How to Make a Hook and Eye Clasp with Wire and Beads

by Anne Cecilie Nygård
(Jewelry and Polymer Clay Tutorial Heaven)

Hook and eye clasps are quite safe clasps, since it takes much slack for the eye to slip of the hook.

The clasp can be made in many ways from the most simple to rather complex versions, and that is perhaps the charm with this clasp, that it is not just a boring, standard clasp.

If you have one bead that you don't know what to do with, since it is just the one and not a pair, it may be perfect for a hook and eye clasp, if it's not too large, that is.

You can use anything really - seedbeads, cones, bead caps, glass beads or wood beads.

The diversity of this clasp makes it easy for you to make a clasp that fits the jewelry it is intended for perfectly - in color, in style and in size.

You can make it from silver, gold, copper, brass, color coated and stainless steel wire.

Vary the thickness of the wire or combine two wires of different gauges. The choices are plenty.

To make this clasp you need the following:

- Half hard silver wire, 20 gauge
- Dead soft silver wire, 22 gauge
- one 10 mm round metal bead
- Four bead caps

Make the Hook:

Step 1:

Cut a 10 cm long piece of the 20 gauge wire.
Make a twisted loop in one end with 3 coils, and slide on one bead cap, the 10 mm bead and the other bead cap.



Step 2:

Cut a 20 cm length of the 22 gauge wire. Coil it around the thicker wire, just below the last bead cap. This is a bit tricky, but if you leave a tail that you can hold on to, it is easier.
Coil it tight around the length of the thicker wire for about 2,5 cm.

Step 3:

Make a loop on the thicker wire, right after the end of the coil. Wrap the thinner wire a couple of times around the base of the loop and cut it. Cut the tail close to the bead cap also and file the ends if they are sharp.



Step 4:

Now you can bend the hook into shape. You do this by grabbing the wire a little distal from the middle and bend it towards the base, with a pair of chain-nose pliers. The closer to the bead you can bend the end-loop, the tighter and more secure the clasp will be. Then bend the tip with the loop a bit away from the bead.

And that was the hook. Now, let's make the eye.

Make the Eye:

Step 1:

Cut a length of 10 cm of the 20 gauge wire, and make a large twisted loop in one end with 3 coils. That will be the eye.

Step 2:

Slip on the two bead caps with their domed side towards each other. Push them close to the coils of the loop.



Step 3:

Make a smaller twisted loop in the other end, so that you can fit 3-4 coils between the loop and the bead cap.
Cut the ends and file them if they are sharp.

And that is it. The length of the hook is 3 cm and the eye is 2 cm. Total length of the clasp is 5 cm.



Anne Cecilie Nygård
Jewelry and Polymer Clay Tutorial Heaven