This is the twenty-fourth post in a series on the Tarot Rug Project (also known as "Exploring the Tarot: 23 Artists Hook the Major Arcana"). To view other rugs in the series, go HERE (that post will be kept up to date as new photos are published and the show travels). THE WORLD: Here is the "classic" Rider-Waite-Smith image: "We are part of this universe; we are in this universe, but perhaps more important than both of those facts, is that the universe is in us." Neil deGrasse Tyson "When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe." John Muir "To the mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders." Lao Tzu This is the last of the Major Arcana, and I am the artist who created the interpretation of the card in the following rug. (This isn't the last rug, though--we still have one more rug to go!) Are you thinking I went off-road with this interpretation? You'd be absolutely right; I did. There is nothing left from the original card in this design. Or is there? In fact, if you look closely, you will see that every single Major Arcana card is represented on this rug, in the form of the Tiny Tarot, published by U.S. Games Systems, Inc., of Stamford CT (USA). I'd like to thank them for allowing me to use their copyrighted images directly on my rug and also for allowing me to copy their Universal Waite Tarot for use in this blog throughout my posts on the tarot project. If you are having trouble seeing what I mean, here's a closer look: This rug is--if I'm right--the only punched rug in the entire project. There are a few traditionally hooked loops in there, but 98% of the rug was punched with yarn and an Oxford punch needle. (Thank you, Amy Oxford and Heidi Whipple of The Oxford Rug Hooking School) What's the design about? It's a diagram of The Universe (another name for The World card) called the Qabala. [There are various spellings of that word: "Kabbalah" and others, but I'm going with the Q-one.] Below is the story of this rug, and I'm sticking to it...it begins with my love for the tarot and ends with my love for both tarot and rug hooking: I began working with the tarot in the 1970s, using it not for fortune-telling but rather as a reflection of the psyche, and I have been learning from its wisdom ever since. Because The World is usually regarded as the final card in the Major Arcana, I wanted to create an image for this rug that would integrate all of the rugs that preceded it—thereby tying the exhibit together. The Tree of Life (also called the Qabala) portrayed on this rug is an esoteric diagram of The World—not just this world, but all the visible and invisible worlds in existence. The esoteric Qabala/Tree of Life is a many-layered framework and has, since the 19th century, been associated with tarot. The twenty-two cards of the Major Arcana have been matched to the twenty-two paths between the spheres on the Tree. In the rug, I have placed the cards on the Tree in their commonly accepted positions, as a way of summarizing and integrating the Arcana for this exhibit. I hand-dyed all of the blue background yarns for the rug, and used bits and pieces of other leftover hand-dyed yarns to duplicate the traditional colors of the spheres on the Tree. As I mentioned above, I used an Oxford Company punch needle for the punching process. A few loops on the rug were also pulled using the traditional rug hooking method. In a post I wrote last year--before I was given permission to publicly speak about this project (it was still in the hush-hush phase), I described the fun I had at Amy's school in a class with Heidi, learning to dye the variegated background for the rug. You can read that post here (it is cryptic because it was pre-publicity for the project, but you'll get the idea). Here are two of the stops I made along the way to creating the rug. In the first, you can see my initial drawing of the outline on monk's cloth (I ended up re-doing the font on the title at the bottom), and then on the right you can see the color-planning in progress. One of the many reasons I love making textile art is that the process is so often entirely meditative. Forming loop after loop is rhythmic and calming—a type of moving meditation. I have had a committed meditation practice for many years and appreciate this opportunity to maintain a mindful state while creating art.
WHAT DOES THE CARD MEAN? This card shows the World Dancer, inside a double circle of protection--the four animals at the outside edges represent the 4 archangels, the 4 elements, and all the other symbology of "four-ness." We have seen these four in another card--card ten, the Wheel of Fortune. Just outside of the Dancer is a green, vital, bursting-with-life wreath, a type of ouroboros, with its red sash in the form of an infinity symbol. She holds two wands, and her legs are in similar position to the Hanged Man, but she is facing up, as he was facing down. The position of her legs also suggests that she is dancing. This is the Fool, come full circle. S/he has completed the journey, and it has been very successful. It's time to stop and dance--to pause awhile and look back, as she seems to be doing, to assess where you have been. Only then can you assess where you are going next, as the journey never ends. Synthesis a good keyword for this card. Another message of this card might be that you have all the resources you need to move forward; just open your eyes to the many options that surround you. When you get this card: As with each of the other cards, if you choose The World card in response to a topic you are pondering, it will have many meanings that all share a similar theme. Ask yourself the following questions if you get this card. One of them will apply to your topic—a little message from your subconscious to your conscious self.
Only one more rug is left in our tarot rug project series, the rug that is the design for the back of the deck we have created together. That's coming up in the next post. Curious about the rest of the rugs in the exhibit? You can see all the posts by clicking on the link at the very top of this post. There is a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section here (NOTE: scroll down to the bottom of that post to get to the FAQ). Thanks for reading. Your comments are always welcome. I'm taking a break for several days from the tarot rug project (only five rugs left to show!) and getting back to other things that I have put on hold. Things will likely be quiet here for awhile, and then I'll get back and finish the tarot rug posts. I mentioned I had accidentally started a new punch-hooked rug, "Moon and Clouds," a couple of weeks ago (I just couldn't resist a few "experiments" with punching, and it turned into an actual start). But realistically, I've had to set it aside while I find time to finish color planning it. Once I complete that, I will need to dye the rest of the yarn. Until that's done, it needs to wait. I'm feeling impatient! Sigh. The Moon and Clouds rug has lots of curvy motifs. I notice that curves and spirals are taking up room in my brain right now, as you can see in my latest design: This is one corner of the design for my next traditionally hooked rug. Spirals. Curves & spirals...or in this case, it will likely be straight lines and spirals. I'm using an 8-cut on linen, and my plan is to buy no new wool for this rug at all. I should have enough already on hand to make it from the leftovers of previous rugs. The plan is to make a "scrappy rug" using only my red and black scraps, but who knows how it will evolve. So I have 2 rugs underway at this moment. Alas, one of them is temporarily on "pause"; it'll be 2-3 weeks before I can get back to the dyepots, so Moon and Clouds will be waiting quite a while. In the meantime I am also trying to get back to my tangling. The other day I posted the tangle on the left below, but that same night I produced the one on the right, a variation. I like that one too, and I like them together. More curves and spirals there. After all... "When life gives you curves, flaunt them." Anon. I'm needing to take a break from the tarot rug posts for just a bit! Back to those shortly. I'm missing Zentangle®, drawing, and my other usual activities. So tonight I indulged myself with a new tangle, Mollygon. That's my first-ever attempt above. Below are some variations created with an iPhone app. I was also busy in the studio in the last 2 days, working on the finishing for my nearly-done rug. The finishing process, which is tedious (I still enjoy it), seems to take forever but I'm almost there. I may get it all done tomorrow. A photo of that is coming once it's completely done. I created the label for it this evening: That will get sewn onto the back of the finished rug once I've completed all the other finishing. I whipped out my sewing machine yesterday--I haven't touched it in years--and spent quite a while hemming the edges of the Moon & Clouds rug which I will be punching. Since I don't own a serger, I zig-zagged around the outer edge 3x. And did the same with the inner edge where I'll be trimming it once I'm done. That is one BIG rug. Today I drew out a new design for a second, new, traditionally hooked rug. Below you can see the background wool I'm thinking of using at the bottom of the photo, plus just a little bit of the backing where I've begun drawing the pattern. There will be more to the pattern, but I'll have to wait until I can get back to the studio in the morning to finish drawing. Lastly, I am tossing in a picture of this cute felted pouch I've had for years and rediscovered recently. I wish I could remember who made it and where I got it. I think it's so well done, and it's also useful for carrying supplies. Back to my experience with the sewing machine for a minute: It's been at least 3-4 years since I've used it. I remember that the last time I used it I had a bit of trouble threading the needle, even with my reading glasses. Yesterday? I couldn't even SEE the needle, let alone the hole. With my (now even stronger) reading glasses. Yikes! It took me 25 minutes--no joke--to get it threaded. I'd still be there, trying and failing, if I hadn't managed to scrounge up a needle threader after getting completely desperate, and even with the threader it took me another ten minutes to get the job done. After I left yesterday I went straight to the sewing store and bought every variety of needle threader they have. I don't want to go through that again. Sad, sad, sad. As Joni Mitchell would say, "You don't know what you've got 'till it's gone." Well, it's definitely gone! Boo hoo hoo. [NOTE: If you are looking for a certain topic--like the Tarot Rug Project--look over at the right-hand column, scroll down to "Categories," and click on the category you want to read.] Ayup. I'm still at it. Still dyeing background for the next rug. I'm using several values (and hues, actually) of dark purple, and here I am finishing one batch. This is actually the lightest purple I'll be using as background. A closer look is below: I really have to be ready to do this--meaning, up for it. Here's a shot of the kitchen, the counter in between the stove & the sink with the dyeing process underway (my only area for food prep, so you can understand why it's completely covered up). The dyes are in their beakers, but I haven't added water yet: Oh, for a dedicated dye kitchen. As you see, this creates an unbelievable mess. But the results are worth it.
