Magnetic Jewelry Clasps

Magnetic Jewelry Clasps

My last article gave a review of Clever Clasp brand magnetic jewelry clasps. I was not impressed with Clever Clasp due to the fact that I thought they were not user friendly for those jewelry wearers with hand issues that make putting on jewelry hard. This is the reason for the appeal of magnetic clasps.
A big part of jewelry design is a well thought out clasp that accentuates the beauty of the body of the piece. It you can negotiate the closing of an elaborate clasp why would you want some bare bones looking barrel clasp. However, in Clever Clasp defense it does not state on the box that they are made for arthritis sufferers or those with long nails. They merely state that you can 'connects your necklace with ease!'. And for me, with no hand issues, this was 100% correct.
Obviously, if you have arthritis it is going to be extremely difficult to screw the barrel over the threads to lock the assembly in place. I gave the four clasps to friends and family that have arthritis, long nails and no hand issues at all to see what they thought.
We really tested them and it was primarily one clasp in the group of four that had the bad barrel thread - the rest worked pretty easily but my mother who has arthritis in only one finger had a difficult time using the clasp. My friends with long nails thought the clasps were ok but just a deminimis improvement over using the clasp that came with the piece of jewelry.
I'm in the process of hunting down some other magnetic clasps and I will report back on my findings.

Posted by Maire LoughranJun 27, 2007