Pretty Palettes February Challenge

I think I'm more on board with spring challenges because of the colors and the promises of warmer weather, of flowers, of being outside, of not wearing 3 layers all the time!

This month's Pretty Palettes Challenge doesn't have flowers (and the person in it looks pretty cold), but the colors are so very nice - soft and warm.
Here is the inspiration:






Surprisingly (or maybe unsurprisingly), I already had 3 of the bead strands from the ones chosen by Erin Prais-Hintz so I stuck with those. 
I was struck by two things in this photo.  First, the way the sky image is in a circle.  This reminded me of a necklace that a person wears on another blog I follow (in this post).  Her necklace has 3 semi-circles.  Her necklace is by baublebar and when I checked out the website, it didn't have this particular necklace but from the looks of the others, I guessed that the necklace I like is probably made with 3 metal fan or semi-circle shapes with swavorski-like crystals embedded in them or with crystal casings soldered together to make the shape.  Well, my metalwork is limited to wirework and the occasional stamping.  With 3 little kids (and two rough and tumble boys), a torch in the house is not currently approved.
So, I worked with wire and chain to make my version, plus the pink faceted rounds, glass bronze crystals and bronze plated rondelles and some green grey faceted rounds. 
Here's the result:

 This necklace took a lot of fiddling to get the right amount of loop in the semi-circle without puckering.

 When I tried it on, the necklace definitely has more of a circular drape and looks great- maybe it just needs a thicker neck than my prop.

 

The second thing that caught me about the picture was the use of color and the way it seems to move you around the circle of the sky.  So, the second piece was made with some beautiful lampwork beads (I think by Kimberly's Corner).

The colors very much remind me of the swirling sky and do you see the toggle bar?  These toggle bars where you can add beads are awesome.  There are some AB pink/orange seed beads in there.  And the toggle circle is a Vintage piece that has been slightly buffed.

Thank you Erin for a great inspiration!