JQuery wrap() function only correctly wraps links around image first time through a loop

The following code is simply supposed to loop through a list of artists generating an image and a link for each item. This works the first time through the loop, however for subsequent iterations the wrap() link around the image doesn't seem to be added. I've tried a few various ways, including having all the code to be wrapped in a separate variable and the best I've got is that the link will be generated, but not actually wrapped around the thumb class (*). I'm afraid client-side goings-on aren't my strong point so I'm struggling to see why only the first iteration of the loop is successfully wrapped in a link.

*That was using dynamically-generated attribute IDs and wrapping that instead of using the class attribute as follows.

function showArtists(adata) {
    $("#artists").html("");

    for (var i = 0; i < adata.artists.length; i++) {

        var artist = adata.artists[i];

        var artistSpan = document.createElement("span");
        artistSpan.setAttribute("class", "artistView");

        var artistPic = document.createElement("img");
        artistPic.setAttribute("class","thumb");
        artistPic.setAttribute("src",artistPicture)

        $('.thumb').wrap(function() {return "<a href='#' onclick ='getAlbums(artist)'> </a>"});         

        artistSpan.appendChild(artistPic);

        $("#artists").append(artistSpan);
    }

}