Beaded Triangle Experiments and an Update

~ crossovercreativechaos

So. About those experiments with trying to get gradients into beaded 3-D triangles….

Yeah. Doing gradients in 3-D is apparently tricky.

Part of it’s the nature of peyote stitch itself. Two rows of a color do not produce two beads’ thicknesses of color. More like one to 1.5. Meaning if I’m doing something with a small number of rows that limits the colors a lot. Hmm.

Another factor is the 3-D structure lets light shine through in a very different way from a flat earring. In the charm on the right, the innermost beads are opaque seafoam, while the next rows out are transparent of the same color. In a flat earring these would work as a gradient. In this design, the way light angles through makes a much greater contrast between the opaque and transparent beads. I think I might be able to get away with putting transparent and transparent matte next to each other without too much trouble, but if I want it to be a working gradient, looks like it’ll have to be all-opaque (ceylon, silver-lined, etc.) or all-transparent.

I’ve selected a trio of very close in shade transparent matte purples; I think that’ll be my next attempt. It may be that an effective gradient can’t really be done on this small a scale in 3-D format. *Shrug* I’ll try to find out.

Two Triangle Beaded Charms.

On the writing side – I’m about halfway through the first round of edits on Oni the Lonely, and just hit one of the action scenes I had to leave in the draft as “need X written here” or get so stuck I couldn’t move. Fortunately I got some quiet today and was able to scribble about 600 words that covered most of that scene. I’ll want to add more details in the next edit round, because two oni fighting animated shoes in a kitchen should be hilarious. Even if it is short.

I’m also working on a very short sidestory for this ‘verse, Haint Blue, that I can put up here and on AO3 when it’s done.

Note of interest: I’m finding that the “romance” aspects will be a little bit uneven, as in one person falling in serious like before the other – partly because of emotional realities (grief bites), and partly because of culture (impolite to make pursuit obvious when someone’s still in formal mourning). I’m hoping that will still work for the readers, but… well, that’s part of why I’m writing the sidestory, to get a bit of that out for comment.

Thoughts welcome!

43 thoughts on “Beaded Triangle Experiments and an Update”

  1. One of the very common romance writing tropes is to show how each person has a very different viewpoint on events. Having different degrees of feeling at different points in the timeline for each person can work nicely for that. It is also more realistic, since only occasionally are total strangers going to be in total sync,as they get to know each other.

    I begin to think that “to see ourselves as others see us” is a skill that has deliberately been removed from the official teaching stories. (Sometimes replaced by nothing, sometimes replaced by “you should be able into understand me, but you have no pov worth myunderstanding.”) So two people having genuine differences with no moral plus or minus, but with effects on what happens — that will be fresh and exciting for many readers!

    (It occurs to me that romcom is maybe supposed to be about softening the truth that, yes, your potential beloved is not you and does things differently. And that is a good thing, because nobody wants to date himself or herself.)

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    1. I’ve argued something similar before, but related to modern teaching on “fault”. After all, if it _is_ possible to see “both PoV’s”, then that means there has to be more than a _simple_ “one is 100% at fault, the other is 100% innocent/victim/etc”. And they _cannot_ allow anything that might get people to realize “hey, it’s possible for _both_ sides to be ‘at fault’, for _different_ things, leading up to the same final event that’s being examined.” Because “that’s victim blaming! you can’t do that! then we couldn’t get away with playing victim after we bated the reaction that we’re using as our excuse.”

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      2. Yeah. Also, when I’m feeling a little more cynical, I wonder if they’re just accidentally devaluing heroism as a side-effect of trying to promote their victim mentality, or if it’s _also_ purposeful. After all, if the actions of the “victim” are judged to have “no effect” or “no relationship to the outcome” (so you can’t say “they were stupid for wandering around in back alleys at midnight”, you _also_ counter some of the hero’s agency and sacrifice when the hero “chooses to go into the line of fire to get the job done”. After all, if only the designated “badguy’s” actions have any moral weight, then the badguy may be “worse” if he hurt the hero but there’s no “moral” difference by that means of judgement between the “hero” being willing to sacrifice a few unfortunates “for the greater good”, and the hero “going into a dangerous situation so others don’t have to”, and the hero just being suicidally rash-bold and not recognizing the danger. Which may explain why some people have no problem with calling Dumbledore or Snape “heros”, and others consider them “villains”.

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      4. Thing is, there are now two religions in the US that have a noticeable effect on behavior.

        Christians and Communists. (Yes, Jews, but relatively few of them. Possibly more than actual communists, but really hard for me to say on that.)

        It is a fundamental belief and teaching of socialists that they /can/ divide humanity into categories, and that oppressors and victims are distinctly different. In this teaching, it is a fundamental quality of someone in a victim category that they are always being oppressed, and never deserving of the oppression. Personal culpability in failing to mitigate an ‘act of oppression’ that be easily mitigated by wise precaution is not something that /can/ exist in some eyes. If a lot of the important harms can be addressed by personal wisdom, why put unconditional trust in institutionalized socialism for everything? So, ‘victims’ must be passive, and anyone who fails by accident is a willful and knowing oppressor, so long as they are not a socialist in good standing.

