All jewellery, except rings perhaps, have a functional element along with their obviously aesthetic one; earrings have posts and wires, brooches have pins, and necklaces and bracelets have clasps. There are few things that can be done with ear wires to make them different; they can be longer or thicker or more curved, and become an obvious part of the design, but that’s about it. Brooch pins can’t be seen so are generally purely functional, but clasps are a very different matter. There are hundreds and hundreds of designs of clasps and obviously I can’t cover them all, but thought I’d focus instead on what we favour for our designs. We pay as much attention to the clasps as to every other detail of our work and the results speak for themselves. My favourite by far is this one, inspired by a Roman necklace. It’s light weight, it’s pretty and clever, and it’s really easy to use which has to be the most important part about a clasp, surely!
Before Polly was inspired by the Roman clasp which would become our most used design, the clasp below was Polly’s go-to. Elegant, sturdy, easy to use and an addition to any necklace. We vary the width and length of the hook and ring in proportion to the necklace. This works so well that the clasp very often just vanishes into the necklace and becomes almost invisible.
Another favourite of Polly’s is the ring and bar clasp. It’s an ancient design also, and it just works so well. Sometimes clients aren’t confident that it will hold, but surprisingly it does; it’s simple to use and it looks great too. In this necklace, Polly took the clasp to new heights and made it the front and centre of the design using a heavy hook through a vine twist, and it looks amazing.
A while ago we were asked to make a necklace consisting of four strings of Egyptian faience beads; four strands of beads require something really special, and not only did it work perfectly, it looks amazing as well. It's probably the most exotic clasp on any of our work.
Sometimes, though, we have to rely on commercial chains for our pieces; we can’t make chains as small, and therefore interchangeable, as commercial ones. After some searching we found some wonderful torcs, which are strong and elegant and are either 18ct gold or black silicone. Their clasps are amazing; understated, sturdy and surprisingly easy to use considering they look as though they hardly consist of anything.
Another aspect of commercial chains is that the clasps can be really difficult to work, both the round ones and the crab claws. This is solvable though… we took the crab claw off this 18ct gold chain, melted it down and remade it as a very fine Roman hook; the existing ring on the chain can easily accommodate the new hook so it was a simple, and very effective solution to the problem. If you’re battling with your clasps, this might be the answer for you, mightn’t it?
As a jewellery wearer you’re probably quite conscious of which clasps you like best and which you like least, but you may not really be aware of how many choices there are. This might be a very useful piece of knowledge when you commission a piece of work for instance; any jeweller worth their salt would relish the opportunity to create something different for you, and now you know it might just be worth the ask!
