CLOSE YOUR JUMP RINGS!

STOP!

Hammertime…

Or, should I say “plier’s time.“

For this is something that everyone should stop and do right now…

Inspect your jewelry

Because you’d be amazed at the amount of times I see people wearing pendants, bracelets and earrings with open jump rings (also called c rings).

A jump ring is basically a round ring with a split in it. This ring is used to join other sections or pieces of jewelry together. Like a pendant to a charm (which I always advise having the splice soldered together), or a bead to a bracelet.

Many chains and dangle earrings use jump rings… Lots of them.

It’s a fairly common practice.

And if you look close enough (grab yourself a 10x jeweler’s loupe), you’ll see that the ring should be aligned and closed with no gap in between them. If you do see a gap, like in the cute cookie cat pendant shown below (which shows up massively in close-up photographs), then that gap needs to be closed.

Otherwise, you’ll lose your jewelry.

That gap needs to be flush and tight, or else the item will slip free and you’ll lose it.

That, or you’ll catch the open hook on your clothing, sweaters, or hair and do more damage (and pull the jump ring even further apart).

This is not good.

Happily, there is an easy fix to this.

And one that you can do yourself, at home, in just seconds.

But to do that, you’ll need yourself some needle nose pliers (2 of them – one for each hand).

For you’ll have to put one needle nose on either side of the jump ring (either side of the open gap), and twist them together and in until the gap closes and they are good and tight and the ends are touching each other.

It only takes a moment to do, and if you don’t feel comfortable in doing this, just take your item to a local jewelry store and they’ll gladly do it for you.

It’s either that, or bye-bye kitty.

Cheers! :)