        I wanted to use the example of Calvinist teachings on Guilt, and Catholic teachings on Innocence, but it became clear that my understanding is not up to knowing the parallels there.

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      5. As in, are there even parallels at all? Are they examples of religious assumption shaping interpretations of behavior? Do they describe behaviors that are even in the same neighborhood?

        Does trotting them out simply confuse my explanation much worse than it would be without any additional examples?

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    2. Oh good, this might work after all. I’ve read plenty of romances, but this is the first time trying to write anything like one!

      And, agreed. The fact that people can have completely different viewpoints and not be morally wrong seems to have been deliberately excised from common education and politics.

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  2. Two rows of a color do not produce two beads’ thicknesses of color. More like one to 1.5. Meaning if I’m doing something with a small number of rows that limits the colors a lot.

    Huh, like bricks?
    ::squints at beads::
    …yep, like bricks.

    I haven’t seen very many gradient walls, but maybe you could get ideas for how to play with it from looking up running bond color patterns? (Apparently running bond is one of the fancy ways of saying “the normal way you lay bricks in a wall.”)

    Now I want to make a fake brick wall with rainbow colors for one of the kid rooms.

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  3. Note of interest: I’m finding that the “romance” aspects will be a little bit uneven, as in one person falling in serious like before the other – partly because of emotional realities (grief bites), and partly because of culture (impolite to make pursuit obvious when someone’s still in formal mourning).

    Oooh, that actually sounds really nice.

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  4. Y’know, just because you didn’t get the effect you wanted doesn’t make either of those tests bad. I actually really like the blue one! It reminds me of clouds on a bright sunny day.

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  5. Oh, a romance where it’s not based on hormones? How refreshing! But seriously, nothing gets me to walk a ‘romance’ faster than all personality conflict magically going away once they have sex. Sex does not simplify a relationship. Having observed a lot of relationships, sex actually complicated things, especially when there is not boundary. Like, say, marriage. Going into a marriage, at least in this culture, is saying that you agree that your romantic and sexual needs will be invested solely in the other person. Or, to put in the words of a certain comedian, “sex, outside of marriage, makes you Dumb.”

    Would say more, but at work.

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      1. Apparently, I remembered wrong and he is a marriage councilor not a comedian. He was darn funny though, and he was giving a seminar so that’s probably why I got confused. His name is Mark Gungor.

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    3. Ugh, yes. I remember one time I was reading this book, I can’t remember if it was specifically supposed to be romance, but this woman moves to X place for whatever reason and meets this guy. Cue them having sex on the couch two days after meeting, start of relationship. Maybe it was just me, but I pretty much tossed that book. Fortunately it was from the library, so not a huge loss other than the time I spent on it.

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  6. *cackles* I had a crush on my now- husband -seven years- before we ever even went out, and he was -clueless-. Also, yes, serious grieving does tend to disrupt romance, even in established relationships. So that sounds entirely realistic (and enjoyable to read) to me.

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  7. I actually really like how the different colors look on the blue triangle. But I think you are right on the colors of beads you will need if you want a gradient. And I have always enjoyed how you do romance, and having good reasons WHY one of those involved are slower than the other to develop feelings always makes it more believable and enjoyable for me. Plus a twisted part of me enjoys the angst of a temporarily one sided romance….

    (my favorite kind of romance has some kissing, or other similar small displays of affection involved in the process of realizing those feelings BUT that does not mean I do not enjoy good romances that don’t have that!! Please don’t think I want you to change how you want to write your awesome stories!)

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      1. That sounds charming!

        and

        “… the “romance” aspects will be a little bit uneven, as in one person falling in serious like before the other …”

        When writing for the English-speaking audience, this can *never* be a wrong writing choice, because ~Pride and Prejudice~ is the mother of all Romance novels. (obviously, exaggeration, but you get what I mean)

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      2. Hmm… Maybe it has pride of place based on significance combined with “written first in English”, but the Song of Solomon was translated to English long before Pride and Prejudice was written… :p

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      4. So, just like a best friend in the making.

        Like any other friendship, takes work, and time and it’s something you grow into……

        (Husband’s grandfather’s advice: marry your best friend. Is GOOD advice.)

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  8. I really liked the blue ones, even if the gradient didn’t work the way you intended. If I’m understanding you right, you are trying a gradient through each leg of the triangle, working from the inside to the outside? Could you instead do a gradient from end to end of each leg? Maybe solid dark all through at the tips, then medium, then light? I really wish I could do a sketch of what I mean, I’m not sure I’m describing it well. Have you ever seen those floss friendship bracelets with the row of knots up the side, where the colour changes? like that.

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  9. Oh, thought but forgot to actually type out– I know one of the things you do is try to write healthy models.

    In real life, most people don’t fall for each other at the same time.

    This is FINE. This is good, even.

