Two practice tangles today, my first try at both: Looks as though I have a lot to learn about both of these; both need practice. Sam Taylor didn't misspell her tangle; she took out the "h" to distinguish it from the narwhal whale that inspired the form. Next I went outside and noticed it was just as warm and humid as I had guessed, meaning I won't get to the studio today because it will be unbearable there. So...more tangling. This time I tried a new one called Frost Flowers, starting in the upper left and then scattering the flowers around, finally doing an experimental version on the lower left. And after that, I decided to see if I could combine all of them in one tile, so here it is. I truly enjoyed doing this and found it quite meditative, and I can also step back and see just how much I have to learn about composition, LOL! But no matter. It may not be pretty, but I *am* practicing, and that is what counts. It's kind of hilariously awkward. I've been working so hard on the rug that I haven't had much time for tangling. It appears I am capable of doing on only one project at a time. I have truly missed tangling and now that the weather is about to turn stinky (my definition of stinky = hazy, hot, and humid) I will be able to focus more on tangling and will...alas...have to abandon the rug.
Wool + hazy + hot + humid + no a/c is a dreadful prospect. What I love about both of these arts is that they are both entirely meditative. One line at a time when tangling. One loop at a time when hooking. Both lend themselves to complete absorption in the moment. Both teach me to focus. Both calm the mind , and although one does eventually get a result from both, the aim of any given moment is not results-oriented. Contemplative art/craft...along with meditation, these are highlights in any day in which I get to practice.
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Another wonderful Wooly Bully Rug Hookers meeting today. Even though it was warm and sticky out, in K's condo it was cool and dry and we were able to get some work done on our rugs without being uncomfortable. These are the only pictures I took and they are not photos of rugs. Just look at what K did in the dyeing workshop she took at Pro Chemical and Dye over the last four days: I could be wrong but I think she said she and 13 fellow students dyed over 1400 colors in just four days, and each student walked away with three huge binders of color samples and recipes. Quite amazing. K spent the entire meeting today just organizing the sample pages into color groupings and then beginning to put them into her binders. In the last photo on the right, you can see the binders-in-progress; but in the other 3 photos you see the luscious colors she and her group produced. And she has the formula for every one!
Conversation at the meeting was rich, as usual. We arrived around 10 and all left at 1:00, and all four of us (everyone else was traveling today, so we only had four present) had a big laugh later when we each found out that all of us took a long nap on getting home. K at least had an excuse, having been so busy at Pro Chem for the last 4 days. The other 3 of us admitted to frequent napping when we can. Ah, the life of a geezer. I must admit, it's great fun. As summer comes on, I will find myself unable to work on the rug. Imagine having wool on sweating skin...what could be worse? It will be impossible. So, I plan to spend as much time as possible on tangling and on getting back to Sketchbook Skool. While I am sad the rug will have to wait to be finished, I'm also looking forward to getting back to drawing and tangling. Here comes Summer Solstice! Enjoy, everyone. Check this out--what fun! Someone pointed me to this new app, called MarbleCam. I took a few pictures of my rugs and one of my quilts. Gave myself a giggle. It occurs to me that I ought to post the "real" pictures of all these rugs some time, as I don't think that I have done that. Another time. Today I'm just having some well-deserved fun after a difficult morning in the studio. See the previous post. Before I get to the rugs, I'll start with an old tangle I did: That was a rectangular tangle from my journal, which the new app has "marbelized." And here are few of my rectangular rugs and one quilt--enjoy!
