January Pretty Palettes :: Constellation Necklace

It's Pretty Palettes time again! Erin Prais-Hintz came up with some gorgeous inspiration this month (again!) inspired by photographs of real snowflakes. How one manages the feat of photographing snowflakes before the lights melt them is beyond my understanding. Here's one of the images by  Alexey Kljatov. 

Photo by https://www.flickr.com/photos/chaoticmind75/6895872661/

And here are the Bead Gallery® beads that Erin chose to send to the amazing Heather Powers, this month's Pretty Palettes partner. (If you're interested in playing along, just let me or Erin know in the comments! We love the guest designer aspect of this challenge!)

To read more about the inspiration for this month's challenge, you can visit the Halcraft blog.

For my own project, I decided to use some of those wonderful sliders along with crystal clear natural quartz nuggets, and a few faceted crystal beans for a slight contrast (this is one of my absolute favorite faceted crystal shapes in the Bead Gallery line). It's subtle, but a nice effect, I think.

I've also had my eye on creating something with cording for more contrast, and this was the project to use it in. The two strands fit perfectly inside this tidy clasp that I also found at Michaels.

The Constellation Necklace made for Halcraft's Pretty Palettes blog hop

When I purchased all of my supplies, I had an idea of how I wanted this project to look, but I wasn't exactly sure how I was going to manage the connection between the cording and the flexible beading wire. That's where those pretty sliders came in. They're also the inspiration for the necklace's name, as the randomly scattered crystals reminded me of a starry winter sky.

To cover up the unsightly connection between the cording and the beading wire, I used these sliders to sandwich that point of the necklace. It also worked well to ensure that the necklace is reversible, as in, it doesn't have a front or a back. Both sides are equally pretty! I have a pet peeve about poorly finished clothing; if it doesn't look as good from the back as it does from the front, I just don't like it. (That's why I've been doing all of those squats, right? <grin>) The same goes for my jewelry. 

Here's a close up of how I used the four sliders and some beading wire and crimps to make this a tidy piece of jewelry handiwork. 

Neat and tidy, just like that! 

I can't wait to see what everyone else has been working on this winter! To see the rest of the Pretty Palettes blog hoppers, just click on the InLinkz below. 

An InLinkz Link-up