How to Clasp Jewelry

A well-chosen clasp can transform a regular beaded necklace into a professional piece.

The biggest difference between a professional jewelry designer and an amateur is the quality of the finishing on the jewelry piece. While professionals and those with less experience often create lovely pieces of jewelry, finishing touches such as a well-paired clasp can greatly improve the jewelry and increase its market price. Fortunately, adding a clasp to a completed piece of jewelry requires just a little experience, skill and some basic tools for making jewelry.

Things You'll Need

• Binder clip
• Beading cord
• Clasp
• Crimp bead
• Crimping pliers
• Bead tips
• Chain-nose pliers

Instructions

1. Select your clasp, pairing it with the piece that you want to finish. While any clasp can hold a necklace or bracelet shut, a carefully selected clasp that integrates into your design can take your jewelry to a new level. For more dignified pieces, you may want to select a muted pewter clasp, while fun and flirty summer jewelry may lend itself to a large clasp with rhinestones.

2. Clamp a binder clip to one end of your necklace or bracelet so that you can work on adding the clasp to one end without worrying about the beads sliding off the other end.

3. Add a clamshell bead tip and a crimp bead to the unclamped end of your jewelry.

4. Move the bead tip and the crimp bead until they are both flush with the beads of your design, and then squeeze the crimp bead with a pair of crimping pliers until it is squashed flat onto the beading cord. You may want to add a drop of glue to secure the crimp.

5. Close the tips of the clamshell over the crimp bead by squeezing the two halves of the clamshell together with a pair of chain-nose pliers. This will hide your crimp bead and any glue that you added.

6. Run the curved part of the bead tip through your clasp and then squeeze the metal shut with chain-nose pliers. This is simple if you are using a one-part clasp like a lobster clasp; however, if you are using a two-part clasp like a bar and ring toggle, just attach one part of the clasp to this side of the necklace or bracelet.

7. Remove the binder clip from the other side of the jewelry and repeat steps 3 through 5 for the other side. Once you have done this, you can either add a clasp ring or the second half of your clasp to the second side of your jewelry.

8. Put on the piece and fasten the clasp shut to show off your new jewelry.

References

• The Jewelry Site: Ending a Tigerwire Necklace