Opalescence or Abalesence?

Abalescence in Taquete

My color study group is studying "escences"; that is luminescence, iridescence and opalescence.    I am starting my experimentation with opalescence...or perhaps I should say abalescence. 

Based on my readings, to achieve that milky grey look of opalescence I  need to select sparkling tints and a toned background.  The colors must look 'spontaneous'.  Spontaneous? Unplanned?  A weaver do something unplanned...me do something unplanned...hah!  

My Initial Palette

I decided my first project would be trying to weave something that looked like an abalone shell. I would have chosen an opal but I didn't have any lying around.  So actually my result will be more of an abo-lescence vs. an opa-lescence but what's a few mixed up letters among friends...

I decided to use my 8H Purrington table loom since it is already set up with a lovely black warp of serger thread for taquete. I selected spools of colors from my thread stash; mostly rayon along with some metallic.  I started with a dozen or so shuttles with a variety of colors and blends.  Then started to weave. Withing four passes, I had a structured plan which allowed me to weave taquete with three shuttles in a pattern that did not appear structured (which of course was...how do you weave taquete without a plan?) with different color combinations appearing as I swapped out different colors.

Above is a photo of the results.  As I tried different color combinations I realized some spools were too shiny and distracting so most of the metallic was removed from the palette.   It's now  a much more calming color palette with a calming result.  The actualy weaving would be boring with all that continous mellow color appearing but thankfully there is the swapping out of colors and 'unplanned' changes in pattern after every few passes to keep me interested.  

Another six inches... then I will add a contrasting pattern for some visual interest and see what fun stuff can be done with opalescence.