I lived with this mess yesterday and today. In total I was able to get thirteen skeins dyed, completing two of the five dye-lots I need for the background. I am feeling accomplished and highly virtuous. And if that wasn't enough, here's a shot of a guy who passed me on the street yesterday as I as out for a walk. Bear in mind that it's December 12th in the northeastern US, in a city where last year we had over 10 feet of snow. This guy was appropriately dressed for the weather yesterday. Very strange days indeed. Above is a mandala of some of the yarn I have dyed so far (original photo altered by the Waterlogue app on my iPhone). I had to leave out 4 skeins to get the rest in the photo! Below is the actual photo of the dyed yarn without retouching. I wound the skeins into yarn cakes ready to be used in punching the rug, and they remind me of little colored moons or mandalas. Since it's been a particularly gorgeous full moon this week, I thought a "mandala of yarn-moon cakes" would be appropriate. I wasn't able to do any dyeing today--just too tired. Ran minor errands, took a long nap, read a trash novel, and couldn't wake up enough to gather all of the yarns in one place until just before sunset. That turned out to be good light for photographing such different values. It's beginning to dawn on me that I won't be able to decide on the colors of the inner motifs in the rug until I am actually hooking it. I am going to have to trust in trial and error. If that is true, then I need to focus only on dyeing background (the various dark purples), since that is the part I'm certain about, and then begin hooking. Accident is design / And design is accident / In a cloud of unknowing. (TS Eliot) Half of art is accident, but there is no accident without free experiment. (Ralph Steadman) I just counted, and in the last 3 weeks I have dyed 32 separate skeins of variegated-color yarn, and of those, at least 26 either will be used in the rug or are under strong consideration. Below you can see a partially-colored prototype of the design. The background will definitely be variegated dark purples. Only the colors for the motifs remain to be chosen. In this photo, which was the second mock-up that I attempted, I gave up trying on colors for the motifs, since they are NOTHING like the colors of the yarn I've produced. I may have to try watercolor to get tints like the yarns I have. This picture tells me little except what the background might look like. Ignore the very light colors around the edge and in the top motifs--they aren't right. I am exhausted and need to take a break from all this yarn dyeing. I may even need to start punching a bit of the rug in order to try out some of the lighter colors against the background. I've made a good start on dyeing the background, producing six more skeins today. I am taking at least one day off and plan to loll about as much as possible and indulge myself.
As Katharine Hepburn said, "Life is hard. After all, it kills you." The Diva Challenge #245 this week is on Hollibaugh. Oh, how I love this tangle. I know there will be some fabulous renditions of it, so please click on that link and treat yourself to what others have done. Here is my quick version (on the left), very different from what I usually do. And to round off the Hollibaugh celebration, here is the same tangle done by several first-time students, below. I had only 7 minutes to teach this tangle in a meditation class (all the students were training to be meditation teachers): You can see the meditation chimes on the left. I do love Hollibaugh. Not bad for seven minutes of coaching. We were focused on the meditative aspect of the tangle. And now on to the BIG YARN DYEING PROJECT, Day 2. Life is full of surprises and today is no exception. I will only get 3 skeins done today. My goal is six, but...not gonna happen. Much busyness with other people. And my car is in the shop. (Praying to the god of cars that it is an inexpensive fix) Plus, I have an afternoon commitment. I will end up dyeing yarn tonight, just to produce the third skein. As I write this in the early afternoon, I've just taken two out of the oven. So here are some photos of the process: ...and some of the results: And of course, no dyeing process would be complete without what's in this last photo below. At least--that's true for me. I am apparently a dyeing slob. I get dye all over my hands, despite wearing good rubber gloves. It's a mystery how I do this; other people come out with pristine hands, but mine are always gross at the end. (No, the gloves do not leak. It's definitely something I am doing...but what?) Without this stuff, I wouldn't be able to go out in public for days afterwards. Legend has it that Pearl McGown, the diva and doyenne of rug hooking in the 1950s, used to dye wool while dressed in an evening gown to demonstrate that it could be done without being messy. (NOTE: She is an entire story to herself--she singlehandedly kept rug hooking going in the U.S., but she was quite the dictator.)
Hey, if I owned an evening gown, I too could dye wool while wearing it without getting spots on it. I never get dye on my clothes either. But I note that the legend of Pearl Dyeing in Her Evening Gown says nothing about her HANDS. Perhaps they were blue up to the elbows when she finished. Mine are all colors when I am done. Long live ReDuRan. (No, I don't get a commission.) What a day. Dyeing, dyeing, and more dyeing. And in between the dye sessions, dealing with life's other surprises. I did get six skeins done--six different colors--but can't show them until they are dry, probably by tomorrow. Here's about all I can show now. It's one of the greens which had just come out of the oven and was momentarily too hot to handle. You can see the soapy rinse that I'd prepared just above it. Sopping wet, this doesn't look like much. But I think it's the exact color I wanted and can't wait to see what shade it is when it's completely dry (wet wool is darker than dry wool).
