Allegory Gallery - Starling Wing Reveal

I am thrilled!

After months of drooling over other people's creations, and never quite being able to get the timing/money right, I have finally had the good fortune of joining one of the Allegory Gallery challenges! Hurray!

And this one is definitely gorgeous... the color scheme is right up my alley! Just look at these pictures from the official challenge listing:

Purple and black and gold?! Count me in! 

(For an actual list of all of the components, go here or here. So many beautiful things!)

With such a wonderful palette of colors and array of beads, I was inspired to make quite a few things. Four sets, in fact. (Go big or go home, I guess?) And, without further ado, here they are!

Set 1

Oh, look, it's a Starling!
Not my picture... this was taken from the Allegory Gallery sale listing.

The first of the sets was made using the mystery component by Andrew Thornton, and was most certainly inspired by starlings (the birds which, as you can probably tell by the name, were the inspiration for this particular kit). 

I think the colors are pretty spot on, don't you agree?

The black and iridescent purple beads are from my stash, and everything else was from the kit. I chose the beads to match the clay focal as closely as possible, and I knotted the beads on the purple waxed linen provided. (Hurray for finally figuring out how to do so! I am very pleased.)

Set 2

...That's right. For this set, I went full tassel!

I am particularly fond of the way that the tassel falls--all strands are identical, except for slight variations at the top and the dangles at the bottom. It provides a unique sense of movement when worn, with the ends tapering down to the middle. 

The variation honestly makes me think of magpies (not starlings, but still birds!) collecting shiny bits and putting them all together.

Most of the beads in this necklace are from the kit--with the exceptions being the peacock pearls and the two kinds of purple rounds (the dark iridescent ones and the lilac shimmer ones). 

I wire-wrapped them all using antique bronze wire, to accent the bronze sheen of the focal bead. I am definitely a fan of this color palette!

Set 3

...Another tassel necklace! 

Although, for this set, the focus is more on the blackstone chip beads that make up the double strands. They are wire-wrapped, using the purple seed beads from the kit as spacers. They are interspersed with black crystals from my stash, and the dangle is made from the vintage lucite/acrylic from the kit.

Also! This necklace can be worn two ways: as a two-strand choker with the toggle clasp in the front, or as a one-strand long necklace which turns the toggle into a pendant. 

Either way, it is unapologetically bold--and quite lovely. (It even as my husband's seal of approval, which is saying something... the three design attempts I did before I settled on this one definitely did not!)

Set 4

And, last but not least, here is set 4. 

The simplest of the sets, this one started off as an excuse to practice my knotting skills. The hexagonal beads are from the kit, and I started knotting them on black waxed linen just to see if I could. I liked what I came up with so much, though, that I decided to keep it... I even made earrings to match!

Not a huge statement necklace, perhaps, but lovely in its own right... And I cannot begin to tell you how many of my outfits it will match!

So, there you go! Those are the four sets that I made for this challenge!

Oh, and just to make sure that they get enough love, here are all of the earrings. (I attempted to take a picture of all of the necklaces together, but I couldn't get one that I quite liked. They are quite the statement pieces, after all, and apparently they don't play well with others!)

I really had a blast with this kit, and can't wait to do more Allegory Gallery challenges. So, thank you to those at Allegory Gallery for making this beautiful kit... And thank you for stopping by to see what I made!

Have a lovely day, everyone!