Pretty Palettes: February Reveal...

Today is the Reveal for Halcraft's Pretty Palette challenge hosted by Erin Prais-Hintz! I was lucky enough to be asked to participate as a Pretty Palettes Partner.

Here's what I had to work with! Erin sent along an assortment of swirly pale purple, mottled pink, dotted green, flashy copper, and luscious black. The black wasn't really black though; it was faceted crystal coated with an AB finish and coated again with a dark finish on half the beads. The result is the illusion of great depth. She also included crystal encrusted rondelles.

Here is the piece that I made. At first I was going to focus on the night sky aspect of the image, and maybe do something with constellations. But as I read over Erin's introduction to this month's challenge, I was moved to create something with a mythical creature.

I sculpted the dragon out of polymer clay and used one of the "black" crystals for the eye. When you look closely, you can see the line created by the drilled hole. I thought it looked almost exactly like the inspiration image!

Once I finished sculpting the dragon, I attached the wing (which has a small range of motion) and a bail on the back so that it could attach to the base of the necklace. When everything cured, I painted the dragon with acrylic paints and pearlescent pigments, and touched it up with Gilder's Paste to bring out the highlights and make the details extra pronounced.
Here's a close-up of the dragon's face.

While the paint was drying, I stained the leather and aged it. I cut it into a strip, punched holes, and inserted an eyelet. Using nearly everything from the Pretty Palettes selection, I strung a simple beaded necklace. The beaded necklace is attached to the bail on the back of the dragon and the leather loop. The leather loop became the closure as fits over the tail and snuggly nestles against the polymer. In hindsight, I wish that I had done a more dratic curve of the tail to make it less likely to come apart. (It hasn't yet, but I get nervous!)
I'm happy with the way the piece turned out. I feel honored to be able to participate. Thank you, Erin! If you want to see what the other participants came up with CLICK HERE. Make sure to add your link if you created something with the beads from this creative challenge!