Tomorrow I think I'll be experimenting less and working more on dyeing the background for the rug, though a lot depends on what I decide about colors I got today. The Big Yarn Dyeing Project starts tomorrow. I have about 15 pounds of yarn to dye for the next rug, in 4 oz skeins. Each skein must be dyed individually. I can dye about 6 skeins a day. If I am able to produce that amount most days this week, I will still be only halfway toward the total. But that's ok. It's exhausting but fun. I began prepping today. First, a couple of hours with my color plan and my previously-dyed yarns, to determine which "test colors" I need to dye tomorrow. I'm pretty settled on the colors for the background, but the lighter colors for the motifs are waiting for me to test them and choose which ones work. After a lot of thought, I emerged with a list of what to dye tomorrow--testing several new colors to see if they will look good with my background. Next came prepping the yarn. I'll be using up all of the old Paternayan rug yarn I bought years ago. Wish this were still available, but as far as I know, nobody makes or carries it anymore. That's ok though; I was able to buy some wonderful new yarn over the summer that will be as good. Here's the yarn on my floor after I added some ties to keep the skeins from tangling: And here it is again below, all tucked in for the night (soaking overnight in Synthrapol to prep the fibers for dyeing tomorrow). Should be a very messy but satisfying day. I'm curious to see what comes out of the color testing.
Once I select the final colors, then I can settle in to produce multiple skeins of each color, and actually begin punching the rug. Oh boy oh boy! Beginning in December, an exhibition of art rugs will be opening in Shelburne, Vermont (USA). The exhibit's title is: "23 Artists Hook the Major Arcana." The theme was conceived by two inspired rug artists, Michele Micarelli and Loretta Scena. I hope you click on their links and look at their previous work. (These ain't your grandma's hooked rugs, that's for sure.) The exhibit combines two of my favorite things: rug hooking and the tarot. I have a rug in the show; it's likely going to be the plainest rug there, because it's the last rug (the last tarot card) in the Major Arcana, The World, and I wanted my design to integrate and summarize the rest of the exhibit. Alas, I do not have a picture of my rug yet. When I do, I'll happily post it, but I did put up a few "sneak preview" partial photos here and here, before I was able to talk about the show (when it was still hush-hush). The show is opening at this gallery. After it finishes its run, it will travel to other locations and venues for as long as there is interest. (if you are reading this before it opens December 4, 2015 or after it closes January 22, 2016, you will have to SCROLL DOWN to see the information about the show and the photograph of one of the extraordinary rugs.) And they will be extraordinary. I have seen two of them (one is on the gallery site) and am already drooling with anticipation until I can see the rest of them. AND NOW, ON A TOTALLY DIFFERENT TOPIC: Here's a quick picture relating to what I hope to be doing tomorrow. Yup, more yarn soaking...with luck, more dyeing will happen in the morning. More test colors for the Moon & Clouds rug. I want to create a lighter version of two of the colors I produced last week, and experiment with new colors. It's true that I dyed all the background for my tarot rug as recently as last autumn (see the links above for photos of that), but that was the first dyeing I'd had a chance to do for decades. Now that I'm back in the dyepots, the bug has really struck and I can't wait to play with color again. I'm hoping to create a veritable explosion of color as I move forward. COLOR QUOTES:
"Purplish brown? Let's agree it is a color so bad we all flee it it has no good use so let's name it Puce from the sound we make when we see it." (Darby Bannard) A quote about Georgia O'Keeffe's work: "...The last mad throb of red just as it turns green; the ultimate shriek of orange calling all the blues of heaven for relief and support... each color almost regains the fun it must have felt within itself on forming the first rainbow." (Charles Demuth) Let me begin by saying, I do not have a kitchen that's well set up for dyeing yarn or wool. (Anyone who knows me can also confirm that I do not have a kitchen well set up for cooking, either. But since I do not know how to cook, that's not a problem. I can go for years without touching a stove.) It's tricky to do dyeing here (Ya think? Look at the mess above). I have a lot of dyeing to do for the Moon and Clouds rug I'll be starting soon. I've been thinking about this rug for a while. Moon and Clouds is a runner-type rug, a McAdoo rug pattern that I haven't yet seen anyone else make. It's one of the only remaining patterns I have--after I finish it, I'll be working with my own rug designs from here on out. [I will make one exception for the final pattern I own, a fabulous one called "Russian Oriental"; it's gorgeous and intimidating, but I am slowly inching towards being ready to hook it. Maybe I'll get that done in the next couple of years.] Moon & Clouds is 3 feet by 6 feet and will use about 14 pounds of yarn. I have nowhere in my house to put this rug. Several people have suggested I will need to buy a house in order to use the rug. Hmmmm. On Friday I started testing background colors; I have an mental image of what I want for the background but am still playing with what I'll use for the motifs. I decided to try a purple recipe I learned from Heidi Whipple of the Oxford Rug School. I wasn't sure I could replicate her color, but look at this for a result! Not bad! The yarn I am trying to match can be seen in the two strands that are laid across the skeins. And next to that photo is the same yarn made into "yarn cakes" after it was completely dry. Yes, those are the same skeins in each picture, just differently wound, and the photos were taken in different lights. But both photos are of the same yarn. Wish I were a better photographer and knew how to eliminate the lighting differences. Encouraged by all that, I went to town on Saturday and produced the test skeins on the right (the "yarn cakes" in the photos are the same yarn cakes that you see above). What a day. I spent five hours dyeing, with a couple of breaks, and by the end was really happy with my results. I'm still not entirely certain if I will end up using any of these colors--or some combination of all of the dark purples as the background color of the rug--but I am so happy to be playing with color and dyes after all this time. If you want to see a closer view of some of the colors and brief captions for each, click any of the photos below. It has been years since I tried to do any serious dyeing of wool or yarn. When I was working full-time it was impossible. Perhaps if I'd had the room for a permanent dye kitchen (or a differently configured regular kitchen) I would have made the time, but since any type of serious dyeing requires completely deconstructing and protecting a small space normally used for preparing food, that wasn't realistic. Now that I have more time, I can afford to do all the set-up and take-down that dyeing requires in the space that I have.
I have more color test skeins to make, and then once I've decided on the colors I will have a lot more dyeing to do. 14 lbs of 4 oz. skeins = 56 skeins to dye for this rug. Plus a few extras to be safe. I will be busy. Hello, all...we are the fourteen year old Wooly Bullies. Yes, the WOOLY Bullies...do not trust any of us around your 100% wool jackets, skirts, coats, or blankets. If, that is, you even own 100% wool anything anymore. But I'll get to that later. Today we met at Elizabeth's lovely, gracious, and comfortable home--her own hand-hooked rugs all over the house, all of them unique and beautiful--and we celebrated the start of our 14th year together as a creative and supportive group. Actually, the topic of our anniversary never came up today! Instead, we spent the time talking about everything else: our summer journeys, our relationships, meditation and Buddhism, technology, what to do if a bat gets in your house, health (all good for once!), and other general updates since most of us haven't seen each other since our last meeting in May or June. [We take summers off because seriously, would you want to work on a hooked rug if it meant having wool next to your skin in 90 degree humid weather?] Some glimpses of today's projects are below. They all have captions--to see the captions, just hover over a photo with your mouse. You should also be able to biggify a photo by double-clicking it to see it better. Kathleen, I realized when putting up the photos that I did not see you hooking anything! I know you had to leave early so maybe you just came for our fabulous company?
