Stopgap
Published On: January 4, 2014

So I had this necklace (and earrings to go with it too).  I liked it rather a lot, but I never ever wore it.  Why you ask?  Because of the clasp.

lengthening a too-short necklaceThis clasp drove me insane.  It’s meant to make the necklace adjustable and be lovely and decorative.  But there are two flaws with that.  Even at the longest setting, it’s still about an inch shorter than I’d like (I cannot stand short necklaces, they make me feel like I’m strangling).  Also, that lovely chunk of decorative rock dangling back there gets all snarled up in my hair.

Now, the proper way to solve this problem would be to track down some matching (or at least complementary) beads and restring the whole thing.  But that would take work.  Not so much in the stringing (that bit is kind of idiot simple), but in the hunting down more beads.  So the necklace languished, loved but unworn, abandoned in the bottom of the jewelry box.  Until I saw this.

lengthening a too-short necklaceThat’s basically a bracelet, but with a clasp only on one end.  Out of the package it looks like this.

lengthening a too-short necklaceNow, I will be frank.  It is not a high quality bit of jewelry.  It’s actually sort of crappy.  But, it cost next to nothing, it was easy to find, and I thought it might turn the necklace I never wore into something useable.

And amazingly, it worked.  I ruthlessly ripped apart the first link in the chain that came with the necklace and took the whole irritating thing off.  Then I clipped clasp of the new chain on where the original chain had been.  The whole thing took maybe 1 minute.  It took me far longer to take the pictures than to make the swap.

lengthening a too-short necklaceThe result is utterly practical, if not necessarily earthshakingly beautiful.  I’ve got the extra bit of length I wanted, and the hair-snagging dangle is gone (tucked away to see if I find something else to do with it, because the bead is pretty).  I’ve not done any damage to the beads, so if I want to go to the trouble of buying extras and restringing them later, I can.  But until I manage to get around to procuring the supplies to do that, this will turn the necklace into something I wear instead of something I feel irritated by every time I see.  For four bucks and a minute of time, I’m calling it a success.

Anybody else taking pliers to their things to make them suit you better?  I’m finding it surprisingly liberating!

Mailing List

Want to hear when a new pattern comes out or something fun is going on? Sign up below!

Patreon

Want to support the content I create, get nifty bonus material for some of my favorite patterns, or get every new release delivered right to your inbox? Head over to patreon and sign up!

Search
Archives