Cadena de clips

The link. A paperclip link is an elongated loop of wire, several times longer than it is wide, with rounded ends and an open centre, and the chain is made by passing the end of each such link through the end of the next.

The name comes from the resemblance of a single link to a wire office clip. It describes the geometry only; the link is made in the same karats, colours and finishes as any other gold chain, and the listing states which.

Width, wire shape, solid or hollow construction, a diamond-cut edge and length are all attributes of the one style. They change how a paperclip chain looks and weighs, not what it is.

Length puts the gold into two straight bars and keeps the joints short, so a given weight of metal runs further along the neck and the chain reads as a line of frames rather than a dense cord.

Leaving the centre open is the point of the design. The skin or cloth shows through every link, and the contrast between the bright outline and the empty interior is what gives the chain its graphic, drawn look.

The open interior also makes the link useful. It is wide enough to take a lobster clasp or a jump ring directly, which is why the clasp can fasten into any frame and a pendant can hang through one.

It does. Both links at every joint settle into one plane, with the rounded end of one nested inside the end of the next, so the whole run lies down on the chest as a single flat band of frames.

There is no rounded profile for the chain to roll on. Where the curve of the neck is tight the joints open and a link may stand a little on edge for a moment, but it lies down again as soon as the chain moves.

A hollow paperclip link is thinner in the wall but has the same flat lie as a solid one, since the shape of the frame is what governs the lie. The listing states which construction a given chain uses.

Because a long link is rigid along its length. The chain can only bend at the overlaps between links, so it follows the neck as a chain of straight segments with a small angle at each joint.

At fine widths the links are short in absolute terms and the segments are close enough that the eye reads a curve. At wider widths each frame is long enough to be seen as a straight bar, and the segmented hang is part of the look.

The same rigidity means a bent link shows. A long straight edge that has been pressed out of line is obvious in a way that a bent small link is not, and it is straightened by a jeweller rather than by hand.

In the open centre of a link. A frame large enough to see through will admit a loop of knitwear, the corner of a button or the clasp of another chain, and the chain then needs to be lifted off rather than tugged.

The joints are the other place. The short gap where one rounded end passes through another can take a hair or a fine thread, though it is a smaller gap than the interior and catches less often.

Neither is a weakness of the chain so much as a consequence of its openness. Lifting the piece clear releases it without damage; pulling it straight through is what bends a link.

The chain was bunched and one link was pushed through the open interior of its neighbour, where it has come to rest at right angles across the frame. The run kinks at that point and will not hang straight until the link is passed back.

Hold the two links on either side of the crossed one, ease it back through the interior along the path it took, and let it fall into line. It goes more easily than it looks, because the frame it passed through is wide.

Nothing is bent in a lock of this kind, and the chain lies flat again immediately. Storing the chain fastened and laid out straight, rather than dropped in a heap, is what keeps it from happening.

By removing whole links. The seam on the last unwanted link is opened, the link is lifted out of the run, and the seam on the link now at the end is closed again with the clasp attached to it.

Length therefore comes off in steps of one link, and on a wide chain that step can be noticeable. A jeweller will usually take links from the clasp end so that any pendant stays centred at the front.

Adding length is done the same way in reverse, by opening an end link and threading in matching links before closing it. The new links have to match the width, wire shape and colour of the original or the join will show.

On most paperclip chains, yes. The clasp is mounted on an end link and the interior of every frame is wide enough to take its hook, so the wearer can fasten it further along the run and shorten the chain a frame at a time.

The unused links then hang as a short tail behind the neck. On a fine chain the tail is barely noticed; on a wide one it is visible from behind, which is why some wearers prefer to have surplus links removed instead.

Fastening into a frame puts the whole load of the chain on one solder seam, so the seam of a link used this way should be looked at now and then for any sign of opening.

Through a link, with a jump ring or a small clasp passed through one frame. The pendant then hangs from a fixed point, lies flat in line with the chain, and does not wander along the run when the wearer moves.

A pendant with a bail can be threaded over the chain instead. The bail slides along each straight bar and drops into the low point at a joint, so it settles between two frames rather than on the middle of one.

A bail has to clear the width of the link, not just the wire. On a wide paperclip chain many ordinary bails will not pass, and a jump ring through the frame is the practical route.

It does, and the pairing is a common one. The open frames give the finer chain something to be seen against, and the two read as line and outline rather than as two chains competing for the same ground.

The one point to watch is the finer chain's clasp, which is small enough to pass into a paperclip frame and lodge there. Fastening the finer chain with its clasp at the back, away from the frames on the chest, avoids most of it.

Worn as a bracelet the paperclip sits as a short row of frames on the top of the wrist and turns at the joints when the hand rotates, and a finer bracelet beside it lies against the frames in the same way.