A simple guide to jewelry findings

I have been talking about certain terms that you as a beginner would be confused about. If you haven’t done a little research and are still wondering what jewelry findings are and why are they even used? Well, if you have come across to my blog posts before then you must have noticed that there are certain objects repeating in nearly every project.

Today, you will find answers to your questions regarding them. Let me present you with a basic guide. The term “jewelry findings” stands of jewelry making materials that are not referred to as beads, wires, stones and etc. They are the pivots and fundamentals of any jewelry, and are basically the tools you work with. Some of the names include eye pins, jump rings, bails, chandeliers, ear wires and etc.

Historically, jewelers made everything out of their hands. They would find these findings from abandoned metal and then left them over. They were eventually named by them as findings.

So now, let us have a broad outlook into some of the most common jewelry findings:

Jump ring: It is applied as a connector. They are round shaped usually but you can come across to oval shape as well. The two kinds of jump rings are closed & open rings. Closed are shut all through, so that they are not opened by anyone. They are useful when you need to join a strong connector for a jewelry piece that’s heavy or worthy. Whereas the open rings, they have an opening in between and are vertically pulled by pliers to open or close them.

Chandelier:  A chandelier is usually brought into use as earring connectors. With them, you can make dangle earrings by simply putting beads or chain to the holes. You also have to fix an ear wire atop the hole that connects.

Ear wire: As mentioned above, they are the key element in making earrings. It goes through your pierced ear holes. To the hole connecting it, you have to add components like metal works, buttons or beads to make different styles.

Eye & head pins: These jewelry findings are usually incorporated with beads to form workings for bracelets, earrings, necklaces and etc. Take a headpin, slide several beads and use cutters and pliers to form a loop that would take you to join it to one more component that is the ear wire. The head pin anatomy is usually round or flat and works as bead stopper. Eye pins on the other hand, have a link that work as a connector. You can make longer jewelry pieces therefore..

Bails: Bails are used for fixing a component such as a focal bead to a chain to form a pendant. Through a bail, you can easily fix a pendant to your chain without any third party material, such as metal-smith.

That’s it! I hope my guide to jewelry findings proved informative and considerable for you in terms of deciding what you need and how to use. Keep reading more posts!