This rug has quite the story to it.

My friend Elizabeth made the rug in an entirely different colorway years ago.  I fell in love with hers on first sight and drooled over it for a few years.  I asked about the pattern but she had seen the image "somewhere in South Africa" on her travels and didn't remember where.  The image she had seen was not a rug pattern, but she made a rug from it. 

I tried and tried to find the image, searching books, websites, and using Google Image, etc, but I could never find anything even remotely resembling it.  So after a few years of searching and drooling, I asked Elizabeth if she would allow me to copy her rug.  She graciously gave permission, and I took photos and created my own copy on paper of the pattern.  That was hard!

A few more years passed (about 7 years, truth be told), and I was finally ready to start.  I began hooking using the above colors.  I hooked almost all of one of the full squares, and then I had to start work on a very demanding teacher training program in an unrelated-to-rug-hooking area.  It took all my time, and I had to put the rug aside, so I carefully folded up the  partially hooked rug, the paper pattern (just in case) and all the wool, and put it away.  Three years later, I went to the storage space and pulled out the wool and paper pattern.  No rug.  I tore the house apart and looked everywhere.  No rug. 

All that work for nothing.

Months went by while I considered whether to re-draw (OMG, so laborious!) and begin all over again.  I consulted with friends.  Everyone, including me, told me that I was likely to find the rug the minute I tried to re-do the whole thing.  You know--the way when you lose a valued object,, you search everywhere and can't find it, you buy another and within minutes you suddenly stumble across the original somewhere you never thought to look.  And now you have two.

More months went by.  I continued looking and the rug never surfaced.  Finally in despair but determined to finish, I knocked myself out redrawing the pattern (twice this time, to get it right) and started hooking all over again. 

The original rug has never showed up.  I made very slow progress all last year and finally just finished.  Good grief, what a load of work, but I love it.

How much do you want to bet the original partly-done piece shows up in the next week or so?  What do I do with that, if it does?

I'm in the home stretch of this long, l-o-n-g training course I've been taking since last September and hope to get back to art by end of summer at the latest.  I'll be officially done at the end of this month and then need to step back into my regular life with many people and things to catch up on.  A lot of day-to-day life issues had to be put aside, and will need immediate tending when this is over.  Fortunately, it was well worth it, but I'm more than ready to be done.

So today I played hooky and treated myself to a lecture done by the London Drawing Group on the topic:  "A lecture on the life and art of Ukranian artist Maria Prymachenko."  

The lecture was part talk and part drawing/painting practice.  What a life she had!  An impressive example of doing so much with so little in spite of immense hardships, and persevering in her work throughout her long life.  I believe the recording is available through around the 26th of this month but you can go to the URL above and check.

No wonder she is beloved, not just by Ukranians but worldwide.  Amazing folk art.  Here is just one more example to whet your appetite:

 Her art is diverse, striking, and so original.  You can find a terrific article (with more paintings) HERE.  The article gives a good idea of the horrors and obstacles she had to overcome in her life, from physical illness to surviving a brutal famine to WWII and even Chernobyl; she was born in 1909 and died in 1997 and apparently painted up until the day she died.

She once apparently said, "Everything is wrong with me but it is alive."

I notice the article says she's not very well-known in the US, but since the start of the war in Ukraine her art has been popping up everywhere.  I was already somewhat familiar with it as I'm major fan of folk art.  Oh, the hooked rugs that could be made with these designs (since I'm a rug hooker)--but of course, they are copyrighted to her and her family foundation, so one would have to be extremely careful not to violate copyright.  Or else to get written permission from the foundation.  

Well worth looking her up and spending time with her art to get inspired.

Meanwhile, I hope to be back posting again soon.

Couldn't we all use an "uneventful nice day" right about now?

Good heavens, days are rolling past so quickly and I've had no creative time due to the meditation course I'm taking (which finishes in late June).  My "inner creative natives" are getting extremely restless so I snuck this quick drawing in today in my sketchbook, but now need to go back to studying.

It's from Kelly Barone's new book, Drawing Botanicals.  Her book comes fully illustrated with step-by-step drawings, and each has a link to a video for drawing that particular flower.  There must be 150+ flowers (each linked to it's own short video) in the book. They go from A-Z, from African Daisy to Zinnia.  I am highly recommending it, and you'd be supporting a working artist.   Click on the link above to order a copy.  (And don't go by my quick sketch above--you can do even better, I'm sure!

