DIY Agate Statement Necklace

In terms of my DIY fashion projects, lately I’ve been really into making these time-consuming bib necklaces. (Like this one I made over the holidays.) 🙂 I started this necklace in January after I got my For the Makers box. One of the projects inside was to make these really awesome agate meteor magnets. When I got my box, one of my little agates was broken. I sent For the Makers an email and they emailed me back saying that they’d get me another agate right away. Well they sent me three more. (So incredibly generous!) When I was playing with all of the agates, I noticed that they fit together in the perfect shape of a bib necklace. So I decided to make one of those instead.

Necklace 1 | Necklace 2 | Necklace 3

What you need:
–E6000 super glue
-Ribbon or lightweight material for the tie
-Suede piece (Repurpose some thrift shop leather or find it in a craft shop!)
–Agates, or here (Or you can find them on Etsy.)
-I used these square beads
-And glass beads

To make the statement necklace you should trace out the shape you want your necklace to be. I used one of my roommates necklaces as a base, but you can make it whatever shape you’d like.

Once you’ve got a nice shape, you can trace it on your suede and then cut it out. Since the agate has such a natural, earthy feel, I wanted to use a taupe-colored suede and earthy beads to go with the natural vibes of the .

Lay out your design…

And glue it on! Be careful that you don’t get too much glue on the outside of the agate or it will squish everywhere.

Let the glue dry overnight and then gather your beads.

And stitch the beads wherever you’d like. I wanted to cluster the square steel-looking beads and fill in everywhere else with the glass beads.

I wanted to have a way to finish the edges of the suede so I chose to do a blanket stitch all the way around. Watch this video for a tutorial. (It’s super easy.) 🙂

To make the straps, I used some spare fabric that I had and stitched long rectangular tubes, leaving one end open. I snipped the excess fabric and then flipped the tube inside out so that the seam hides inside the tube. Then I stitched the ends of the tube to the top of the necklace.

And that’s it! So thankful for the extra agates from For the Makers. I think it’s made me a little bit obsessed with rocks as DIY supplies.