5 Reasons The Only Bracelet I Wear Now Has No Clasp
5 Reasons The Only Bracelet I Wear Now Has No Clasp
I am sixty-three, Frank has been doing up my bracelets for forty years, and he has finally been let off the hook.
By Peggy Dalton, a customer in Austin, Texas · 4 min read
- A small, quiet silver-tone heart with the cord threaded right through it, the kind of piece people think was handed down
- No clasp at all, just two little sliding knots, so I put it on by myself
- It slides to fit, snug on a bare wrist or loose over a sweater cuff
- It goes with everything I own, from yard clothes to my church dress
- And the strange one: my jewelry box has hardly been opened since
The full five, with my photos, below. The bracelet is the JULIET, from Iris and Nora.
First, how I got here. For most of my married life, every bracelet I owned came with a clasp the size of a grain of rice. I cannot do those up on my own wrist, never could, so every bracelet was a two-person job. If Frank had already left for the hardware store, the bracelet stayed in the box and I went without.
This fall I saw the JULIET on the Iris and Nora site, a little heart on a soft tan cord with no clasp anywhere, and I ordered it mostly out of stubbornness. That was the last bracelet I needed help with.
Mine, at the kitchen table with my first cup of coffee. I put it on before the pot had finished.
It is the quietest pretty thing I own
It is one small flat heart in a soft, matte silver tone, not shiny, not fussy, with its edges worn gentle as if it has been in somebody’s family a while. The cord runs right through a slot in the middle of the heart, so the heart sits flat on top of your wrist and never spins around underneath.
That is the whole bracelet, and that is the point. I have owned busier jewelry my whole life. None of it got asked about the way this little heart does.
The day it came. Smaller than I expected, and exactly as nice as the pictures.
There is no clasp to fight with
Instead of a clasp there are two little sliding knots, one on each side of the heart. You slip the loop over your hand, pull the ends, and it is on. No squinting, no reading glasses, no holding your wrist out to whoever happens to be in the kitchen.
The first morning I put it on alone I stood there feeling a little silly about how pleased I was. Frank asked what I was grinning at. I told him he was retired.
The two knots that replaced every clasp I owned. That is all there is to it.
It slides to fit, every single day
This is the one nobody believes until they try it. Because the knots slide, the bracelet is whatever size you need that morning. Snug on a bare wrist when it is warm out, a little looser when you want it to sit over the cuff of a sweater, which in Austin can be the same day. No links to add, no holes to choose, no guessing at a size when you order. It is one adjustable size and it simply moves with you.
Pull the ends and it snugs right up. Push the knots apart and it loosens again.
It goes with everything I own
This is the one that sold my sister Sue. Sue has worn the same plain watch for most of her life and says jewelry is for other people. She saw the JULIET on me on her front porch, with my old denim jacket and yard clothes on, and then again that Sunday with my good navy dress, and she said it looked like it belonged with both. She had hers ordered before I got home.
A simple heart in a soft silver tone on a tan cord does not argue with anything. Flannel, denim, a church dress, a sweater with the sleeves pushed up. It just goes.
Out on the porch with the pumpkins and my oldest jacket. It looks just as right with my good clothes.
My jewelry box has hardly been opened since
The strange one. I wear jewelry every day now, which I never did before. When every bracelet needed a second pair of hands, jewelry was for church and dinners out, and the rest of the week it sat in the box. Now the box sits on my dresser with a little dust on the lid, and the bracelet I can put on myself goes everywhere I go. It turns out I was never a woman who did not like jewelry. I was a woman who did not like asking.
The jewelry box, closed. The heart is on my wrist instead.
I already have, for Sue’s birthday, before she beat me to it. If you have a box full of pretty things you only wear when somebody is home to do them up, this is the little heart that ends that. I have not needed help with a bracelet since it came.
— Peggy Dalton, Austin, Texas
Two practical things before you go. It is one adjustable size and the sliding knots do the rest, so there is no size to get wrong. And once this stock is gone, it is gone, so if the little heart is calling you I would not put it off.
JULIET | Symbol Of Love Bracelet
One adjustable size, 22.8 cm / 9 in · Free shipping
Shop The Juliet BraceletOnce this stock is gone, it is gone.
Peggy Dalton is 63 and lives in Austin, Texas with her husband Frank. She is a customer, not a writer, and she was not paid for this list.
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