Hooked Up on Hooks

A blog reader contacted me wanting to know how I made the fancy  shaped links in the "Hook and Eye" necklace.  So I am trying to clarify that some links were Clasp Hooks to begin with. 
I used  my ever trusty Wubbers, bail making pliers to close the open part of the hook, creating a unique link.  One hook was left unchanged  for use as a clasp . . . which is its original purpose.

Ready made Shepherd's hook clasps (photo above and below) were used to construct many of the links in my Hook & Eye necklace.  One hook was left unchanged and used as a closure.

 

 

In my supplies I had a few figure 8 links but not nearly enough to fashion a chain from.

Wanting a fairly long chain meant that improvising would be required, so I constructed a number of  stylized infinity links to get the length needed.  I made some of these links large and some small to create a bit of variety and add interest to the chain. 

All links were then put together using 5 mm x 18 gauge, gold plated brass jump-rings .  Hope this made sense as I wasn't sure how to explain it without creating an overly long, and perhaps boring, blog tutorial.

Hooks and Eyes

 Besides the rag rug I've been preoccupied making other things, such as this matching chain and earrings set.

There is naturally a story behind these pieces and like most stories this could be a long one so I'll try to condense it as best I can.

Some time around 2010 my etsy shop went from being an unsuccessful jewelry shop, to being a mediocre jewelry making supplies shop. 

Back then the etsy forums was a busy place and the busiest of the forums was Promotions.  Forget speeding bullets,  Promo threads came and went faster than Superman himself, therefore many threads fell by the roadside unnoticed like so much road kill.

 

One day I spotted a Promo thread that was a genuine plea.  The poster had a small etsy jewelry supply shop that she wished to close and she was clearing out the last dribs and drabs of her inventory.  The few items she had left were grouped together in one lot and drastically discounted, the price had been slashed to the bone and items were below cost . . . she was desperate. Unfortunately no one had time to read her post as they were all too busy playing the Buy and Stay, Buy and Replace, Give and Take or whatever happened to be the hottest rock-em-sock-em promo threads going.  (I later learned that those threads were perpetuated by groups of shops and they worked together to keep their threads at the top of the forum.)

Anyway I could not help but feel sorry for the shop that posted its going out of business thread and so I contacted the shop's owner and informed her that I was interested in purchasing her lot of odds and ends.   Much of it I really did not need but I felt an empathy with her situation and knew firsthand how it felt to be invisible in the promo forum.

One item in this lot of supplies was a bag of gold-plate shepherd hook clasps. 

Over the years I've used a few of them but still had a number left.   Then I got this idea to create a necklace using the hooks and the eyes along with a number of my own handmade links.  There are various colors of gold in this chain, some darker, looking a bit like antique gold, and some a paler, lighter yellow gold but I think it all works well together.  I even saved 2 of the Shepherds hooks to make a pair of matching earrings.

Maybe I'm dorky but I think they're kind of cute. :D