Craft wire and anodizing aluminum at home

[bigbadlion]

Hi everyone! New here (or rather newish).

I’ve been lurking these forums for a while, looking at all the great stuff that can be found in here.

Personally I've been on and off on this craft from time to time, mostly because of not being able to find the correct materials.

Just to set some things clear right away. I’m not in the US, Canada or Europe. I live in Chile so buying jump rings from the typical stores is not an option. Shipping rates plus taxes are just too much so for that reason I’ve found myself in the need of making my own jump rings.

Recently I bought craft wire and while it looks nice I feel the material is too soft for my linking (been buying different brands thru some Chinese manufacturers).

My only options right now it seems to be to buy aluminum wire and anodize myself but I don’t know what’s better. Should I anodize the wire and then make the rings or should I make the rings and then anodize them? If that’s the case, how should I do it as it seems metal needs to be touching the material?

Anyway,

If anyone can help that would be super awesome. I love doing this but constantly finding the wrong materials feels terrible.

Thanks everyone!

 

[chainmaillers.com]

Anodizing Aluminum, from my understanding, is a major undertaking, as well as being a chemical process with potential for serious harm. If you're going to do anodizing yourself, I would suggest titanium as being a safer option. While there is still a potential for harm, I believe it to be much less than that of anodizing aluminum. Unfortunately, I've never done either myself, so hopefully someone more familiar with the process can give you a more in depth answer, perhaps steampunkgarage

Craft wire is pretty much always going to be dead soft and more suited to wire wrapping than making rings.