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This week's project was a great example of how these patterns tend to evolve for me. Last week I made the square with a sort of weathered-paint effect and wondered how that would look in metallic and neutrals. I had envisaged some sort of ancient/gilt/mirage effect.

It didn't quite turn out that way:

I mean, it's close, but there is much more contrast in my matte translucent neutrals than I wanted. It disrupts the overall effect. Partly I believe that's because the lighter one, 1286 Rear Window, has a matte iridescent coating that makes it reflect more light. I think I might have anticipated that, but you never know until you try. That's one of the fun/frustrating things about this blog project. Every square I make leaves me with a new set of questions. What if I just used one of these grays? What about the two metallic colors? I tried here using the darker one, 254 Bitchin Camaro, on the inner edges of the frames, and the lighter, 1852 Taint, on the outer, hoping for some dimension. The contrast in the grays is so distracting, though, that you really can't see that I even used two different beads there. 

And, really, for two beads you might grab when you want to use 'silver', they are very clearly different:

DB254 Bitchin' Camaro, DB1852 Taint

Now, I regularly have to get onto myself for being obsessed with subtle differences in the beads and how to use them, but LOOK at that! 

I have long favored Taint for its warmer tone, nearly gold, and what I feel is a richer look. But you can feel that rough texture when using it. Camaro on the other hand is super smooth, and true to that core it can look actually black in a composition. Useful to know! Wish I could find the pastel-color square I used it in wanting silver. It absolutely made a black stripe in it. 

So I was thinking about how to really show off that difference in a square and achieve the visual depth I had tried for in the sample. This is what I came up with:

Pretty cool! It definitely shows that difference. By the way, I used gray thread here, Hana's Pebble, to avoid having black or white affect the look too much.

To further illustrate the thought process here, even as I worked I questioned my choices:  I put the darker metallic with the lighter translucent and vice versa. Should I have used dark with dark, light with light? We may never find out, as I feel like that's too subtle a difference to justify a whole new post about, and these big squares really take some time. So it may be a while before I find out.--possibly a nice mate for a pair of earrings.

Meanwhile I started thinking about those sweet bevels and what striking geometry they make. And that will inspire next week's square!

Basic Warped Square threadpath pattern, as always, is HERE. Pattern uses size 11 Delica beads.

(Regular visitors will notice I didn't edge this one in size 15 rocailles, as is my habit and vast preference. I just couldn't decide what color to use!)