You have made a pendant, fired it, and polished it to a shine. Now it has to hang from something, and the small metal loop that joins the two is a jump ring. Jump rings for jewelry look trivial - they are just a circle of wire with a split in it - but they are the part most likely to fail, and the part most beginners handle in exactly the wrong way.
Never pull a jump ring apart
The instinct is to grip both sides and pull outwards, opening the circle like a mouth. Do not. That stretches the ring into an oval it will never fully recover from, and the two ends will no longer meet cleanly, so the join stays weak.
Instead, take two pairs of pliers, one in each hand, and grip the ring on either side of the split. Twist one hand towards you and the other away, so the ends move past each other sideways. The circle stays a circle. To close it, twist back the same way, past the closed position slightly and then back again, until you feel the two ends spring against each other. A properly closed ring has no gap you can catch a fingernail on.
Choosing jump rings for jewelry you have made yourself
Two numbers matter: the inside diameter and the gauge, which is the thickness of the wire. Diameter decides whether the ring fits through both the pendant hole and the chain. Gauge decides whether it holds.
For a light silver clay pendant, a ring of around 5-6 mm inside diameter in a reasonably substantial gauge is a sensible starting point. Thin, springy rings are easy to open but they distort under weight and work themselves open in a pocket. If a pendant has any real mass, go thicker rather than wider.
Match the metal too. A fine silver pendant on a base-metal ring will look wrong within a month, because the two will tarnish at different rates and to different colours. Sterling or fine silver rings are worth the small extra cost.
Plan the hole before you fire
This is the part that catches people out. The hole your jump ring passes through has to be made while the clay is still soft or leather-hard, because once the piece is fired it is solid 99.9% fine silver and drilling it is a job for proper tools.
Make the hole larger than you think you need. Silver clay shrinks by roughly 8-10% as it fires, and the hole shrinks with everything else. A hole that just fits a jump ring in the raw clay may not fit it afterwards. Use a drinking straw, a cocktail stick or a dedicated hole-making tool, and check the fit against an actual jump ring before the piece dries.
Tidy the edges of the hole while the piece is dry but unfired. A smoothed hole will not chew through a chain, and it is far easier to refine at that stage than later.
When two rings are better than one
If a pendant sits at an odd angle on the chain, add a second jump ring. Two linked rings act as a hinge and let the piece settle flat against the wearer. This is a standard trick on shop-bought jewellery and it costs nothing.
For heavier pieces, or anything you intend to sell, consider a soldered or welded ring at the point that carries the load and an open ring only where it genuinely needs to open. Silver clay itself is a no-solder craft, which is a large part of its appeal, but the findings you attach to it do not have to be.
A quick checklist
Open sideways, never outwards. Close until the ends spring together. Match the metal. Size the hole generously before firing and account for shrinkage. Add a second ring if the piece hangs badly. Give every finished piece a firm tug before it goes anywhere near a customer.
If you are starting from scratch, the silver clay starter kit includes the clay, torch, tools, cubic zirconia and instructions to make your first pendant at home, and it ships worldwide with duties covered. For the making itself, how to use silver clay takes you through shaping, drying and torch firing step by step.