    I thought my husband was spooky the first time I met him [voice over: he was], then liked him as interesting to talk to and a genuinely good person[he is], and then decided he was a great guy who needed a suitable girlfriend…. I was helping look for a nice Japanese girl for my good friend to date when he realized he had to flatly STATE he would like to date me, if that was alright. Hadn’t even considered it until that point. (currently at six kids, expecting number seven next spring, so it worked out in spite of my density)

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    1. *Thumbs up!*

      After all, writing is supposed to be about wish fulfillment, right? Well, I didn’t get healthy models growing up, so…. On top of that I’m sure there’s lots of people in the same bad place I was when I was younger who could use something closer to “how RL should work” instead of all the “I fall for someone instantly and all my problems are solved!”

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      1. “I fall for someone instantly and all my problems are solved!”

        I cringe so hard just reading that sentence, that is one of the few things I thought was funny about Disney’s current insanity and that scene in Wreck-it 2, where the princesses all ask Penelope if people think all her problems are over just because she “found a man”. I may be remembering the scene wrong, but it is close. BUT, I also don’t like that most of the newer tv shows/movies have either completely removed all romance from the equation, or if there is any….

        I’m not going to touch that particular can of worms, sorry for bringing it up.

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      2. One bit of advice my dad gave me was: “if you look for a problem to be solved by acquiring a relationship, the problem will either not be solved or will be replaced with worse problems, and the relationship won’t last. (doesn’t matter the type of problem, or type of relationship, it’s a general rule)”. Even basic friendship as a fix for loneliness, if you’re doing it as “I will get a friendship to solve my loneliness”. Because the very act of doing so sabotages the relationship (_you_ aren’t going into “the relationship” _as_ the relationship, you’re going into it as “get solution to problem”).

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      3. I know someone more social than I am.

        Burns relationship bridges a bit more often than I do.

        Because they have intention and desires underpinning their expectations, and get really angry when other people are not in line with those.

        I do have trouble some times, but being willing to let others have their own mind, and accepting that a lot of business and casual relationships are not going to be deep, or have everything in common, seems to have done me some good. Relatively speaking.

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    2. … in spite of my density …

      Briefly thought this was a joke on being short and very pregnant, but if you’re due next spring then you won’t be looking “very pregnant” yet, I would imagine. Then I thought it was a Back to the Future “I’m your density” reference. Took me till the third read to understand what you actually meant. *grin*

      And congrats on the new kit*. May God give you an easy pregnancy & delivery, and may he/she bring you great joy once he/she is born and you get to meet him/her.

      * Kit as in “baby fox”, not as in “toolkit”.

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      1. Thank you!

        I maaaaaay have the term in mind because I’m working on a story where a guy uses the ‘dense’ joke (because he is, and knows it) and then spends half the story waiting for someone to figure out he always says ‘dense’ instead of ‘slow’ or ‘dumb’ because he literally lacks the buoyancy to swim, but he’s a very fast runner and talks a lot…. (Because even folks who are simply not that bright can enjoy jokes like that, just less likely to think them up!)

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  10. Yeah, my favorite family love story is when my brother was dating his now wife, she wasnt sure he was serious. She liked him, but she wasn’t certain how much he liked her back. She discussed it with her mom before a date, saying she wasn’t sure the relationship was going anywhere and if she should break up. Her mom knew that my brother was planning to propose that night and tried to discreetly encourage her. He got a personal chef and a private venue to propose in. It was all very sweet.

    But i guess the point is the realization and communication of feelings are never concurrent. My favorite novels that contain romance have a character realizing they have feelings, knowing, at least from their POV, that their interest does not, and still showing up anyway, so what you are describing in your latest book is just my preference. It just feels more real, then WAM, you’re hot, wanna get sweaty? does as a basis of a relationship. They decided they like this person enough to work against pure self interest before reciprocity got involved.

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  11. a) this conversation helps me understand how to do romance plots a bit better
    b) I’m hanging out here, not at the website of someone pumping out an endless stream of conventional tradpub romances with the sex. Might be an indication of preference in story telling.
    c) As far as I can tell, there is a lot of very very complicated stuff, hard to unpick, around sexual behavior, realistically. The generous possibility is that a sex focused plot is a simplification, or lack of realism that matches what the audience for that story wants to get out of it. Forex, a mecha fan is not watching a mecha show to get a realistic interpretation of ground pressure or bearing strength.
    d) This thinking actually shows me /why/ I want romance to be sweet romance in the plot of excessive complexity. I’m doing improbable, and not as improbable as I wish things with organizations, but maybe trying for realism with the relationships, and personal stress.

    Actually, the relationships are not realistic, my original thinking probably leans far too much on the Power of Friendship. /Some/ of the relationships are more realistic.

    I simply somehow saw that the style of romance plot that travels through ‘hop into bed for some reason’, then ‘move in’, and marriage much later was not aligned with what I wanted.

    I mean, the plan for the epilogue is a wedding, but those are supporting characters, were engaged prior to the burst of chaotic insanity, and the actual stress of the plot is not fundamentally changing what they knew about each other. I mean the other couples to get along well, but forty days of worldshaking horror do not alone a successful romantic relationship make.

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