At a distance, Insect Wings and Ovals reads as broad horizontal bands of alternating colours. Yet within each row are the outlines of forms within forms, depicted with free, intertwining lines and circles. These are connected with quick dashes and circles that seemingly pin the rows together.

All known samples of this pattern were made up in rayon.  Although the term rayon was coined in 1924, high-performance rayons did not appear until the late 1930s, with the advent of hot-stretching and addition of larger amounts of zinc to the spin bath. Further modifications in 1947 meant that rayon fabrics could be mass produced, easily dyed and would retain their feel and texture for longer. Produced from naturally occurring polymers, rayon was neither a natural nor completely synthetic material, and had the unique capacity to imitate the texture and feel of silk, cotton, linen or wool. The technological advances in rayon made it a particularly modern fabric.