Does anyone else ever buy items to make a project and then they just sit around for months before you finally finish it?  This necklace was exactly that, and might have even taken longer to complete than my live edge tables.

Back in June (yes, over 7 months ago) I bought some beads to make a Clemson game day necklace.  I’m not a big orange fan, so my thought was that I could make a necklace with some orange in that I could wear throughout the year, and with pair it with purple when we went to games.  With only the national championship game left in the season, I was down to the wire and finally finished it right before we left for Tampa.

Oyster Bead Necklace

What you’ll need:

• Flat oyster shell
• Drill
• 9/64″ drill bit
• Waxed cotton cording
• Beads of your choice
• Silver jewelry wire
• Scissors

Outside of the oyster shell, I found everything I needed in the jewelry section of Michael’s.  I ended up with an assortment of turquoise, orange, wooden, blue & white and tan beads and figured that I’d just figure out a design as I went along (like most of my DIY projects).

First, start putting the beads on the cording.  Knowing that the oyster shell would hang from the middle, I worked my way from the middle out.  This took me awhile since I was trying to figure out an order to the beads that looked okay.

Once I had half of the necklace done, I turned my attention to the oyster shell.  I drilled through the top of it like I did with the oyster shell ornaments.

Then I needed to use the wire to wrap through the hole  and around the shell a few times to secure it, and eventually create a loop on the top to hang on the cording.  This is not my best work, but it was literally hours before we were leaving for Florida and I was under a serious time crunch.  It was good enough to do the trick!

When the oyster was wrapped in wire with a loop, I put it on the cording, and then started adding the beads to the other side, in the same pattern as before.  I played around with the beads at the top until the length was right for me and then just tied the cording in a double knot.

The necklace was immediately packed up and off to Florida with us the next morning!

Of course I didn’t get any pictures of it on while tailgating before we bundled up for the game (it was unseasonably cold!), but I did snap one before the game started!

Yay for a Clemson “game day” necklace with orange I can wear!  Apparently it’s good luck too, so I guess I’ll be wearing it to any game we go to in the future 😉