SEPTEMBER 11, 2001 UNTIL NOW... Elizabeth, myself, Cynthia, Cheryl, Kathleen and Maria all made it today. Of today's attendees, Elizabeth, myself, and Maria were at the original meeting of our group at my house on September 20, 2001. Lenore was also there at the start. Nine days after the tragedy, we were all still dazed and shocked. I remember thinking that hooking together that evening, telling our creative, art-related histories to each other, and sharing our work, was such a comfort and temporary rest from the news coverage in which we had all been immersed non-stop. We acknowledged the attack and the horror, but we then made an effort to create a little space for respite and for beauty for the next two hours, and we all went home feeling a tiny bit better that night. In the years that followed, we outgrew my house pretty quickly and have met in a variety of venues--from community rooms in a now-defunct organic market, to the Somerville Arts at the Armory space, to each others' larger homes--we always meet in each others' homes now. The conversation continues to be a comfort to me, and more than that, we share a group that gets our creative juices flowing. I love it when one of us throws a partially-completed rug down on the floor for advice and each woman there just lets her true opinions fly: "Too dark, not enough contrast..." or, "I want to learn how you dyed that orange," or, "Take out the front part of that and re-do it--it's standing out too much," or whatever else we think. The recipient of the advice never has to take any of it, but we all know each other well enough to say exactly what we think, and no one takes offense. It's great. I've been helped numerous times by these critiques. I've also noticed the continuing decline in the availability of 100% wool, which started farther back than fourteen years ago, but I wonder how many of us would have begun hooking now, if wool had been as hard to get back then as it is to find now. It has gone from a frugal and affordable art to a fairly expensive art. Sad. But remember, everyone: There is always ANN'S ATTIC! Since we are The Wooly Bullies, we can go down to CT and bully our way into that attic whenever we need a huge stash of wool. Having seen it, we all know Ann could supply all of us for our next 6 lifetimes. To Ann: Be afraid, be very afraid. SUMMER TRAVELS: Discussions today: oh my! Maria went to Tehran (yes, Iran) in August. What a tale! She had to wear a hijab while out of doors there. She was in Iran for two weeks and glad to come home, although she clearly had a fascinating time. She went to visit her daughter-in-law's family and really enjoyed them. A genuine travel adventure. Wow. Cynthia was gone ten weeks, to a large number of countries & cities--Turkey for quite a while, Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece, Paris, London, Budapest and I think a couple of others. Wow again... Some of the rest of us went to Maine, the Cape, or to a silent retreat in central Massachusetts (that last would be me). HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO MY WONDERFUL RUG HOOKING FRIENDS. I am honored to have been working with you for the last 14 years. How does it feel to be 14 years old again? NEXT MEETING: Will be at Cheryl's in October; she'll email us with dates & info. Elizabeth, thank you for hosting and thank you for that fabulous fabulous soup. I know I wanted to lick my bowl, but managed to restrain myself. Barely. Finished: the interior of the rug! I'm pretty chuffed...I began working on this somewhere around March 20th, so it took just a little over 3 months to get this part done, working on it an average of about 4 hours a day, usually 4-5 days a week. Doing the math: 3 months = about 12 weeks. Twelve 5-day weeks = approximately 60 days, 4 hours a day = 240 hours plus a bit more. So far. There are still two borders to complete; one of them has been started as you see above, and the other is very small. I'm not at all certain I will use that smaller border. And people wonder why hand-hooked rugs cost what they do...add in the cost of the wool and the planning--you couldn't charge what it's worth to make this. But that's really beside the point, as my motivation is the sheer enjoyment of the process. The lovely repetitive meditative motion that frees the mind. The tactile sense of it. The colors passing through my fingers. The visual effect as areas slowly begin to fill in. And I'm always surprised by the outcome. In many ways, rug hooking is a lot like the Zentangle® process: With Zentangle, the emphasis is on each individual line, not on the outcome. And thus, the outcome is always a surprise, a very pleasant one. In rug hooking, it's common to have a lot of planning go into the rug, and a particular outcome is planned for. A pattern of some kind, whether original or someone else's, is used, and colors are usually carefully plotted in advance. Zentangle uses patterns. But classic "tangling" is done in black and white, and the emphasis is never on the outcome, but rather "in-the-moment" with the focus on the line your hand is drawing right NOW. Yet they have similar effects. Both are absorbing and relaxing. And at least for me, even rug hooking, while much more planned, always has a surprising outcome. Sure, it does look like the design I created or selected, but the interaction of the colors of the wool is always a revelation, and the way the loops lie on the backing create an overall effect I can never fully predict. And with Zentangle, I never plan, I focus on one line at a time, and I am often amazed at the way things turn out. For me, it is the same with meditation. I sit down to follow the breath (or some other object of attention) and find the process of wandering off, coming back to the breath, wandering off, coming back to the breath, wandering off, coming back to the breath is very surprising no matter how much time I spend on it. The word I selected for 2015 was "Practice." I keep coming back to it. Everything improves with practice. In the case of rug hooking, even the largest rugs get finished with enough practice. As the I Ching reminds us, "Perseverance furthers." I plan to be as mindful as possible with every loop that I pull between now and when I finish this rug. When I finished the interior motifs and background yesterday, and stood back and looked at it, I was surprised at how quickly it has come together. I look forward to working on the outer borders, and I'm beginning to percolate about how I am going to approach the next rug. Here is the design for that one: And here is a shot of it with a bag of as-yet-undyed yarn that I will be dyeing and using in this rug. It will be my largest rug yet. I am leaving it on the studio floor for a few days to allow my subconscious to take it in and begin working with the image. Every day I go to the studio, I am grateful for the freedom to do this work.
Want to see the full flowering of perseverance? Check out this woman's work (you don't need English translation to appreciate this). FIRST THE SELF-CONGRATULATIONS: Done! I am freaking done with these hellish socks! I am thrilled beyond belief. I have blogged about them before; at that point, I thought I had been working on them for about a year. Which is ridiculously long...so as you can guess, I was mostly NOT working on them at all. But I pulled them out a while back, dug in my heels (appropriate for working on socks), started in again, stuck it out, and now I am done...congratulations to me! Normally, if I'm working slowly and taking breaks on a pair of socks, they might take me about 6 weeks. But not these. NOW THE GLUTTON FOR PUNISHMENT BIT: As it turns out, I was wrong about having worked on them for a year. I went back and thought more carefully about when I would have begun...and reached the conclusion that it has been closer to 3 YEARS. Seriously! I have never, ever spent that amount of time on any project, and this is a testament to how much I hated working with this yarn. Please understand that I have made dozens of socks with no problem at all. But for some reason, the yarn for this pair made the work very tricky and was big-time drudgery all the way. I cannot count the number of times I ripped out several inches and re-knit them. Many people told me to just throw them out, but dammit, I am stubborn and very persistent and was determined not to let the yarn get the best of me. And so they are done. Done!!!!! I only wish I knew what the yarn was, so that I could avoid ever buying it again. It looks like regular sock yarn, but isn't. Long ago I made a pair of red socks that had yarn that acted the same way; I also slogged my way through those and it took at least 3 times as long as it should have. I am done with nasty weird sock yarn. The next time I run across yarn that acts this way, I will indeed throw it out, having proved I could complete 2 projects with it. Nasty stuff. NOW THE PART ABOUT OBSESSIONS: And speaking of yarn, how does this look? Everything you see here is yarn. Yarn in a bag. Yarn in the boxes. My studio-mate K and I did a major yarn buy at an unheard-of cheap price for over 100 pounds of highest-quality rug yarn. I do not imagine I will ever have to buy rug yarn again. I do imagine I will spend quite a bit of time dyeing my share of this yarn. Good thing K just got back from her 4-day dye workshop (see the previous post). Cannot wait to begin playing with color and then punch-hooking my next rug.
