frustrated.

In Beat the Glue Blues: Tips on Using Epoxy and Other Metalsmithing Adhesives, Betsy shares her expert tips on this excellent cold connection material. Learn about ways you can use resin beyond its genius as an adhesive in Resin Jewelry Making Tips.

Don’t limit your cold connections adventure to just these listed here. Do try each of them and enjoy the different types of jewelry you can create.

Tammy
Director of Content, Interweave