Niobium is actually gray in color. The color is produced by anodizing which leaves the surface colored. I believe hammering might make the bare metal show but I’m not certain. Here’s a link about niobium:
https://blog.artbeads.com/2011/10/how-does-niobium-earwire-get-its-color/

I never buy any 22 g earwires as they bend too easily.
I bought some surg. steel from a vendor on ERSY, and from Riogrande.
You can find many vendors on Amazon.com just read the description carefully.
Rings&Things has a great selection, howver I never buy surgical steel with plating because it defeats the hypoallergenic purpose, I thin.
Rings & Things has some with extra large loops!
Most of the large jewelry supply companies have them.
Happy shopping.

Mimi, Where do you buy the stainless steel for earwires?

My customers still want sterling silver earwires regardless of the wire or metal of the dangle. What I do then is make my earwires slightly longer and put a tiny copper or gold metal or semi-precious bead on the front, whatever will coordinate with the metal wire in the earring dangle, something that ties them together. My customers do like mixed metals as a feature, because then they can wear the earrings with anything else.

If you use plated earwires, make sure there are no burrs before you put your earrings together. I’ve found that people may not necessarily be allergic to metals; it’s a burr scratching the inside of their ear hole and causing an infection that is the problem. And you’ll have to toss the plated earwires that have burrs, because if you file the burr off, you’re also filing the plating off — and these days who knows what that wire is made of!?!?

I also take the time to tell them if they have earrings at home that they want to have the earwires replaced, to bring them to me and I’ll do that for $XX, and that I also have gold-filled and sterling leverbacks if they want to trade up. It’s surprising how many people do despite the increased cost. A great part of my jewellery income comes from repairs and refurbishing.

I’ve been teaching classes on how to make earwires for almost five years, and I recommend making at minimum 5 to 10 pairs at a time, so 10-20 earwires. Give yourself the gift of a night in front of Netflix, set up a tray and make findings.

I start out with soft sterling wire since that’s what I have on hand. I measure the wire (1-7/8″ to 2″), flush cut all the wire pieces, file the burrs off and round all the ends, bend all the wires around a pen barrel (my preferred go-to shape), make the loops, hammer the front parts of the curve a little flat with a chasing hammer, reshape the wires over the pen, then whack all of the wires all over with a rawhide mallet to work-harden and flatten them.

I don’t make each earwire one at a time: matching one wire to an existing wire takes a lot longer. After they’ve all been made on my little production line, I line them up in a row and pair them for curve and height from the bottom of the loop and size of the loop to the top of the curve so the earrings will be balanced. I put each pair in tiny plastic bags, A, to keep them together, and B, to keep the air from tarnishing them. Then they all go in my sterling silver findings box that goes with me to all my shows and markets.

When I display earrings, they all have little plastic earnuts on the ends (I’ve recently gone over to the higher-priced but way higher-quality silicon) and I throw in a few more earnuts in the bag when I sell a pair. It’s the thoughtful little things like that that keep people coming back.