Feel free to skip the whining prose below and scroll down to the pictures! Fair warning... It's official; I've now been sick since March 31st. "Well isn't that special," as the old character on Saturday Night Live used to say. I did have ten wonderful, short, health-filled days in late April in between illnesses. During that time I managed to make it to New York City for Readers Studio 2015, the fabulous multi-day annual tarot conference. I was home for a day or so, then off to upstate New York for a few days to visit a good friend. It was when I was on the way home from her house that the damn head cold boomeranged back on me and I've been completely out of it ever since. Today, for the first time, I can feel it just starting to fade. I cannot wait to be healthy again. Spring has been coming on with a vengeance, largely unseen by me as I haven't had the energy to go out. It is truly glorious out there. When I am recovered enough to get around again, I hope to hoof it down to the Greenway and see this fabulous new art installation from Janet Echelman (with thanks to Tom for sending me this photo, which he took last night): Oh my gosh, isn't that beautiful? And during the day, from what I hear, just as beautiful but very different. I gotta go! Speaking of "Gotta Go," I may have been too sick for any real work for weeks, but I managed to get in a few tangles. One of them has that for a name (believe it or not, I think its creator says she discovered this one while looking at the floor in a ladies' room she was visiting). This was my first try at it: You can see an extra line I started to put in there, since I'm a newbie at it. Love this tangle. Decided to try it again with a variation: And speaking of floors, when I got to the tarot conference and saw the Marriott Hotel Lobby floor, I had to laugh as it's a direct link to the tangle "Florz." I have seen a zillion floors with this design and bet you have also. Here are a few other experiments with Zentangle® I've done while being so sick. There are a pitiful few of them, as most days I didn't have the energy. All of them are my first attempts. I can only get better! This also arrived from Amy Oxford's Oxford Rug School: What the heck is that, you ask? Maybe this will make it more clear: Half my order of natural-colored rug yarn, waiting for me to dye it for my next rug. Once the weather gets hot...as it was today...I won't be doing any dyeing until things cool down. But that's ok, as I have another rug on the frame now and it will take a while, and in the meantime I can get busy with color planning so I'll know what colors to dye.
For someone who has been so unable to work for a while, I can sense a burst of artistic energy coming on, once I'm recovered! (Whine, whine) "The very fact that you are a complainer shows that you deserve your lot." (James Allen) "You can overcome anything if you don't bellyache." (Bernard Baruch) Life is ironic, yes? I was talking with friends recently about how they felt stuck in their art projects, and I was busy tossing out ideas and advice with ease. Oh yeah, so easy to dish that stuff out. Then yesterday I brought home many additonal small pieces of bright-colored wool to complement the delicious-but-dull colors I already had for my own new rug project. Very exciting, right?...until I gathered all the wool into one huge pile and sorted it all by color and value, resulting in this: Holy crow! NOW WHAT? I have no idea where to begin. I won't use all those colors, certainly, but how to tell which ones to hook? Dishing out advice is so easy...as long as it's not me who needs it! I am going to tinker with the rug design this weekend and have committed to pulling at least six loops...I gotta do something to get my self started or I'll just stay frozen in place. Later: Managed to get some preliminary redesign done on the rug after writing the above. Hooking will begin tomorrow. It will. Yes. It will. Even if only six loops. Even if I pull them all out later. Work will begin. I'm still having a raging debate within myself about whether to traditionally hook or punch hook the rug. Will probably go with traditional approach to start. Tonight I experimented with a few more new tangles. Not great art, but great fun! Below is "Moving Targets" on the left, and "Arabel" on the right. And just above is "Showgirl" on the left and "Twile," (aka "Stoic") on the right.
Very calming to do the above--got my mind off the intimidating rug. Phew. Guess I'm experiencing a time honored tradition of Fear of Beginning. "I still believe that at any time the no-talent police will come and arrest me." (Mike Myers) "I am no artist. Please come and help me." (Michaelangelo to his assistant) Makes me wonder if Rumi was always this brave: "Forget safety. Live where you fear to live. Destroy your reputation. Be notorious." (Rumi) Snow showers today. We're in between mammoth snowstorms, a short window of peace in this incredible weather system we're caught in. Over 50" here in the last 12 days, and nowhere to put it. City streets overwhelmed. Between Sunday night and Tuesday, we could get another 18". I have never seen a winter like this. So why am I calling us a lucky bunch of artists? Because just for today, we all took a chance because of the break between storms, and 7 of us were lucky enough to meet at Ann's fabulous farmhouse in CT...and the roads were clear enough for us to get there. We've done this before and feel lucky every time to travel to Ann's. Her home is in a heavily rural part of the state and the views are exquisite. It snowed lightly the entire day while we worked in comfort in front of her living room woodstove. We were warm, safe, creative, and very happy. In short, we really were lucky. Thank you, Ann, for making this possible and for your incredible hospitality. We spent the morning and part of the afternoon working on our rug projects. The rest of the time? We ate. But that part comes later. First, the rugs. On May 30th, I posted about Cheryl the Rug Rescuer. You can see the start of the project below in that post. Cheryl has had a personal challenge (!! understatement of the year alert !!) come up that slowed her down, but now as you can see she's nearly done with her old friend's wonderful rug. Here's the proof: How lovely is that? And how wonderful that after all these years, this rug is getting finished. Because Cheryl's friend is now too old to get it done--but Cheryl will. Elizabeth was working on her own design of an Italian City. She's punching this rug with wool strips. Since it's going to be a wall hanging, she's decided to use what is traditionally considered to be the back of the rug as the front: And here below is the technical front of the rug, which she will use as the back: I like both sides. How about you? Next up, two rugs from Ann herself. First, here is the rug-in-progress she stored away before the holidays (she had 11 guests in her home for a week over that period!)