There’s never been such a plentiful time as this, for jewelry-lovin’ fashionistas–especially those who love loading up on bejeweled accessories and ornamentation while on a pitiful budget. Shop for your stones online or in real time. From arts and crafts stores to the big box everything stores, anyone with half a notion and little to no experience can purchase any number of gorgeous stones and beads along with some type of base to turn it into wearable art (aka jewelry,) and have a new set of earrings, necklace, ring, brooch, bracelet, and more in no time at all. You might even buy the stones and stuff you like and pay a reasonable fee to have your jewelry created by a pro DIY jewelry maker or a local lapidary artist.

Make a Necklace in a Matter of Minutes
Just say you want to make a necklace–stores that sell the supplies for DIY jewelry typically have a sizeable quantity of stones you can choose from–and they’re all awesome! So from there, you design the structure of the necklace around a central larger stone as a focal point, or you can string a variety of stones and beads together. Whether they repeat in a pattern or just rock out (bad pun not intended here,) is up to you–and your style. Choose the length your necklace will be, then buy a clasp (and, BTW–they sell every imaginable base to transform a stone or something similar into any kind of jewelry, so you can make a set, with coordinating earrings, bracelet or other.) and string away! Choose whether your necklace will be made with a chain, stretchy elastic cording, thin leather, string and more. Just make sure that the pre-drilled holes are an accommodating size for what you want to string the stones or beads on. The nicer stones don’t usually have holes for stringing them. In this case, explore the different kinds of base options you can glue or affix your stone to, and then string onto your necklace. Go minimalist, with a single stone–or load up with tons of dimension and drama–it’s whatever you want it to be, so make it your way.

Amazing Stones for 2016-Summer Style
This year there’s a lot of jewelry made with gemstones, geodes and minerals, with some awesome bohemian-ness to them all. With these lovelies dangling from your ears, hanging from your neck and adorning other parts and piercings, you’ll be ready to rock summer while turning all your clothes and everything you wear into big style statements.

Summer 2016 Trend Report: Go Druzy
When you see a beautifully colored mineral that has a covering of tiny crystals over its top (which produces a cool, glitter effect from quartz that’s way more affordable than other means of sparkle.) We love those big gemstones that feature multiple facets for dazzling sparkly effects, but with druzy stones, you can shine AND save cash. Just like other stones, druzy stones can be cut and shaped in the size and style you prefer. It takes millions of years for druzy stones to grow into jewelry-suitable status, and they’re the last layer to grow in agate and other colored bases. There’s a lot of quartz druzy, but it can be other minerals, as well, like dolomite, malachite and garnets. You’ll find them in a nice spectrum of colors, with the majority being white, brown, orange, yellow and red–and druzy is a good choice of stone for holding up as durable jewelry.

Crazy Creative Druzy Effects this Summer
Druzy crystals of all sizes are a hot topic, and to embellish druzy, suppliers are now offering a hot transformation in treated druzy by offering the stone with a lot of different coatings. In 2016, druzy lovers are buying up this stuff like never before, with coatings of gold, platinum, silver and even titanium. The titanium coating produces color awesomeness, with rich and deep purples, cobalt and more. Some create a dazzling rainbow effect. Another way you can get agates now is dyed ones–because they’re so easily dyed, you’ll find these agate bases for druzy in every color. Just about every druzy stone is filled with an awesome depth of dimensional drama to just stare at and love.

Other Dazzling Summer Stones to Love in 2016
Raw pyrite mixed with white quartz offers a nice rustic blend that’s edgy, boho and looks best in a simple setting. The stone known as white turquoise is actually white Howlite–turquenite, and not turquoise. We don’t care what the name is–we love it!  As organic, freeform slab stones, they’re showing up everywhere, with every imaginable component of bohemian-styled jewelry. Geode slices are trending as central necklace features–as always. Every fashionista needs at least one piece with this intriguing statement stone. Two more to make sure you check out are the dazzling peacock ore, and the classic, timeless lapis, both with breathtaking blues dominating. Both are must-haves, for sure!