It's amazing how quickly one's skills can deteriorate when one doesn't use them.  I used to be far better with the colored pencils than I am now--can't wait to be putting in regular practice again later this summer.  Kelly is a watercolor artist extraordinaire--you will really enjoy looking at her full website HERE.  I dream of someday creating the subtle beauty she produces--I love her work.

I paired the sketch above with my favorite springtime poem by Lilja Rogers:  "First a howling blizzard woke us; then the rains came down to soak us.  Now, before the eye can focus--Crocus."  Every year in the spring this poem makes me laugh.  May it have the same effect on you.  I fell in love with it the first time I read it, decades ago.  Reciting it is a spring ritual for me.

How beautiful is this?  I just about fell off my chair when I saw it. 

Of course it has nothing to do with textiles (yet--it could be the inspiration for one, with permission of course) or meditation (overtly) or anything else I usually write about, but it has everything to do with creativity and beauty, both of which soothe the trouble soul. And everything to do with art. 
Doesn't it remind you of a certain 19th century painter's work?
We could all use this cosmic view right about now.  Enjoy. 
For a super-short video on the timed exposure, go HERE.

For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream.
--Vincent VanGogh

Ah yes, Daylight Saving Time started last night and I got approximately 3 hours of sleep.  I probably should never have tried tanglng today, and this was the result.  Not my best, but it 'still counts as practice, so I'm happy.

And now for some zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

More from that amazing exhibit at the Clark Institute.

Still thinking that less would be more with each of these...however, i am enjoying drawing and painting them.

And I am keeping my practice up, which is the important thing.

This is part of the Magical Stars project designed by Sandyha Manne, CZT (scroll back a few days to Day One for more info on the Project).

Another beauty from the Clark Institute Tapestry show:

Continuing to post tapestries from part of the exhibit at the Clark Institute recently.  Feast your eyes on this one (for info about the designer (alas, the dyers and the weaver are not identified), see the info card below).

And here is a closeup of just the Moon section:

I'm still feeling like this is "way too much of a good thing," but despite how busy it is, I had fun drawing and painting it.  If you didn't catch the origin of this project, scroll back to the Day One post on February 23 and 24, in which I name the project creator, Sandhya Manne, CZT and how to find more information about it.
For quick contrast, here's a small picture of yesterday's tile BEFORE I added color:

I think the color did what I wanted--calmed down some of the way-too-busy effect by emphasizing some things and causing other things to recede.
This linework can be seen larger in yesterday's post. 

Here is the linework only for Day Five of the Magical Stars Project.  I am not enamored of this so far--too many patterns and too fussy looking.  I wonder if I can improve it with color tomorrow (making some things recede and others more prominent may tone it down).  I love doing this project but as I work my way through it I am certainly inclined to think that less is more--this is NOT an example of that idea.

As you can see, this exhibit at The Clark is not built on the traditional, medieval-style tapestries one usually sees by Gobelin.  Instead it focuses on 20th century work.  I enjoyed this one both for the graphic design qualities and the words.  It even reminds me of a tarot card.  There was another one by the same designer but somehow I didn't get a photo of that.  I may have to go back.  (Not a problem.  I would love to go back.)

Yesterday I was at the Clark Institute in Williamstown, MA to see a mind-boggling exhibit of modern French tapestry from the Mobilier National in France.  I took lots of photos and thought I'd post one every day because they are truly remarkable.  If you are in the area and have a chance to go, go NOW before it closes in a bit less than a week.  I might just have to go again, and plenty of folks who've seen this exhibit have been twice.  They are just incredible, spanning the time between around 1940-ish (mostly just before or after the war) up to the 80s and I think even into this century.

Here is the first one, by Jean Lurcat, "The Forest."  Weaver unknown (a crime!), woven around 1950.  A closeup is also posted below.

Here is the promised closeup.  This tapestry is gigantic--so specs were given but I'm guessing it was around ten feet by 8 feet or so.  It covered an entire wall.  No small feat to do the weaving in one year, not to mention the pre-work of warping the loom, dyeing the wool yarns, etc.  A real stunner.  The more you look, the more you see.