...only to discover that, because she put the wool for it away so conscientiously before her guests arrived and she was tidying up, she cannot find it. Of course it will turn up eventually. Here is the partially completed rug that's currently missing its wool: I am loving those colors she's using. But since she couldn't find the wool, she traced out a new pattern to work on today (both patterns are for chair seats, I believe). Here's the new pattern, a geometric with circles: I really like the possibilities she has with this pattern. And to continue, here is Maria's chicken rug that she's now working to finish. It makes me smile: Everything about that piece is wonderfully comical. Love those ridiculous yellow feet. Kathleen was chugging away on the fish rug (tentatively titled "The Last Cod"): <Oops, I hit "publish" by mistake...apologies to anyone who gets multiple prompts on this post> I really like the way this is shaping up; the fish are magnificent and the water is coming along. Cheryl (The Rug Rescuer) has been gifted with two more old rugs to finish. The first is a tiny pillow top, already mostly completed when it came to her: I can't remember if this one came with wool to finish it or not, but it will make a sweet little spot pillow. Wonder who designed it? And of course, I wonder who did the hooking that got it to this stage? She also was gifted with one large rug that is really cute. I don't think this one came with any wool to finish it, alas. The burlap in both the rug below and the small one above looked to be in good shape, thank goodness. We are all wondering whose design this is! There is something familiar about it, but we cannot place it. Here are two views of it. First, the whole rug and second a closeup of the left-hand figure. Pretty cute. Another rug that makes me smile, with lots of possibilities depending on what Cheryl decides to do with it. As for me, I was working on a mini-version of my next rug using punchneedle embroidery. Unfortunately I cannot get thread in colors that actually match the wool I'll be using for the actual rug. I don't like the thread colors in this embroidery...so why am I doing it? To test the colors (I've given up on that) but also to get to know the pattern by "hooking" it in miniature, and in that way, it's helping me greatly. So cover your eyes at the awful flat colors and shades, and just take in the pattern. Trust me, the real wool colors are beautiful in a deep way that these available threads are not: And just for a bit of context, here is the embroidery as of yesterday, when I began punching (On Wednesday I transferred the pattern and selected threads; yesterday I started to punch): To wrap up this very long post: After we worked on our projects for about three hours we sat down to our usual food fest: Stir-fried veggies a la Elizabeth (she also brought some lovely Champlain Chocolate for snacking), a Petsi Chicken Pot Pie, a raved-about red cabbage kielbasa-inspired dish from Kathleen, home made coleslaw (was this your dish, Ann?) and Ann's homemade pickles, and for desserts we had Ann's ever-fabulous gingerbread with whipped cream (mmmmm), a chocolate chip cake from Maria which I'm saving some of to taste tonight, and a fruit-nut treat from Lenore.
We all had to leave a bit early and after the food fest we were forced to roll ourselves across her dining room to the kitchen, then roll across her mud room and garage to our cars outside. OMG, we were stuffed. Outdoors it had snowed about an inch while we worked and it was even more beautiful than when we first arrived. As usual, I had a wonderful time working, studying the pieces the others are working on, and being creatively stimulated by the rugs, the conversation, by Ann's generosity, and of course by the lovely location, so tranquil and stunning in all the snow. Please note that I love getting comments, so don't hesitate to leave one! Thanks. What's this...what am I feeling the need to cover up? Actually, this is a small 3"x3" punchneedle embroidery piece I made about five or seven years ago. Why? Because it's stitched to the middle of a larger piece of heavy wool, with which I cover up my punchneedle embroidery gripper frame when I am not using it so that I can handle the frame without scraping my hands and skin on the zillion sharp grippers.
As anyone who's used one of these frames knows, the grippers really hurt when they come in contact with you. And they act a bit like a more lethal form of velcro, catching on anything they touch--so best to keep them completely covered when the frame isn't in use. I'm about to begin working on another rug, a pattern called "Micmac" which I bought probably 20 years ago and have always wanted to hook. I am not sure who makes this pattern but I think it might be from Charco and designed by Jane McGown Flynn. I've had it so long that I'm no longer certain. I think this may be one of the last patterns I own; there is one more very ornate oriental rug pattern I've been putting off for years, and after that I plan to do only rugs I design myself. Before I begin actual hooking, I wanted to do a tiny version of the piece using punchneedle embroidery. This afternoon I took a blown-up picture of the pattern and did some preliminary color ways on it (you only see one here) and then transferred the pattern to weaver's cloth and put it onto my gripper frame. Now all I have to do is collect the threads and I can begin punching this piece as a prototype to see if I like the colors. It's a great way to test out color ways and a lot less expensive than trying it out on the actual rug with wool. I'm looking forward to beginning this prototype! Here you can see the paper and underneath it the transfer. If you look really hard, you might just make out some of those sharp little gripper strips sticking through the frame waiting to scrape your skin, which is why they work so well to hold the fabric drum-tight for the punching. ...that would be, "making lemonade from lemons." After working all day yesterday sewing small laminated pieces onto the Rug-Which-Cannot-Be-Shown-Yet (with Motown hits in the background), I finished adding the mixed media parts onto the rug. And HATED IT. I mean, just hated it. All my careful thinking and creative inspiration...the hours of prep...and it did not work. The rug, which I liked before the mixed media went on it, looked horrible. Lemons for sure. Lemons lemons lemons. Lemons everywhere. I could feel my mouth puckering into a real frown. What to do? All the laminations, each of which I had cut, rounded, and punched, were too big and too shiny. Rather than revealing what I wanted them to reveal, they just looked horrible, like big plastic shiny things covering the rug. Sigh. So this morning (meaning, very late last night, well after midnight) I consoled myself by doing a Zentangle® Snowflake Mandala in my journal. I was too tired to review how to make a round snowflake, so I just took a piece of printer paper, slapped some folds in it, pretended I was six years old, and started cutting. I ended up with this rectangle. It helped me to feel better. I did this meditatively. It was relaxing and enabled me to make a clear decision to immediately take every single lamination off the rug that I had spent all day putting onto it.
