I wish that was a typo.

I spent this afternoon & evening trying to find a Delica color that would work for Squib’s whiskers. I know black cats are hard to illustrate in any medium. “Black” –> detail is obscured. “Detail” is what makes a picture into a portrait. But Squib adds an extra little pain to the challenge. Her whiskers are black. Black whiskers against a black cat. Ouch.

I’ve used 24 shades of grey to weave the contours of Squib’s body.  The whiskers can’t be any of those shades because they will get lost in the details of her body. I knew this. I thought I had a solution — I tried DB925, clear crystal lined in black. In the right pattern, this color almost looks like it’s floating, because the color is on the inside of the bead (not extending to the surface). Unfortunately, when I wove them into the bead tapestry with all their neighbors, the nifty sorta-3D effect got lost.

I tried silk-satin  finished greys. I tried silvery beads in iris and in gold luster. I won’t use white, because Squib did not have white whiskers.

By the time I got back to it after dinner, i was about ready to use some of the neon Delicas, but thankfully I don’t have any (yet). I ended up with DB507, 24kt pink gold iris, hex cut. There’s no pink anywhere else in the pattern, so that attracts the eye. Squib’s left side whiskers show up very clearly because they’re against a black background. There’s lots more contouring on the right side of Squib’s face, so the whiskers are harder to spot. I’m hoping that when all the whiskers are woven, the clarity of whiskers-against-black makes it easier to see whiskers-against-greys.