Necklace Of The Trees

You'll have a hoot wearing this necklace.
Made using the ribbon and pendants I purchased to enhance my beading collection. Photo taken with my first attempt at a lightbox, and I don't like it much. I'll have to shell out some cash to make a better one.

I wanted to keep the browns and whites together, but the silver around the pendant kept throwing me off. I used real wooden beads and attached leaf beads to act as branches.

Initially when I saw the owl pendant I thought about sending it to my Labyrinth swap partner because it reminded me so much of Jareth's owl form. But I liked it too much and she doesn't really wear jewelry anyway... >.>

I don't like how smooshed everything is but because I'm stringing everything on ribbon, I couldn't think of anything but medium wooden beads. I like the ribbon because it's smooth and it gives it a look of sophistication in a sense, but I'm not happy with this final product. Any suggestions on how to improve it would be great. =)

EDIT: Thanks to those of you who commented! Your suggestions helped make this transformation possible, and I am much more satisfied with it now. I got rid of the wooden beads and split up the leaves. I added a few honey-yellow beads near the owl to give it some variation and took off the stone and capiz so the owl was truly the focus. Those pieces will be useful elsewhere. This is attempt number two at using the light box, but the first try with paper instead of fabric. I'm getting the hang of it, but I really need stronger lights.