In meditation this morning I was thinking about the importance of not-doing--those times when it is wiser to do nothing, to pause, to reflect. We are an action-oriented culture, and that bias for action is great under many circumstances, and disastrous under others. It is a good thing I was thinking about this, as when I got to the studio today to work on the rug, it was the importance of UN-doing that came to mind. The two concepts--not-doing and un-doing--are related. If, for example, I had taken the time to pause and reflect (not-doing) on the rug's defective borders (see my last entry, the Rug Rant), rather than plunging ahead, I would not have had to spend the day un-doing. Here is the rug today as it was before I did anything to it: No, no, no. Wonky up-and-down black border, drawn wrong by whoever created the pattern...and the black line doesn't leave enough room between itself and the motifs in the outer border. I was trying to ignore this and keep going, rather than stopping and taking time to really reflect. I came in this morning after several days away and took one look and knew it was never going to work. I would never feel good about it if I tried to finish it this way. So... Time to UN-do: Out came the entire black line, all the way around the rug, PLUS a lot of the previously hooked rows that were near it. In other words, I took out a huge amount of hooking that I've done over the past couple of weeks. Disappointing, but necessary. The two piles show what I have removed. A lot! If you allow your eye to travel down the photo towards the bottom, you'll see once more just how badly drawn the borders are--check out how many times this border has been redrawn by whoever put this pattern on the linen. SHAME ON THEM. I knew there was really no other option than to redraw every border on the rug myself, and then re-hook the black line and re-hook the interior spaces that I had already hooked. This will leave me more room for the border motifs. Otherwise, the design will be crushed due to uneven lines. I do not have nice words for the original drafter of this pattern--really there is just no excuse for selling something like this. After pulling out rows and rows of hooking, I set the rug down on the table and began redrawing the borders, first with pencil and later with a red pen. What was so frustrating was how easy it was to re-draw the borders straight and evenly by just putting my pencil in a linen "ditch" and just dragging it across. Because of linen's even weave, this step is a cinch. How could the pattern drafter have been so unable to do this? One side, though, has such unevenness that I had to fudge things, jumping from one row in the ditch to another, in order to make the border even remotely straight. So sad that I was forced to do that when it could easily have been done correctly by the original drafter. This meant I also had to redraw some of the border motifs to get them to sit right within their newly allotted space. Then, once all that was done, I had to re-draw the outer border. Here are a few of the corrections I made, in red. (More to come, alas) You can see where I've removed some of the identifying owner's marks just off the right hand side. Just glance around the outer borders and you'll see the start of all the corrections. As I said in my last post, I simply cannot believe that the woman who owned this pattern business (she sold the business years ago) would produce something this shoddy. She is known for her quality work and teaching, and I respect her. I honestly don't understand what happened here, unless she hired someone very careless to produce this pattern.
To cheer myself up, I've been playing with a new app on my phone. More about that in the next post! WARNING: THIS IS A RUG HOOKING RANT This post is a minor rant about badly drawn rug hooking patterns. When I first got into rug hooking many years ago, I bought a bunch of patterns because I lacked the confidence to design my own. Over the years, I bought a couple of additional patterns...it's taken me a long time to hook my way thru all those patterns, and now I'm impatient to get to my own designs. However, I am determined to finish the patterns I have. After this one, I only have 2 left, one of which I will punch hook. But I digress. I must have bought the pattern for my current rug 17 years ago, because it says copyright 1998 on the linen. I bought it from someone whose integrity I totally trusted in terms of her business practices. (I'm still a fan of hers) When it came to my house, I was too busy to hook it so I just put it away, thinking I would get to it soon. As the saying goes, "My bad." My bad on 2 levels: First, it took me 17 years to start hooking the pattern, and second because I trusted the pattern maker, I never looked at the pattern carefully. That second part makes everything that follows all my fault. I have total confidence that if I had sent the pattern back to her, as I should have done at the time, she would have made it right. But I didn't look at it, and 17 years later it is a bit late to say, "Take this back; it's all wrong!" So I am stuck with the fact that I didn't check it. Live and learn from my mistakes. ALWAYS check that patterns you buy (or create) are drawn on the straight of the grain. Always. If they are not, send them back immediately. Any reputable pattern maker will re-do the pattern and sent it back for free. Here is an example of what I am talking about. On three sides of the rug, the inner border has not been drawn straight. In fact, look at just HOW "off" it is below--you can see that if it were drawn straight, it would have run right through the outer border design! Look at the faint pencil tracing just below the black wool border on the right: You can also see some holes in the linen (middle of the photo) where I've pulled out what I've already hooked, trying to figure out how best to approach this problem. Now here are two more photos, the first with the black wool of the border being "stepped down" frequently in order to compensate for the badly drawn design, and the second with a row of the white inner background added; you can see how much "stepping down" is going on to try to make this right. It's terrible! And it is on 3 sides of the rug! And there is another outer border that's just as "off" as this inner one. The entire rug was drawn carelessly on the linen. There is no excuse for this. In order to make this work I am going to have to cram extra wool in at the step-down points on either side of the border, to push it around and make it look straight. This will not be fun.
