Cable necklaces and alternatives

Jewelry Discussion
1

Hi everyone,

I have recently been evaluating a cable necklace for use with some
constructed mixed metal pendants. I got a 1.5mm fine silver cable
necklace made by Chris’s Cables. Up to now I have made all my own
chains and this is really the first time I would be offering a
necklace that was not made by my own hands. The clean line of the
cable necklace really seems to work well visually with these slightly
geometric constructed pendants with some tubing for a bail. I have
been wearing the cable out some, running daily errands, and trying it
with some of the different pendants to see how it wears. I am very
pleased with the look of it and Chris Hentz produces a very well
made product. My only concern I have found in wearing the cable is a
tendency for the catch to keep working its way around to the front. I
thought maybe wearing a heavier pendant might balance with the catch
a bit more and reduce this. But just normal body movements throughout
the day keep shifting the catch around to the front. This happens
occassionally of course with my own chains but not so frequently.
Maybe because the cable is all one piece it is more easily turned by
the movements of your shoulders.

I planned to ordered some of the lighter 1.3mm cables and continue
experimenting. But I was just curious if any of you had opinions
about cable necklaces and catches twisting around the neck? Are there
any alternatives you would use yourself? Does this problem crop up
with snake chains? I am trying to achieve that clean line visually
and want a high quality product. I really like that his cables are
made by hand. Maybe the slight annoyance of a traveling catch is just
something I will have to get used to. I really want my customers to
enjoy wearing the pieces with total comfort. Thanks for sharing any
thoughts you might have on this- Carrie Nunes

2

Carrie, it has been my experience that there is definitely a
chain-catch gremlin, in charge of making sure the catch is always
viewed from the front. Snake chains can do this trick in a flash.
Heavily textured or multi-size link models take a bit longer. The
outcome is usually the same. I’ve often wondered what the solution
might be but hadn’t applied my analytical talents to it yet. Glue
is out. Anyone already solved the problem ?

Pat

3

I think that a heavier pendent helps keep the catch in the back. We
should not forget that we have the option of designing a catch that
is also the visual element that we want to be seen.

Marilyn

4

The solution is to make a really great looking catch which can be a
central design element of the piece :wink:

That’s one solution, anyway!

Lee Einer
Dos Manos Jewelry
http://www.dosmanosjewelry.com

5

Feedback on Pendant Positioner - Home Page is
still welcome. The patent is about to issue but real production
hasn’t started yet though some test marketing resulted in sales and
significant interest.

James E. White

6

Hi Carrie,

I, too, have often wondered about this phenomenon. While I don’t
have an exact scientific answer, I do have a guess, and I’m sure
everybody else has their own, as well. A chain of any design with
(or without) a pendant that has a simple jump ring bail probably
does eventually work itself around over time. But my guess is that a
pendant with a more complex bail, such as rabbit ear, tapered,
slide, enhancer, etc…you get the idea…is usually not quite
symmetrical. And, even if it is, very few pendants are ever
perfectly balanced, weight distribution-wise. No matter how close,
my opinion (please note the word opinion) is that any pendant would
tend, no matter how slightly, to be somewhat heavier to one side. As
the wearer moves about in their day-to-day routine, one side of the
pendant tends to “grab” or “ride up” the chain.

This “guess” of mine can also allow the consideration of the texture
of the chain, itself. Would a chain with more texture (something
with more edges to allow the bail to “grab” better) allow the
pendant to “ride up” the chain faster? Or would that same texture
tend to grip the wearer’s skin more so that the chain wouldn’t slide
around the neck as easily?

Over the years, I’ve noticed that some chain/pendant combinations
that I’ve worn have exhibited this phenomenon more than others and,
until now, I had just accepted the fact that “it happens”.

To add to the confusion, I have a favorite pendant that I’ve worn
daily for many years. It’s a very large opal, I set in 14K. I’ve
worn it on a 1mm twisted rope chain that was a gift from my mother
and, after wearing it for about 2 hours, the catch never failed to
turn around until it got to the bail, where it could go no further.
Well, the chain came with what I suspect was meant to be a 7" ladies
bracelet, as it is merely a 7" version of the same chain. Mom
presented it as an “extender” for the chain. The point is, when I
wear the chain with the extra 7" segment, it takes the better part
of a day for it to perform this frustrating antic.

Anyway, to make a short story long (and I think I have), the
likelihood is that the design, length and diameter of the chain,
along with the properties of the pendant and it’s bail are the
reason the chain does what it does.

Hope you had as much fun reading this as I did trying to figure out
how to say it

James

7

Sorry folks, one more thing. When I flip the same pendant I
mentioned in the last post over, the chain’s catch rotates in the
opposite direction. This is what suggests to me that the pendant
plays an integral part in the phenomenon.

Cheers,
James

8

I often deal with this problem by having the chain or cable attach to
the pendant element, with one side permanantly fastened and one
functioning as the actual clasp. This helps individuals like myself
who have a hard time reaching clasps behind their necks, and having
the weight of the pendant permanantly fixed in its location on the
necklace means that gravity overcomes the kinetic creep that body
movements inevitably cause with loose chains and cables. Of course,
this solution does’t work for all designs.