Thus, this morning I got up and in an hour, dismantled the entire thing. It had to be done carefully as my goal in stitching these onto the rug yesterday was to be certain they wouldn't come off. Indeed, I was highly successful so getting them off without harming the punch hooking was quite a trick, but I did it. I am now back to square one. I am still determined to add the mixed media pieces to the rug. Just not laminated. Therefore, after the "official dismantling" this morning, I took myself off to my local indie art store and spent a chunk of change on ideas to make these lemons into a really delicious lemonade. I think I've hit on a possible way of making this work, so Round Two will begin tomorrow. "Even a stopped clock is right twice a day. After some years, it can boast of a long series of successes." (Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach) Yesssss! I finally got to start working on the rug. I am letting all that luscious beautifully dyed yarn slide through my fingers as I punch (there I go, complimenting myself on what a great job I did with the dyeing...but you know what? I did!), and feeling very excited to finally get this underway. I'm amazed at how much I got done yesterday. Unfortunately, because I cannot show this rug until fall of 2015, I can only put up a picture of a tiny fraction of what's hooked or I'll give the pattern and theme away. (to see why it's a rug-in-hiding, go to this post) So here's a little bit of how it looks, enough so that the background shows. That's actually the back of the rug, not the front, as I am punching it so I am working on the back. The fun has begun; I've already had to adjust a number of things, so creative license is in full swing--flowing, and I am loving it. Given that I felt this whole project was a burden from the instant I said yes, I am now beginning to see and experience the gifts it could bring me--whether or not anyone else ever likes the rug. Oh, I just love that background. And to think that I created it. What fun. How to write about something that cannot be disclosed for months? That's the dilemma. The rug I am about to begin can't be photographed or discussed until after it appears in a show scheduled to open in the autumn of 2015 in Vermont. I cannot even say what it's about, since it's going to be on a particular theme, and the show's creators have asked us not to disclose the theme. I get it. But still, how to even address the fact that I am indeed hooking? Or punching...since I plan to do both on this temporarily "secret" rug. I've been prepping for this project for months, literally, since I agreed to do it last August. I immediately regretted saying yes after I was invited to participate, since the proportions are larger than I normally work, and since it has a deadline for completion (6/30/15) and I am notoriously slow. I really was kicking myself for agreeing to do the rug. But lately I've begun to see the benefits. Despite all my kvetching, doing this work will stretch me in ways I haven't had to stretch before, and that's wonderful for any artist. Realization about this began to dawn when I understood that I would need a different type of frame to punch and hook on. My small hooking frames, wouldn't work, and my mid-size punch hooking frame was also too small and not on a stand. As the rug grows heavier, I'll need the frame to be on a stand. Sooooo...I hauled out my old DeGraff frame, that had tacking strips on it, and decided to convert it to gripper strips. Here it is, completed ----> OMG, what a process to tackle solo. Off came the old tacking strips; that part was easy! But can I just say that glueing and stapling the gripper strips to the sides, while making sure they curve over the sides, is not a job for one person? I desperately needed someone to hold the strips down against the wet glue while I stapled madly. Stubbornness rose to the fore, and despite shredding my hands, I got it done. Alone. Of course it required a bit of staple-removal and re-stapling the following day, but as I said, I got it done. So proud of myself. And yes, underneath the stand in the photo, on the floor, is one of my old rugs. Then there was the designing. Around and around I went. The less said about that process the better...I can say, however, that meditation was a big help with the process. Every time I sat down to meditate, some other idea for the design would come to mind. Finally I had something to settle on...but that's how it felt...like I was "settling." But then, a couple of days later in another meditation, inspiration hit and I got an idea for how to turn the design into something really wonderful, based on the show's theme. And just like that, I was off and running. I love meditation. But now...what to work with--wool fabric or yarn? I have a lot of both, but I need very specific colors for this project and none of the yarn was dyed. Then I remembered my upcoming workshop in Vermont. Ah, and here's where the process becomes even more inspired. Let me start with Vermont and a little of that famous Vermont Magic. What is it about Vermont??? Several months back, I had signed up for a yarn dyeing workshop at Amy Oxford's wonderful Oxford Rug School. Check out their brochure and photos--there's even a little video tour about the site, which is just gorgeous and so incredibly comfortable. And then, of course, there is Amy herself, one of the world's kindest and most patient people, and her talented school manager, Heidi Whipple, who was the teacher for the dyeing workshop. Honestly, at the time I signed up I didn't even know I'd be working on this rug. I just wanted to go back there because the place is so beautiful and I enjoyed being there the one time I had gone. But now, suddenly, I had the need to dye yarn. In the 1970's I had dyed a lot of yarn using natural dyes, and way back then the process was positively onerous. Since then, I've dyed wool fabric with ProChem Acid Dyes (so much easier), but not yarn. And dyeing yarn's a different process--or rather, the handling of the yarn is very different than handling fabric.. So off I went, a 4.5 hour drive one way because of the need to get over the mountains. Arrived on Friday and had a chance to use Amy's giant light box to finally get my entire pattern traced on the backing. Which I cannot show, darn it! The light box there made that task easy to accomplish; at home, I simply couldn't have done it without so much more effort. Since I cannot show the design, here are some pix of the inside of the school ...you get the idea. Basically, it's just gorgeous. And inspirational to the max. I had no idea how much fun I was about to have! The well-equipped dye kitchen is upstairs, as are the simple and lovely guestrooms. I was the only guest staying over that weekend, and it was bliss to be alone there at night. Saturday night I stayed up late dyeing yarn--but I am getting ahead of myself. Heidi was just a terrific teacher, and taught us how to dye variegated colors. Now, I know how to dye mottled yardage, but with yarn it's a whole other process, and the process she taught us was particularly effective. And the results! But again, I'm getting a bit ahead of myself. Class started on Saturday morning, and since I arrived there on Friday, I had the place to myself that night and spent a few hours in the store and classroom next to the store, laying out my newly-transferred pattern and trying various yarns for background and the motifs. There is a lot of background in this rug. I had planned to use wool yardage for that, but suddenly I found a wonderful variegated yarn called Deep Blue Sea, and I knew immediately that I wanted to dye all the background for the rug that weekend. So that's what I did. Ta-da...: That's actually overexposed--it's a darker shade. But in front of the wound balls, you can see one skein; that skein is the original skein being sold in the store that I was trying to copy. I succeeded. What a great feeling! Each skein was individually dyed; there's no way to dye a quantity simultaneously. Gives me a new appreciation for the cost of hand-dyed yarn, for sure. There was only ONE drawback------> A big one! No one else's hands looked like this, but apparently I couldn't keep mine out of the dye and both hands had dark blue fingers and palms. No matter what I tried, it wouldn't wash off. It was also under my fingernails, and I had to attend a professional meeting on the Monday after the workshop. Uh-oh. I remembered that I had once used a hand cleaner that worked well, which I'd gotten from ProChem, but the school didn't have any on hand; they'd only just become aware of its existence. I'd last used mine in the late 80's or early 90's, and I didn't know if it might be still sitting in my long-unopened dye cabinet or not. And after all that time, even if I did have it, would it work? Well, to see the results, scroll down to the end of the post. Everyone else was trying out various colors during the weekend--here are some of their results. I so wanted to experiment with other colors, but I knew that in order to leave with all my background in hand, I needed to stick with dyeing one color. So hard to do when all these other luscious colors were being produced: There's no way to do justice to the beautiful colors others were making all weekend. We dyed from 9 a.m. on Saturday (Heidi got us started right off--we were all in the process by 9.45 or sooner) until people left for dinner. I kept right on going until about 8 pm when I realized I was starting to make mistakes. Here are the last skeins I dyed late on Saturday, and although I followed the process, they became "outliers." I love them but likely cannot use them in the rug. (The "outliers" are in the front bottom of the photo. Same dyes, same process, different results. Go