pliers

The top picts are of flat nosed pliers. I use these two pairs the most. You need to find ones that are comfortable for you to use. Also, for jewelry, make sure there are no grooves on the jaws or it will mark up your jewelry. It should have smooth jaws.

The middle pict is of my round nosed pliers. The one with the red handle is supposed to make wire loops more easily. Someone gave it to me but I never use it . I use the blue handled ones to make smaller loops and paint brush handles for larger wire loops. I have an example of a wire loop in the pict. The loop itself is pounded flat using a hammer and bench block. Flattening the wire strengthens it.

The last pict is of wire cutters. You will need to sharpen them once in awhile or just get new ones. This one in the pict is pretty well used and not as sharp as it should be.

The gold object above the green handled wire cutters is a center punch. You push down on it and it gives you a dink in metal. This way you can drill and it will not skirt around. If you are not confident about drilling into metal or don't want to ruin your surface with a skipped line, then you can use this center punch. Using a hammer and a nail will give you the same dink. I like the center punch because I do a lot of drilling. I generally do not need to use the center punch because I drill so much, but I do once in awhile if my jewelry surface is pristine and not oxidized.
If you are interested in a center punch, I got mine from Volcano Arts