I receive a lot of emails from jewelry makers who want to know which wire jig I would recommend. However, there are so many jigs on the market that this is really a difficult question to give a simple answer to. Most companies who sell jigs offer a number of different models. I still don’t have an easy answer to the "jig question." However, I have managed to conduct some jig research. To assist me, I gathered together a few members of my family and we conducted "The Battle of the Jigs."
The Jigs in Battle
The Battle Participants
The family members who participated all had varying levels of wire skills, and none had ever used a wire jig before.
Terry: My sister is around my age and has been making jewelry for a few years. She mainly works with beads, but she has played around with wire also and used it in her jewelry on occasion.
Floretta: My mother has not made a lot of jewelry though she has always been pretty artistic. Her specialty is sewing.
Ashley: My niece is a few years shy of being a teenager and has inherited the family’s artistic genes. At the time of our battle, her current project was an embroidered pillow case.
Preparing for Battle
Before starting, I made a trip to my local hardware store and purchased copper and galvanized wire in various gauges: 18, 20, and 24. I also collected a number of books published by Wig Jig including Wonderful, Wearable Wire and Designing with Wire Books 1-4. Tools collected included small and large bent nosed pliers, round nosed pliers, and of course, wire cutters.
The Battle Begins
Once the battle started, we soon realized we needed better light. In fact, since these jigs are clear, there was some glare. This was quickly rectified with a halogen light.
After the lighting was taken care of, I started my three testers out with a basic Celtic design. Once the Celtic components were finished, the participants felt a little more comfortable with their jigs. Soon they cracked open the books I brought and started getting serious making everything from wire butterflies to wire umbrellas. The various jigs were passed around so everyone could get a chance to try the different models out. I kept busy with my round nosed pliers making loops and finishing pieces.
Battle Results
After everyone, including myself, got a chance to try out each of the three jigs, I asked which one was their favorite and what they could recommend to make the jigs better.
Ashley: The Olympus Lite was Ashley’s favorite jig. The smaller size was more comfortable for her compared the other two jigs. She also liked using the 20 and 22 gauge wire. Ashley really surprised us all and got the hang of the jigs pretty quickly.
As you can see, our small group seemed to lean toward the Olympus jig. The also looked through all the books I brought and liked the Wonderful, Wearable Wire book the best, which has designs for the Olympus, so this is no surprise. One difficulty all the participants seemed to have was in finishing the pieces they made. They had never made wire loops or wrapped wire, so they weren’t sure what to do with the pieces when they had finished them. The books had great designs, but some finishing instructions would be helpful for beginners.
We had a blast at our jig battle. If you have an opportunity to have your own "Battle of the Jigs," I highly recommend it. It gives you a chance to experiment with different jigs, and it was a lot of fun too.