figure, especially since all the other skeins came out exactly right.) Such an interesting process. I was lucky enough to be with three other talented women in the class; I enjoyed all of them. One of them has made 22 rugs already this year and is just doing the most incredible, whimsical, original rugs. The other two ladies are in Amy's Wednesday night weekly class and are also both experienced at punching. When I went to Vermont, I hadn't intended to punch quite so much of the rug, but by the time I was on my way home--delirious with success and staggeringly tired--I had decided to punch most of it. I'm just totally thrilled with my experience there and cannot wait to go back when I don't have background to dye and can spend a weekend dyeing lots of different colors. Heidi was a wonderful teacher and I feel confident that I can dye anything now. Arrived home with my heavily stained hands; went to my dye cabinet, which I haven't opened in 20 years. (Thank goodness dyes don't come with expiration dates.) Sure enough, there was my ancient ProChem hand cleaner, and when I opened it it appeared to be just as usable as the day I last closed the cap. So, I gave it a try: HURRAH! One application and 98% better. The photo is after one application. One more, and the dark blue was entirely gone. Thank goodness. The stuff worked like a charm. I've been home for a week now, and I'm just as jazzed up by the experience as I was when I was there. But...I haven't begun the rug yet, and I have everything I need now. The intimidation factor has set in temporarily. I have promised myself to begin it today or tomorrow, but first, there's one more post to write. Make something. It's so satisfying. Get ready for lots of pictures. Lots of laughter and fun today, not to mention rug hooking and fabulous eats, at Cheryl's gorgeous Victorian house. And a lovely perfect-weather day to boot. We could probably have hooked on the porch, but as it was, we gathered around the dining room table. I noticed that Cheryl referred quite a bit to the fact that she has been hooking on her porch in the spring and summer; it's so comfortably set up out there that I can only imagine it's the perfect environment to foster creativity in good weather. It felt like a long time since we had met, and we missed Elizabeth, who was at the Cape House having her lawn trimmed by ever-hungry goats. Seriously. Great idea. I bet you will start a trend, Elizabeth...but we missed you. Now, how adorable is this? Apologies for the overexposure. Lenore is doing this as a prototype experiment for her next rug, and I can't imagine it looking any sweeter, and frankly, I cannot wait to see the rug itself started. Of course, I plan to abscond with the rug when she gets it done. Fair warning, Lenore. Maria's "Forbidden Fruit," a Jane McGown Flynn pattern she started years ago and abandoned for awhile (WHY?) is coming along. Maria, we are all in love with this rug so you have got to keep working on it and finish it. She says that if she were starting it today she would do the background differently, but I think the background is perfect. I plan to abscond with this rug also. Kathleen came for color advice for the background of the new fish rug. K, did you actually get the level of color advice that you wanted? Somehow I feel like I got distracted at one point and I missed the end of that conversation. I love your design...did you get enough from the group in terms of ideas? A closer look. The current background is experimental until she settles on the color scheme. Another rug I plan to steal. A few months back, I mentioned that Cheryl is a Rug Rescuer. You can compare her progress from that date to this date by comparing the picture here with that post. As of today, the entire center panel, the scrolls, and a lot of the background is done. She has been busy (when you go to the old post, scroll down to see where she was with this rug as of last May. She has really gotten a huge amount done. The colors in my pic aren't quite true, but close enough. This is a lovely old pattern called "Three Rose Scroll" (not hard to see where that title came from). And yes, I want this one too...where am I going to put all these? Cynthia brought the Kokopelli rug with her. She is so close to finished that she could practically sneeze with a hook in her hand and accidentally complete it. She's even planned out what yarn to use for whipping it. I took lots of pictures because the Kokos (my nickname for them) are so creative and wonderful. Here's a gallery. You can also see one of her corners partially completed, with wonderful color. This is a very large and just stunning rug. I won the dunce award today for having nothing to show, as I am in the process of designing the tarot rug and thinking about the design, the colors, and the construction. So I had the mostly-blank backing with me, and did some pencil sketches. I also tried punching on my Snapdragon Frame, to see if I could actually punch the rug using that frame. I think I could. But am not sure I like the results, even though it didn't pull out the work when I took it off the frame. My big debate is whether to punch the rug or traditionally hook it.
At least I've gotten going on it! Oh, did I mention the amazing food? We started with Cheryl's coffee and some homemade banana bread. Later we had lunch...a marvelous soup with veggies, beans, some beef; it went down really well and we all had seconds. Along with hot biscuits, oh my. But after that, the real "Oh my!" started when she trotted out the handmade cannolis, which she actually stuffed in front of all of us, using a pastry bag as we sat mesmerized and drooling. Whipped cream and almond filling. O.M.G. Beyond fabulous. But wait--there was another dessert, a pear bread pudding with whipped cream. Can this woman cook? She's nothing short of phenomenal. Cheryl, I just hope you realize you do NOT have to do this for us every time. But talk about heavenly. Next meeting @ Kathleen's on October 24th. I hope to have something to show for my efforts by then. Thank you all, as usual, for the hooking inspiration and the great company and the creativity. In my quest to foster my own (and others') creativity, I do a lot of reading both online and the old-fashioned way. Today, a fellow creativity explorer recommended an article on something called "Stream-Drawing." I hope you'll take the time to read the article here. It's long but worth every word. I plan to go back and have the pleasure of reading it again. What particularly struck me in the article were the words, "Even the smallest mark has a universe of information in it." I believe that is true, and the article's author does a fine job of stating why it is true. This article made my heart sing. On the left is a 10 minute tangle I did today, much in the spirit of the article. Zentangle® itself creates conditions that she describes in her thoughts on Stream-Drawing. The article is an excerpt from her recent book called Making Marks, and I've just requested it from the library. Here's another great quote from the article: "Drawing is a lot like dancing. You don’t have to be “good” at dancing—or drawing—to benefit from it. It makes you feel great. It helps you celebrate your life." Oh YEAH! What also struck me as I read the article is how much her ideas can be applied to any tough challenge in life, including at work. Relaxation and awareness are the keys to doing well. (I think they are equally difficult to achieve when we are under stress.) Change of subject: So far I have focused mostly on drawing and on Zentangle® on this blog. I also hook and/or punch rugs. And in yet another part of my life, I enthusiastically study and read tarot. I've been drawn into a project that actually combines the two: The Tarot Rug Project. Oh my...I'll be saying more about this in the weeks to come. Here is my latest rug, a scrappy punch-hooked rug. This thing took me so long to finish I had nearly given up hope of ever getting it done. It's now on the floor in my bathroom, and I am just so pleased with myself. (Note the self-satisfied look on my face--oh that's right, I forgot to photograph that bit) But in making this rug I was reminded of the truth about a certain esoteric life principle: When you are attempting to get rid of something and trying hard to use it all up, a mysterious process occurs at night while you are sleeping; whatever it is, it MULTIPLIES while you sleep or when your back is turned.
Case in point: the yarn for this rug. I was trying to use up ALL my leftover rug yarn. I was certain this project would do it. Punch hooking takes a lot of yarn. A lot. So I was confident. About halfway through the rug I began to suspect the scraps of yarn were multiplying when I turned my back. And by the time I finished, I looked in the bag and was convinced. I cannot believe how much of this yarn I have left. It's as if I never made the rug. WTF? This is a universal rule and applies to many things in life we are trying our best to use up:
...you get the idea. But anyway--the rug is now where it should be and I love it. However, I apparently can make yet another rug, or several, with this same yarn. Of course, should I suddenly be inspired to use this specific yarn for a tantalizing and exciting new purpose, I know that I would go to the yarn bag tomorrow and find nothing but a few short pieces. It would all have simply disappeared overnight. |
ABOUT ME I'm a textile artist (traditional rug hooking, punch needle rug hooking, and other textile arts), a long-time meditator, a certified meditation teacher and coach, and focused on learning about the interplay of art, creativity, and mindfulness every day. Categories
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March 2024
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