Copper vs. Silver

for the most part, yes. copper is a little softer. order dead soft sterling, or better yet argentium.

I started with copper and then quickly went to silver and gold. My biggest hurdle was learning how to bend without marring the metal so if you can do that successfully on copper, silver should be quite easy as well. I agree with Don, dead soft is the way to go, at least with the main wire. You can go half hard with the wrapping wire.

Andrea, don't be scared to use that silver. If it doesn't go well you can always tear it apart and scrap the silver to buy more later (although the way you've been wrapping I'm sure it will turn out great). Be sure and keep all the trimmings from the silver so you can turn it in for scrap later. I sell my scrap back to Rio Grande and then get credit so I can buy more wire. I started with sterling silver since that's what my friend had but then switched to copper for a while until I got the hang of it more. I think copper is softer than sterling so harder for me to work because I'm used to the harder wire.

Let us know how it goes Andrea.