28

Happy New Year!

I'm so excited to be continuing with stripes. They are truly my favorite motif in this beadwork.

Today's square is basically a 'bacon'-style stripe with facing corners flooding off into a diagonal. The fun thing about this is that it creates an optical illusion, not only of the continuity of the center band's stripes, but of stripes running down, forward, and then down again, as though it were a folded piece of paper, or shadows running over and down a stair step.

There's an oddity to it because it's bound within the edges of the square, and because of the way the stripes go across the grain.  Overall I'm really pleased with this one and plan to do another with some color.

If you choose to make this square with your own colors, I do have some suggestions.
Using a tone-on-tone effect, at least for two of the colors, is a good idea as it helps to blend the stripe along the sections where it is broken by the stitch, making it look more continuous. And I deliberately chose three colors here because it enabled me to get the proportions I wanted with the colors lining up a certain way. The black stripe running through the center of the square and taking just one step diagonally is important to the illusion. So keep that stripe in particular mind as you choose your colors.

Have fun with this one, I sure did!