Someone was very careless/mindless in drawing this on linen, but to be very clear, I was very careless in not checking the pattern when I got it. Seventeen years later, I am dealing with my own mistake of not checking. Curious about this--the business I bought the pattern from was sold a few years ago--I went to the new owner's website and noticed that this pattern is for sale, but is half price because of "errant print marks that may not meet our high quality standards." Good for them for being clear, right from the get-go, that there is an issue; buyer beware! Although the new owner sounds very ethical. I don't mean to imply that the original owner is unethical; I had heard she had a few health problems around the time I bought this, and it's possible that someone other than she drew up this pattern, trying to be "helpful." The person I knew would never have sent out a pattern this badly done. I think I can work with it; it's just going to be harder than it should be. Check your patterns. Always draw on the straight of the grain. Check even if you know the person you are buying from is totally reputable. Because, let's face it, shit happens, even to the best of us. Every loop can be a learning experience; that's one of the many things I love about making rugs. --End of rant.-- I'm really writing this post to myself. Reminding myself: Just try. Never mind the past...just try. I have a long history of spectacular failures when trying to follow simple directions to assemble things like basic furniture, tv and computer setups. This is one reason I've never set foot in Ikea. If what I hear is correct, when you buy something there you have to put it together when you get it home. Eeeeek! Years ago when I used to make my own clothes occasionally, I cannot count the number of times I sewed things with the right side facing in and wrong side facing out. Even when following directions carefully. I would screw these things up no matter how many times I checked and double-checked myself. So when I bought a cheap rolling cart with drawers to hold art supplies at the studio and realized it had to be assembled, I was highly dubious. SHUDDER. But no pain, no gain...right? Assuming the worst, and too embarrassed to ask for help, I gave it a shot. Of course I did make one huge mistake, despite studying the parts and the directions for quite a long while. But I was able to un-do that and then re-do it, and all turned out fine. I'm now incredibly chuffed about having put this stupidly-simple cheapie set of drawers together. Triumph! <visualize fist pump here> After which I went out and bought another one just like it and put that together as well. With nary a curse word spoken along the way. Ok, that's kind of a lie. But almost nary. So now I have two of these cheap rolling carts and I can't wait to load them up with pens and art tchotchkies. And as of this morning, I've got my table set up on sawhorses, so I can work on days when it's not horrifically hot. I really need to remind myself to treat these scary (for me) "some assembly required" jobs as mindfully as possible. To take things one breath at a time, look at the directions--even when they are badly written, as is often the case--and just go slowly. To expect the unexpected. To know I can get better with practice; the second cart went together really easily. I can do this. Really. And to know that I can ask for help if I end up needing it. I'm sure my kindly studio-mate would have pitched in. Fortunately for her, I did this when she was out of the studio. Finally, yesterday I combined two things I totally enjoy. I worked on my rug for a while, and then did some tarot work with a friend on a dream she had. We were interrupted, so while she was busy with something else I went back to working on my rug, knowing we would finish the tarot work later. At one point I looked up and saw this: Definitely a fun afternoon.
Is that 3 weeks of every day in the studio? Nope. 3 weeks of very sporadic chances to get in there, but when I did...wow. Would never have gotten this much done at home. Exactly the point I made in yesterday's blog entry. Just sayin'.
Rain, rain, and cold...I LOVE IT. So much easier to get work done than hot, humid weather like we had a couple of days ago. Circumstances have conspired to keep me out of the studio until today, and I had only a few moments in there, but I can describe my progress as follows: In case you cannot spot it, all 3 inner motifs are now done (check progress of the one on the left, at the top). I'm now going to focus on the background in the inner section, then will begin planning the border. And in the "What's It?" category, I made another "What's It": Micron 01 pen on cardstock, multicolored pencil. Double-sided scotch tape, and patience.
I still have no idea what to do with this kind of thing, but it was fun to make. It is absolutely gob-smackingly gorgeous outdoors today. Cool, breezy, no humidity, lots of sun but also lots of clouds to make the sky even more lovely than usual. Walking home from the studio and gawking at the newly fat-leaved trees swaying in the wind and the colorful spring flowers, I felt incredibly fortunate just to be alive. Lewis Carroll's verse from "Jabberwocky" came to mind: 'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe; All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe..." ...along with one of my all-time favorite lines of poetry, which makes up the title of this post, from that same poem: "Oh frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!" I mean, that just about sums up how I feel about today's weather. Wikipedia has a wonderful page on this poem here, including some hilarious translations of the poem into Hebrew, Latin, Finish, Spanish, French, and numerous other languages. I simply cannot imagine hearing this poem in anything other than English, but what do I know? As I slowly recover from this overly-long head cold, it's such a great pleasure to get into the studio again and keep working on the rug. Sometimes, comparison can be very motivating. Here's what I did yesterday (on the left) and then what I got done today in about 4 hours of hooking (on the right): And here's a closeup from yesterday. I'm really liking how "Old Underwear" (the name for the color of the background) is looking; I think it sets off the other colors very well. (below) Working on this piece, often for hours at a time, reminds me of why I love the process of rug hooking. The rhythmic pulling of loops...the same motion repeated endlessly...allows the mind to slow down. It's tactile AND meditative, simultaneously. A wonderful way to calm the mind and make something useful while doing so. Today as I hooked I was listening to several talks from the website Sounds True, part of a month-long series of talks by various teachers on the topic of "Waking Up." Sounds True is having a major business anniversary, so they are making all the talks free this month; after May, they will be charging for the recordings. Today I listened to Ken Wilbur, Eckhart Tolle, and Joseph Goldstein, and thoroughly enjoyed myself as I pulled loop after loop and watched the rug grow. Sometimes I just don't know how I got so lucky, to be able to have this, to be able to do this. "Fortune brings in some boats that are not steered." This is a question every textile artist learns to dread. The answer is so variable. What constitutes "making"?