There is, in fact, a six-pointed star here but I tangled right over some of it so it's hard to see.  This is the black and white version--just linework-- and I'll post the version after adding color and shading as soon as I'm done.

Who knows if I can keep up with this project (for details of what the project is, see the previous post) but so far it's been incredibly involving and very calming.  It's hard to think about anything else when drawing, just the repetitive line after line after line.  And given what is going on all around us, that's helpful.

Yesterday's post showed the linework for this.  I drew it from the first video in Sandhya Manne's video series, Magical Stars.  Click on her name for the link to her website and more information.  I modified the drawing very slightly and also added colored pencil to my watercolors.  I love using both media in one piece--it's one of my favorite ways to color things.

I'm keeping in mind the following quote here:

“Start copying what you love. Copy copy copy copy. At the end of the copy you will find your self.”                ― Austin Kleon. from Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative

Thank you, Sandhya, for offering your work to the rest of us to use for practice and learning!  At this (temporary) point in time when I don't have time for my own art, learning from folks like you is a treasure.

Also, that Kleon book I referenced above is terrific.

This is a "Magical Stars" string (the star) using most of the tangles suggested by Sandhya Manne, CZT, from India in her Magical Stars Project from a couple of years ago. 

I drew it this afternoon and made some (very) minor modifications to what she did.  I plan to add color tomorrow.

If this project interests you, google "Magical Stars" on youtube.

I'm not a major fan of continually doing only what other people have already done, rather than doing my own original tangle work.  But it has its uses.  Working from videos are about all I can manage just now, and Sandhya is yet another truly talented Zentangle® teacher.  Given that I'm totally preoccupied with this 10-month, unrelated-to-art teacher training--very intense--I have had to let any kind of drawing go.  And so, I am more and more out of practice.  To keep my hand in, videos are temporarily the way for me to go.  I can watch, emulate, not expend too much brain power, and stay in practice.

It seems I'm always saying this.  "No time to draw."  When this course ends in July, I hope I have managed to do enough "copy-drawing" via video in this interim to begin work on my own art without being irretrievably rusty. 

Learning from other artists is always a smart way to sharpen skills and keep training.  So thank you, Sandhya, and all the other teachers whose videos I've been using.  I plan to do more of these.  (Now, let's see if I can pull this plan off!)

Yup, this is what comes of not having time to practice.  I am way, way too rusty.  This is the first tangle I've done since last year.  It's been far too long.

And likely to be longer; I've just finished the first semester of a ten-month course and the next one is starting right up, so I may be slow-as-molasses about posting until July.  (Does anyone even use molasses anymore?)

Second Tries, squared!  I first did this tile last December I think, but didn't post it.  Today I gave it another try.

The reason this is "squared" is because I thought I was done, but then the more I looked at it I realized I wanted to shade it darker and also darken some lines, so I gave my second annual version of this tile a second try (= "second try squared") and like it even better now.

What fun to be tangling again after a long hiatus. 

I just finished making 14 of these wooly pots for an upcoming event as give-aways.

Mind you, I have no idea how many people will attend, but I am all tapped out so only the first 14 will get gifts from me.

Every one of my fingers is sore.

But these sure are cute.

Rug hookers/punchers love these for dumping the little wool ends trimmed off as we hook.
I'll add some chocolates in each pot.

And now, back to other projects.
Happy New Year Everyone!

A woolly pot I made this morning.  I'll use it to hold scrap yarns and wool that I trim off when I'm punching or rug hooking.  It worked up fast and was hugely fun to make.  I've got other uses for these cuties also so will make more for sure.  Instructions and even a short video HERE.
Wool, quarter-inch wooden beads, Valdani thread, fusible interfacing, and a charm.

A chair pad I just punched.  It's "in progress," because I'll be taking a class later this week to learn a special edge binding technique.  Punching doesn't require a binding, but this technique is decorative and I'm curious to learn it.

The pattern is an old one from the Oxford Rug Hooking School; it's not my style and I always thought I'd flip it over and draw my own design on the back to punch, but I needed to produce "something round" really fast for this class, so I opted for quickly completing this and have something with an edge to work on during class.  It's on monks cloth, using a #9 Oxford Punch needle and an assortment of rug yarn scraps, some of which are from other rug projects and some of which (the dark brown) I dyed myself way back in 2016.