Adventures With Niobium Wire

So I had been trying to find an affordable way to make jewelry for a friend that has metal allergies. I tried using hypoallergenic or silver plated and they just weren't working. I was noticing a lot of my earrings, even my stainless steel piercing earrings would irritate my ears pretty bad, some as soon as I put them in, others would take a couple hrs to get bad. It would make my piercings swell and hurt if I tried to put anything back in them too soon. I found niobium hooks for sale on my favorite jewelry supply website and it sounded like exactly what we needed. I bought some to test. I began to do a lot of research on niobium. Niobium is a very lightweight metal. It is a pure metal and not an alloy so no chance of being mixed with an allergenic metal. It also has a self healing protective oxide layer. This layer protects it from reacting with water (I wore some in the pool just to test them and no change) or moisture in the air, and even your skin. The oxide layer can also be manipulated with heat to turn it black or electricity to change it into a rainbow of colors. So I ordered some natural silver niobium 20 gauge wire, and wore a pair of the hooks I had all day, then all day the next day. They didn't bother me at all and were so light, I forgot they were in till I was getting ready for bed. I created 2 pair of silver studs and sent them to my friend to test since she is probably a lot more sensitive than I am. Here are some photos of the fun I am having with it. (I like making the black best because I get to play with a torch lol)