So here's a picture of my rug between yesterday and today. Yesterday I hooked for about 3 hours and started-and-finished the upper left portion of the central figure (the zig-zaggy "steps"). Today I hooked for about 4 and a half hours and finished the "steps" on the right side of that figure, plus got one of the upper motifs done, and filled in more background. And people wonder why a hand-hooked rug costs so much...
I do own a button that says "Slow Hooker." Don't get me wrong, though, I loved every loop that I pulled. If I didn't totally love this, I wouldn't be doing it. How do other artists handle this question at shows? I'd love to hear from you, so please feel free to add a comment. Thanks. This morning I was lucky enough to wake up feeling much better, and was really happy about it. I zoomed over to the studio early and did a lot more reverse hooking and more experimentation. Because I'm teaching tonight I couldn't stay, but I did manage to get this much done. I still consider it all experimental and any of it might still come out. This was tricky to photograph--hard to get the colors to come out accurately today. I did one huge experiment with the darkest color that didn't work out at all, so I removed the entire thing and am in the process of rehooking what I removed with the original red. Teaching a Zentangle® class tonight at the Arlington ArtLounge. I need a nap before heading there!
I just cannot shake this cold. It's now in my chest, making everything tight and leading to lots of throat-clearing and coughing, and I'm exhausted. Have felt crappy all day, so did not get to work on the rug for very long. --OK: OFFICIAL END OF THAT WHINE! Now, onward-- The rug is still very much in the experimentation stage. You may not be able to tell from the picture below, but one experiment is that I'm blending two different reds, one on the orange-red end of the spectrum and the other on the blue-red end. They don't normally go together but I am trying to get the to work together here. And then there are other issues. Here it is, as of today. Expect changes! As I commented to a friend: I dunno...I just don't know.... Production will now slow down some as I focus on the upcoming Zentangle® class later this week.
Comments and opinions always welcome. Ok, so here is the progression from the first session on this rug to where I am now. The flailing-about between picture #1 and the middle picture is obvious. And in picture #3, you can see I am now moving on and focused on the motif on the left side of the rug; I began in the center with the central motif. Here's the pattern: So now that I have some colors worked out for the central motif (I can finish it later), I've moved over to one of the 2 flanking motifs.
In the 3rd picture above, you can also see how the first thing I did today was to change the border on the central motif, by moving the dark line to the outside and adding a lighter blue line on the inside. It's all about working things out as I go. Slow going, but well worth it. I'm thrashing about now with the left-hand motif, trying to envision what this one is going to look like. Frustrating and fun at the same time! Tonight I did a bit of Zentangle® on my wool-snippet cup, using a special pen that works on glass and enamel. It needs to sit for 8 hours and then I need to bake it to set it permanently; once that's done, I'll show it here. I'm planning to bring it to my Zentangle class later this week to show the students. If I'm lucky I'll get to tangle a coffee mug between now and then as well. I did this on a ceramic tile about a year ago and it has held up beautifully, so I'm optimistic. After four more hours at the studio and much more reverse hooking, I came up with this. It's still not set in stone but I now think I can see some sense of the color plan and an overall forward rhythm. I'm noticing some interesting things about my "color fears and art obstacles" as I start this project; more about those in a later post. Anyway, here's the progress so far. Quite different from where I began!
