How do you attach a Pendant to a Chain?

Specifically, you need to measure the inner area. This is known as taking the  internal measurement. Most pendant bails will have a small area of space and obtaining that measurement is best done by taking this in millimetres. Obtaining that measurement in millimetres will ensure you are far more accurate and more likely to get the right fitting chain. In doing that you’ll have to measure the length and the width. For most bails it may be a round or oval shape or slightly unusual.. But you may have a less uncommon like an inverse triangle.

Lets look at some examples of these common types of bail from a side and front profile:

NARROW INSERT | BEAD STYLE BAIL | COMMON STYLE BAIL

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Narrow Insert

You might find with certain style of floating pendant designs, the bail to thread your chain through is less obvious and stylishly concealed. As the Full View of Pendant the chain will thread into the body of the pendant itself at the top. As the Top View of Pendant diagram shows, the 2 rectangular white spaces in the middle are usually narrow. Here you’ll need to pass the chain in through one and again back up and through a second time. So long as your chain links can pass through, most of the time a Wired Cap ended chain will get through more often than other styles of chain End Caps. Simply measure the width and length of those gaps at the top of the pendant and ensure your chain links and end caps are narrower for the best fit.

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Bead ‘Bail’

A popular style of pendant, it shares an identical appearance to many beaded charms that you can slide over snake bracelets or bangles. The guidance for both are not too different either and whilst a bail most times refers to a separate attachment to the design of the pendant, here the bail isn’t separate and again is integrated into the pendant itself, to give a fashionably popular floating appearance. Pendant styles such as these are great because the theme of the pendant, in this case heart isn’t distracted with a separate bail.  The position of the pendant with this sort of integrated bail in most cases ensures the pendant/charm doesn’t move around or get tangled in a chain/bracelet, but instead just slight from left to right. Most of the time these are round in shape and you’ll only need to take one measurement: the diameter of the circle. As usual to get you chain through ensure your chain links and end caps are narrower for the best fit. You’ll find that most types of End Cap will get through if the size is right and you shouldn’t face a trickier time getting your End Cap of your chain through the pendant or charm unlike the Narrow Insert bail we’ve shown you in the first example.

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Common Bail

Now on to the most common type of Bail. Usually positioned at the top of a pendant, some types will be fixed into position and others can move around a little. The above image features just the bail on its own without the main pendant area in focus. You may find that shapes vary at the side view from upside down triangles, or more well proportioned shapes such as ovals, circles or rectangles.

Essentially, the links of the chain have to physically fit through the pendant bail comfortably. But if the links occupy a larger area than the inside of the bail then you won’t be able to get the pendant to sit on the chain.

The opposite end to where the clasp is attached is known the hook end or the cap end. It’s called the hook end because this is where you can hook the clasp onto. At the same time it is known as the cap end because it covers and seals of the last link of the chain. The cap itself is designed to keep the last link of the chain neat and tidy and depending upon the chain are of different shapes and sizes. On a practical level a good cap will allow you enough space to grip the chain steadily between your finger tips to fasten the clasp up. If you’re fastening your chain behind your neck without being able to see, the cap being of a different shape and texture to the links themselves should allow you to also feel where the end of the chain is and where you’ll need to hook the clasp on to.

It’s this cap at the end of the chain which you’ll grip between your fingers and thread through your pendant bail, itself known as an End Cap.  Depending upon the pendant design some might term the pendant bail as the ‘loop’ because it just looks like a loop. It’s vital that you take know measurement of the cap because it will be the first thing to pass through the bail of your pendant, followed by the chain links themselves. Since it is a 3D object, it will have a width, length and depth. The width and depth are the important measurements to know for getting it to pass through your pendant bail. They must be less than the the width and length of the inside of the pendant bail.

To ensure this fits through your pendant you'll just need to know the width of the cap as shown by W and the depth of the cap shown by D which will usually be in millimetres (mm). If these are less mm than those of your pendant bail, the cap will get through the pendant bail comfortably. 

Most times, it looks identical to the cap end, but with the attachment of the clasp. Here’s a photo of the different types of the clasp end of the chain. Some feature round spring clasps, some oval shaped and some pear shaped, sometimes varying in size too!

Of course you can do this so long as your pendant bail is larger than the clasp. But with fine dainty pendants you’ll often find you’ll only be able to fit the chain through the Cap End because it is narrower in size.