Thursday Tutorial: Colorful Summer DIY Agate Earrings

I've actually been holding onto this one for a little while because I wanted it to coincide with the opening of my second Etsy shop! However, life likes to get in that way a lot of times and I've been really behind on getting it all set up, so please visit it...at a later date. This one is just going to be things that I make, mostly jewelry since that's what I like making the most, and then Stranger Than Vintage can stay as solely vintage clothing, housewares, and accessories.

Anyway, I've written up a tutorial for this pair of fun dangly agate slice earrings for summer that are for sale in the shop. If you want to make your own, I'd love to see them! If you'd like to buy a pair, I'd be ecstatic! So let's get this tutorial started!

Materials:

• 2 earwires
• 2 small jump rings
• 2 large jump rings
• 2 pre-drilled agate slices
• 16 headpins
• 16 glass beads in various colors
• At least 6 inches of chain
• 2 pairs of flat nose pliers
• A pair of wire cutters
• A pair of round nose pliers

Instructions:

1. I wanted to have a good amount of glass beads dangling from my earrings so I thought that would look best with two different lengths of chain. I measured the chain by holding one end at the top of the agate slice by the hole and then trimming the longer piece of chain a little past the end of the slice. The second, shorter chain I measured the same way and then cut right at the end of the agate slice.




Once I had my chains cut, I went ahead and put everything on the big jump ring. It seemed easier to work this way, but if you want you can add the beads to the chain first and then attached the chain and the agate slice to the jump ring.






I'm pretty sure this is the cheat way to do this, but I started attaching the glass beads to the chain by beginning to wrap the headpin around the round nose pliers and stopping once the loop was formed.






I then pulled the long end of the headpin through a link in the chain and held the loop with a pair of flat nose pliers.







I then wrapped the remainder of the wire around itself and cut off the rest. I made sure to have four beads on each piece of chain and I spaced them out to look as full as I wanted.







Once you've attached all of your glass beads (I did four, one of each color I picked, on each piece of chain), open the big jump ring again.







Open a small jump ring and attach it to your ear wire, then slide that onto the big open jump ring and close it. The two jump rings will make sure that your earrings are facing forward with you wear them.

That's it! The longest part is wire wrapping all of those glass beads around the chains. The rest is easy! If something isn't clear, or you have any questions, don't hesitate to leave a comment.