Transcript
Courtney Gray: Welcome to Creative Side Jewelry Academy of Austin, online at creativeside.org. I’m Courtney Gray. I started my school here, Creative Side Jewelry Academy, four years ago. I’m here in Austin, and I’m going to tell you about jewelry making today.
I’m going to talk to you about jewelry making hardware. In the jewelry world, we’ll use the word “findings,” a lot. You can use different findings to hang your necklaces, to hang your pendants, to connect your bracelets as well.
A common finding is the jump ring. A jump ring is…for the chain to jump to the clasp, we’ll put a jump ring in there. It is best to go ahead and secure that jump ring by soldering it.
Another common finding or piece of hardware for jewelry is the “clasp.” This is an “S” hook. This is one that you can see has already been put on. Tons of findings out there, you can look on RioGrande.com—they’ve got a huge selection of jewelry making findings.
This is a “lobster clasp.” You can find a lot of re-manufactured findings such as this, or you can make custom findings.
We also have a class called, “Fascinating Findings‚” where you come in, and you learn how to make this hardware yourself. It flows more with the piece, creates a nicer look, I think, and you can take your work to that next level—to the hiring level. You want to consider hand-making those clasps and hand-making those findings, so that it really brings the piece together. There’s a ton out there, so start looking around and find what fits your pieces the best.
