White Copper Fortune Gourd Screw Clasp

The gourd puns on fulu, blessing and income, which is the most common use it has in Chinese objects. A vine bears many gourds, and the vine itself puns on wan, ten thousand, so the old pattern of gourd and vine reads as blessing and income for ten thousand generations. Explaining that much gives the piece more footing than saying it is auspicious. The gourd has another property: a small mouth and a large belly, which holds a great deal, and folk saying grants it capacity. Put the two readings side by side, one about money and one about how much a person can hold, and neither is overreaching.

A screw clasp is a working part. It comes in two sections; one carries the thread, and you turn it in to lock, turn it out to release. The gain is that no split ring is needed, so pendants and dangles go straight on; the cost is that thread hates grit, and a little dust makes it stiff. Start it square, because cross-threading twice will finish it. A well-cut thread gives a small click when it seats. Keep the threaded section short — too long and the fingers cannot get a grip.

In white copper the colour runs close to silver and the hardness is higher than sterling, so the thread does not round off. The alloy contains nickel, and a minority of people itch when it sits against skin, so ask at the counter rather than waiting for a return. Anyone worried about it can wear the piece outside the clothing instead of against the skin, and the problem shrinks. White copper is whiter than brass and darker than silver; set the three side by side and the difference is plain. Keep it away from new silver, though, or the two will tint each other.

The gourd’s form has rules: two spheres with a waist drawn in between, the upper smaller than the lower. On a clasp the waist usually becomes the threaded section, with the cap drawn to a point above. Judge the work on two things — whether the waist is cut clean, and whether the point sits true. The thread needs enough turns; under two and a half and it always feels as if it has not bottomed out. A thin rubber washer inside the cap keeps the copper from being marked when it tightens, and stops it working loose on its own. When these clasps fail it is nearly always the thread that goes, not the metal.

It works anywhere: closing a bracelet, adding a pendant to a necklace, converting a bag charm. One clasp covers half a fittings box. Buy a spare, because a threaded part is a consumable and there is no repairing one. Worn into the shower, moisture sits in the thread and the piece dulls. If it does stiffen, a little graphite from a pencil on the threads will carry you a while. This clasp looks right with heavy cord. On a fine chain it is top-heavy.