October's Pretty Palette Challenge :: Cowgirl Chic

Oh, was this one a hard one! I don' t know if it was the fact that I was too oh-so-in-love with this color palette or that I had mostly rounds to work with this time. For more information and to see the rest of the participants' creations, click here to be whisked off to the Halcraft Pretty Palettes Challenge, hosted by Erin Prais-Hintz for this month! 

Here is our inspiration piece and the palette I chose to work with, by Erin Fitzhugh Gregory: 

Isn't this gorgeous!?!

Even though the painting is decidedly floral, the colors, when pulled out together, gave me a feel of leather and blue jeans, a sort of cowgirl chic, which gave rise to the Cowgirl Chic necklace.

I have been digging the often undervalued but very useful rounds lately, and this color palette really worked with the beads I had on hand. A few of the beads that I used have facets, but most are the smooth, round workhorses of the beading world.

This palette includes so many wonderful colors, and they're all over the color wheel in intensity as well as color value, giving me a brain bending workout in that way, as well.

Did anyone else struggle in this way with this palette?

Although it looks simple, it took me a surprisingly long time to design the Cowgirl Chic Necklace (hence my evening post)! I'm probably not alone in this, but although the techniques used to create this necklace are common, I find that choosing the beads for the almost-symmetrical look is challenging for me.

One special part of this necklace is the golden honey-colored beaded bead. I used Beadalon's WildFire cord to make this one.

I couldn't stop at just a necklace so I went ahead and used some very cowgirl-esque leather in one bracelet, some stretch cord to make another bracelet, and a traditional beading wire bracelet, along with a pair of earrings, perfect for horsing around. ;)

Thanks for visiting my blog, and I hope you find the time to play along next month! Erin will be revealing next month's Pretty Palette on the Halcraft blog next Wednesday, November 5th!