Walk in Beauty,
Susannah Ravenswing
Jewels of the Spirit
Winston-Salem

9

Thank you all for your postings concerning this catch traveling
phenomena. I don’t know why it comforts me to know this is a common
problem, but somehow it does. Although I still need to find a
solution.

James, your comment that the pendant and bail contribute to the
movement of the cable around the neck, I think is right on. As I was
wearing mine, the bail being made of a small piece of tubing, the
pendant seemed to rock and rachet its way along the cable. I believe
the pendant really pulled the catch around. The cable has a ribbed
texture from the wire coiled around it and the tubing just rocked its
way along the cable.

So I like the look of my tubing bail but maybe I should experiment
with larger or smaller tubing and see if that makes any difference.
My only creative solution I have come up with to the traveling catch
problem is to make the pendant itself the catch. Now this would
anchor the pendant in place and not allow it to freely move along the
cable. And you would also have to decoratively address the caps on
the ends of the cable. But you could, in theory, remove the catch
that the cable comes with and you are left with two loop ends. Then
you can attach one of these loop ends permanantly, and have one loop
end that can be undone, at the top of or on the back of your pendant.
Not sure if I am explaing that clearly. But it could be a whole new
way to use cable. I would probably miss the pendant being able to
float back and forth on the cable but would not miss the traveling
catch problem. You might also have less of the graceful curve of the
cable and more of a soft V shape. Worth an experiment I think.

So I am gathering that snake chains give people the same trouble
too? Thanks for all the input as I find my way down this road of
using chain or cable for the first time that I did not make myself.
Whatever I choose has gotta hold up.

Carrie Nunes

10 
    my opinion (please note the word opinion) is that any pendant
would tend, no matter how slightly, to be somewhat heavier to one
side. As the wearer moves about in their day-to-day routine, one
side of the pendant tends to "grab" or "ride up" the chain.

While this might be an occasional contributor the basic explanation
is far simpler. Gravity. On average the section of the clasp on a
necklace is simply heavier than any other equal length portion of the
chain.

With your 7" extension, when you have two equal weight clasps each
hanging on opposite sides of your neck they balance each other out
much better and take far longer to migrate one way or the other due
to other unbalanced frictional resistances to the movement.

James E. White
Inventor, Marketer, and Author of “Will It Sell?
How to Determine If Your Invention Is Profitably Marketable
(Before Wasting Money on a Patent)” www.willitsell.com
Also: www.booksforinventors.com and www.idearights.com

11

I believe one solution would be to provide a counter balance at the
back of the neck. A small dangle which is complementary to the
design and will keep the chain from traveling around.

There are many possibilities that way. I was thinking of an
identifiable to the artist disk, or similar. Time to think outside
the box. Terrie

12

Yes, snake chains move also. I have found that many, perhaps most,
chains do at least part of the time. The other problem that I run
into is hair getting tangled into the chain or the clasp. I have
some chains/clasps that I can only wear if I wear my hair up. I
don’t know how you get around that!

Some clasps do seem to stay in the back better - the traditional
pearl clasps never seem to move to the front, regardless of what I
use them on. So is it partly a function of the clasp?

Beth in SC

13 
 So I am gathering that snake chains give people the same trouble
too?

Snake chain does do the same. I used to think it was at least in
part the spiral shape of snake chain and cables, but I have a
lightweight titanium pendant on a ball chain that climbs up the
right side of the chain, without moving the catch!!

Noel

14

Hi Gang,

This helps individuals like myself who have a hard time reaching
clasps behind their necks, and having the weight of the pendant
permanently fixed in its location on the necklace means that gravity
overcomes the kinetic creep that body movements inevitably cause
with loose chains and cables.

I have to admit, the last time I wore a ‘necklace’ it was to support
a pair of dog tags & nobody worried much about where the clasp was.

As far as folks having trouble fastening necklaces on the back of
their necks, I’ve never understood why they don’t fasten them in
the front, where they can be seen if necessary. Then after
fastening, turn the necklace around so the clasp is in the back
(even if it’s just for a little while).

Dave

15 
    While this might be an occasional contributor the basic
explanation is far simpler. Gravity. On average the section of the
clasp on a necklace is simply heavier than any other equal length
portion of the chain. With your 7" extension, when you have two
equal weight clasps each hanging on opposite sides of your neck
they balance each other out much better and take far longer to
migrate one way or the other due to other unbalanced frictional
resistances to the movement.

If I were a “pencil-necked geek” I would accept this. However, the
two clasps do not “hang” on opposite sides of my neck, they simply
lay in contact with the skin on the back of my neck. Also, these
clasps are so small (I won’t bother to check their exact size, but
they’re attached to a very small 1mm rope chain), that I believe
gravity’s effect on them is negligible when compared to the friction
of the chain, caused by the weight of the (large opal, if you read
my previous post) pendant against my skin.

So, in a way that you didn’t mean to proffer, I do believe gravity
plays a part; gravity pulls on the pendant and chain, but I still
believe that an unbalanced pendant and/or (however slightly)
asymmetric bail is the main contributing factor. Then again, is this
really such an important topic that we need to waste the extra
bandwidth?

James