Color conundrum

One of the techniques on my Riding the Waves necklace is a "shark fin" using the new two-holed triangles.  Steve suggested I make a spiral just using that technique but with fire colors.  He thinks I have should have a full set of element spiral designs.  Riding the Waves is water (obviously), Divine Vine is kind of an earth spiral, and Falling Leaves could be air, so all I need is fire (and maybe a better air one with birds and stuff).

Oh - if you need a refresher on spirals, check out my Anatomy of a Spiral post, which I had forgotten about when I wrote Anatomy of a Kit.  I thought I was being clever, but I was just repeating something clever I did two years ago.  Check back in 2016 when I'll probably have another "cleverly titled" "Anatomy of a" post.

My first attempt with the "flaming shark fin" (not its final name, I'm sure) spiral was nice, but the triangles were a little far apart.  I started over and did double spirals.  I liked how it looked, but after a short amount of time, it got too difficult to get the needle through the core.

I liked the monochromatic look, but Steve said it didn't look too much like fire.

I decided to try it with a bigger core and with more "firey" colors.  I found some beautiful gray 6/0 beads for the core with just a hint of sparkle to them.  They reminded me of coals.  I bought some translucent red triangles and found my seeds from my "Walk Across Hot Coals" Cobblestone Path kit as well as some silver-lined red seed beads.  I alternated the red and yellow beads, which were the same size, and used orange for the littler ones.  I didn't really like how stripey it looked, so I did some rows with just the red (leaving the yellow out).

Here's what I have so far:

The all red section is on the left, and the red/yellow section is on the right.

It just doesn't look right.  I think the technique is close - it's still a little tight getting through the core, but I like how close together the triangles are now.  The colors just aren't doing it for me.  I don't think it's because I don't like orange and yellow.  I think the triangles are getting lost, and the silver-lined beads are demanding too much of the attention.

I have some purple beads (yeah, I know - it's a shocker) that I'm going to try next to get the technique worked out.  Maybe a double spiral every time is too much, and I should skip one every three or so.  I don't quite know yet.

With the Bead&Button Show and all the work I have to do coming up, this "Flame Spiral" (I actually kinda like that name) may have to wait until the middle of June.  We'll see.