Jewelry Making

I’m new to making my own jewelry and I have just decided to make a few sterling silver pairs of earrings for Christmas presents… before this I’ve only used craft wire which seems to stay together pretty easily by just hammering the piece down. However, when I made the same type of earrings with sterling silver wire, I can’t get the pieces that are crossing to stay together… In case I’m not explaining this very well (which I’m probably not… lol) here is an example I googled up of what I’m talking about: http://www.peninkpaper.com/gallery/earri…

Is there a way to bond the parts that are crossing each other together (heat, glue, etc) or am I just not hammering it hard enough if they aren’t staying together? I feel like I’ve hammered it pretty well, the wire itself is starting flatten out the roundness out a bit - which I don’t want - so I’m scared to hammer any harder than I have.

Ah, if only the sterling silver wasn’t so much more expensive than metal wire! It makes making mistakes a bit scary! Eep, that example I linked doesn’t work so here’s another one.

http://www.tanyasbeadncraft.com/earrings_cpr_fib_opt_gld.jpg

you need to solder it.

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