How to Make a Ball With a Brass Wire
- 1). Cut a 1 1/2-inch section out of a 22-gauge brass wire. Pick it up with your locking tweezers and hold it with your main hand. The brass wire should hang straight down from the tweezers.
- 2). Light a small jewelers torch. Hold the torch upside down to make the flame point up toward the ceiling. Hold the flame under the hanging end of the wire. The brass will start to melt and look like it's crawling up as it forms a ball. Once this happens, remove the flame and set it aside and allow it to cool.
- 3). Make cleaning solution or pickle for the brass ball end. After a brass wire has been heated it needs to be cleaned in a weak acid solution that is called a pickle. Fill your slow cooker with water. Add 1 teaspoon jewelery pickle to it and plug it in. When the water has heated, stir it with a stainless steel tea ball so that the pickling solution dissolves entirely into the hot water.
- 4). Gently lay the small brass ball end wires that you have made into the pickle, taking care not to let the pickle splash, as it contains harsh chemicals that can burn your skin. Let it sit for three minutes, watching the brass balls. Remove them--once the discoloration caused by the torch flame has disappeared--with your copper tongs. When you are finished using the pickle, turn off the slow cooker.
- 5). Wash your brass ball headpins with an old toothbrush and soap and water to remove the pickling solution. Dry off your headpins. They are now ready to be used to make jewelery.
