Note: Each class is independent, so feel free to choose the 3-day or 2-day session—or both! Each class will focus on creating different styles of unconventional clasps. If you take both sessions, you'll come away learning how to make 6 different styles!

In this 3 day workshop, participants will create 4 different samples of alternative clasp mechanisms. These clasp mechanisms can be modified and incorporated in unique and unusual ways, in innumerable variations, into necklace and bracelet closures - becoming integrated into the design, or as the main attraction of a jewelry piece. Clasps don’t have to be an afterthought at the back of a chain. These are clasp mechanisms that are functional, fun, intriguing and invite being taken apart and put back together like a puzzle.

Class 1:

In this 3-day session/class (October 16 – 18), we will create the above four clasp mechanism samples in sterling silver: 2 versions of a Rotating Insert Clasp, a basic, and a more complex version of that clasp, an Interlocking Puzzle Clasp, and a Wedge Lock Clasp.

On October 15th, the evening before the workshop, Suzanne will give an approximately sixty-minute presentation that will introduce participants to many different types of clasping methods and mechanisms for jewelry, both historical and contemporary. It will also include a section on clasp inspirations - ideas coming from non-jewelry sources, to inspire creative thinking about clasps.