When
you're getting started with the jewellery project one of the most important
things is going to be what kind of clasp to get. That's if you're making a gold chain necklace or a bracelet, you're going to
want to know what to buy and shopping for the materials is one of the most fun
parts anyway, so we're going to show you an overview of some of the clasps you
might find at the store.
One
of your more basic clasps that you'll find is a lobster clasp and we've got
three different examples here. Ones in a silver look, gold look and kind of an
antique brass or bronze look and they come in different, with different
connectors. This one didn't come with any connector at all, this one came with
a little jump ring, that you can see here, so it's two parts. Yeah so take that
apart when you go to use it, that's right and then you would connect each end
to what inside, either side of your project.
Yeah
and the same is true of this one, it comes with this little end, here frankly
we don't love this tiny little end because it's kind of hard to get your little
lobster end through that tiny hole. We usually just throw that away and use a
jump ring or sometimes we use a piece of chain to go with a lobster because
then it makes the piece that you've made is adjustable. Yeah so that's really
nice. So this is your all-purpose lobster clasp, it's called a lobster clasp
because it looks like a lobster claw, very silly, but sometimes you want
something a little prettier if it's going to show, you might want something
like a toggle clasp that I have here on my necklace. It's okay if it
comes to the front, because it's so pretty.
So
here's two examples of a toggle clasp and a toggle clasp comes with two parts
it has a ring and then it has usually a bar and you slide the bar into the ring
and that's how you're going to clasp it, just like this one, and what you'll do
is you'll take the two pieces and you'll put the ring on one end of your project
and you'll put the bar on the other end. Sometimes they come connected like
these two have a jump ring connecting them, they're just selling it that way so
they don't get lost from each other. You're going to use wire cutters and cut
that temporary ring that's just holding this two together, you can and now
you've got your two pieces you'll attach the bar to one end of your project and
the ring to the other.
We
love toggle clasps especially for necklaces and about not so much for bracelet.
Now if they, I thought they're not secure enough for bracelets. I have
some bracelets with, I do too, I do too yeah but not my favourite yeah
and then these are s hooks. I've enough that's what they're called at the store
but that's what we call them. We call the mess ups because they kind of look
like an s shape, this one is an s hook that comes with a jump ring on one side
and then a jump ring that actually connects to your project on the other side.
So it's two pieces, so you would connect this jump ring to one side of your
project, yep and this jump ring to the other side and then when you clasp it
that little s hook just feeds right through and that looks very artistic.
That's like a nicely made piece to show I think that might be okay on a
bracelet, but I think I would lean towards using that on necklace.
Probably yeah that's a good point and that one is a similar kind of clasp, as
yes another s clasp in a different finish and it has a little piece here that
keeps this from sliding out, which is nice and we just love the look of this
kind of s hook, like this you can kind of incorporate that into your project.
Yes,
maybe put it intentionally on one side sort of balance it down on the other
with you. Yeah you can plan for it and work it in and you'll want to you'll
match your metal to whatever metal using for your project. Exactly and then we
have box clasps and these are great for bracelets. I think, I like them
for bracelets. They're very nice for bracelets because they're very secure, for
example this copper one is sort of pretty filigree copper one the little end
goes in and really clicks and connects it. So you're sure that it's going to be
there, it is easy to put on. That one's nice for that. So we love a little box
clasp. This box clasp has two ends on each side and that's intentional, that's
if you want to make a double strand bracelet or necklace.
So
be careful when you're picking out your box clasp that if you're only making a
single strand, it only has one a little loop on one side and not two or three or
back but if you are making a multi strand necklace or bracelet you'll will want
one. Yeah um you keep those connectors. Yeah and this opens just the same way
as our other is that little pinch, the little slash, yeah which is very nice
and then this is another version of a box clasp, even though it's not square,
and this is one that we see a lot and actually reminds us of our childhood.
Really
this one is just a little bit hard to use, no well that's pretty. It's you have
to pinch the end to get it out, you see I’m already struggling here and then
it's got a loop on it, so it's very secure, but this is behind your hair,
oh I got it really hard to do to use it for my own and yeah it's
hard I think on a bracelet - oh my gosh especially if you're putting it on
yourself. I don't know how you would you would manage but at any rate
this is not one of our favourites, but worth showing you because we see it a
lot. Yeah you'll and you'll run into that you'll see that one and then this is
one, we bought this because it's so delicate, and for doing a very delicate
bracelet we thought it was lovely and then we realized that it's a screw clasp.
Yeah when and that just it's a lot of work, you can't do it on a bracelet then
because you only have one hand you're putting on your bracelet and also your
project is going to twist if you have to screw it. So you nothing right have a
project that doesn't mind all those rotations, it's not going to hurt it right
and sometimes it flips the beads to the wrong side.
You
have like a permanent twist in there, might make it too small all of a sudden,
it just, it's not, not ideal I think I’m not a fan of the screw clasp.
Now however I am a fan of the magnetic clasp and these are three different ones
they're trying to jump together, they always do you can see them dancing
around. We love magnet clasp because they're so easy to use, they're easy on it
on a necklace and on a bracelet. I frankly prefer them on bracelets to me
because the long hair gets tangled, oh yeah if you try to use a magnet on a
necklace and you go back behind here, it'll pinch your hair, does for me and
that not it doesn't feel good.
I
mean if you have a pretty magnet clasp like this one, you could wear it in the
front, yeah or you could just, you know or if you have short hair. Choose to
use them for bracelets, which is one of our main uses yeah this is just a
pretty one, it's not super strong so the strength of it really matters when it
comes to magnet clasps. We've picked out quite a few that we thought were
pretty but they weren't strong enough to hold like heavy beads or if you catch
if you just slightly catch your bracelet on something, like a right or a knob
it can pull your bracelet right off, if that magnets not very strong. That's
right, worked hard on this and made it with nice gemstones you're going to miss
it if you lose it that way, so you'll really want to test. This copper one,
which is the smallest one here is also the most powerful one we have,
super-strong. You would be amazed I wish, I wish it could feel this
it is so strong. That's a good one, so even though it's tiny it's very strong.
This is demonstrating something for us right now that I will go ahead and
say and that's that one negative thing about wearing magnet jewellery clasps on more than one project, is that
they will connect themselves to each other. So if you have two bracelets yeah
they both have magnetic clasps or even metal one is magnet, the other hits just
a metal and try to wear them together and have them you know move around they're
not going to around. The great big long we want to connect just that so yeah
and then this is sort of a barrel shape of a different kind of magnet clasp and
this one's pretty sturdy too. It's not the most beautiful one in the world but
it's also fairly innocuous, it's not bad kind of moderate looking, yeah it yeah
like that, but we just wanted to give you an overview of the different kind of
clasps you might run into. Which one's your favourite? I have to think
about that I you know I’m really attracted to this beautiful box
clasp. I like that one and this one now that I see it again, we've
had it for a little while, I think why haven't I used that yet on a
project. Oh my gosh that would be so pretty.
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