Toggle Clasp; Bar Plus Link

Once I followed my interest in manipulating metal, I begin mentally breaking down shapes of commonly used components like toggle clasps. Working with Mary Harding and her ceramics gave me the push I needed to start hammering out pieces that can be used in all sorts of toggle clasps.

 

If you antique and tumble your copper bar you get a burnished finish that goes well with Zoa Art Shibuichi doughnut.

If you mix brown and red patina you match what Starry Road calls Pomegranate;

Mouth watering!

Way back when I used to make these;

16 gauge hammered links, I wanted a link that had a little more umph so we switched to 14 gauge links. This is where Mike stepped in and said "I'll handle this". Then proceeded to create a set up that allowed him to shape, cleanly cut and put together hundreds of heavy gauge copper links within an hour.

Sweet! This slightly wider link can also be used as a ........

Toggle Clasp!

Turning any of the 16mm hammered, patinated links into a workable clasp with the addition of a 1 inch Antiqued Copper Toggle Bar!

Yay for serendipity!

I didn't stop there, what if I went all big and kinda country?

Enter Stringing magazine and their Toggle clasp feature for the Summer 2011 issue.

I submitted these back in November. I knew they had received them from the email notice but had no idea they wanted to use them and just figured they would be coming back to me as a pass. Well, we moved. We had email problems. We got busy. The next thing I know, I have a magazine with the toggle feature and Missficklemedia was in it!

I was a little taken aback, my goal was to stock up on the metal and hammer out a few limited editions of these babies to meet demand. But I didn't know to do that and now the metal is back ordered! I actually had people call my husbands phone asking for the toggles. So I whipped up some in a lighter gauge of metal, hammered and tumbled to work harden the copper, made em look all wrecked and started listing.

  The new batch is now available and they match with a lot of the chains.

This led to the Pendant Toggle, which may be going a bit large but hey, it's good to let go sometimes and just make stuff cause you can.

You can support my component making habit here;

http://www.etsy.com/shop/missficklemedia

Or you can figure out how to make your own. Because when it comes down to it, it is simply

Bar Plus Link = Toggle Clasp.  

Thank you to Mary Harding for being my muse and to Stringing magazine for supporting handmade!