Although I haven't gotten very far, I did get the rug started as promised yesterday. I had vowed to pull "at least 6 loops." Probably I maxed out at 46 loops--but the point is, I started. No more Blank Page Syndrome. However, there's not enough to show here as so far it's too skimpy until I get going with something other than one line of loops. Right away though, I ran into problems with color. What a lot I have to learn about color. I think this rug will be a great teacher. I envision a lot of ripping out as I go, due to the need for experimentation and evaluation. In the meantime, I'm getting ready for an unrelated event that requires the presence of some silver stars for decoration. Several people are going to the event, and no one has any stars. This morning I went to the local craft store and bought some fancy card stock in shiny silver and came home and made these: Not too shabby. Directions are everywhere on the internet. Hope they will do the trick for the event! Here (below) is a response to a journal-project prompt on the topic of looking up. The photo is not the best quality, but I was combining my favorite thing to look up to--trees--with another journal-project prompt about what music means to us. A tangle came to mind, Verdigogh. Verdigogh is actually based on a rosemary sprig, but whenever I draw it, it reminds me of pine trees and the lovely music they make when wind moves through them: No question that this Facebook Journal Project (it's a closed group now because it has maxed out with members) is visually enriching my journal. I just need to remember to actually write in it, not just fill it with responses to prompts. “The grace of writing is upon me. 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) What is it about hand-hooked rugs that feels so warm and luxurious to me, and always has? Since childhood I've felt this way about hand-made rugs of any kind: woven, hooked, punched, tufted, even knitted or crocheted. They've always been attractive to me. I've tried all of the above techniques, but hooked & punched rugs are my favorite. So comforting when you sink your toes into them. Even when you aren't standing on one, they are just so lovely to look at. Another plus is that the rhythm of rug hooking is completely mesmerizing and meditative. Whenever I'm working on a rug, I'm in the Zone. There's only one motion or technique to hooking (and punched rugs as well), only one thing to learn. Then it's just repeat, repeat, repeat. Which is very similar to tangling...just one line at a time...repeat, repeat, repeat. Add in a bit of focus, and you have a highly meditative art form underway. From the Our Tangled Lives Journal Project: This week's prompt was about tangling and journaling on the subject of whatever form of art we truly love to do, not necessarily tangling...so I produced this page: Yes, I know...the Shel Silverstein ditty is a bit over the top, but as a relatively conflict-avoidant person (who am I kidding? HIGHLY conflict-avoidant), I'm more on the Silverstein side of the spectrum than the let's-fight-this-out side. And anyway, do you know how hard it is to come up with quotes about hooked rugs???
For the journal page, I started off transferring a photo of a rug I finished a couple of years ago. (Have I mentioned I love making rugs? Oh, I have? LOL) The pattern was actually adapted from a display of German Silver Urns in a museum, and the urn that it was adapted from was dated 1910. Hence the title on the right side of the rug, "1910 Silver Rug." Susan Feller of Ruckman Mill Farm, a wonderful artist, rug designer, fraktur specialist, and blogger, had the sense to copy it down while viewing the display of silver on her visit to a museum, and she eventually designed the rug from her sketch. When I bought the pattern, no one had hooked it yet. I made the transfer of my photo using Sheer Heaven, a transfer medium that I know a lot of tanglers are familiar with (and oh yes indeedy, it is expensive!). I also transferred the poem by Silverstein the same way. This is my first experience using Sheer Heaven, and it was ridiculously easy. I'm looking forward to investigating its uses more. After transferring the images, I used some of the rug pattern to make a colored tangle on the journal page, and then I finished off with the tangle to its left, which I spotted on the net last night but I haven't been able to trace down a title or creator. My printer, though, is running out of colored ink, so to be fair, I don't think what I printed onto the transfer sheet was particularly well-colored. Is this rug pattern not a perfect example of the types of patterns we use in our tangles? By a 1910 German metal artist who never heard of the term, which just speaks to the fact that tangles themselves have all been used for centuries--it's the process of Zentangle® that we teach; the patterns can be found everywhere. 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. Wait--wasn't that me who was freaking out yesterday because the laminations didn't work on my rug-that-can't-be-shown yet? Didn't I take them all off? Didn't I go out and spend a small fortune on things so that I could try another method entirely of adding the mixed media to the rug? It was indeed me. So why am I putting the laminations right back on the rug? I can't tell you, this wasn't in the plan. Not at all. But, after trying out my other idea ("Plan B") with the mixed media, and seeing how vulnerable it would leave the mixed media, I began to feel that it wouldn't work either. I ran into some additional technical problems with Plan B, and the result was a disaster. Talk about a quandary. By coincidence, I was also reading a Facebook group specializing in Zentangle® and one person had posted that she has never mastered the tangle by the name of...Quandary. Interesting. I had learned this tangle years ago and had no problem with it but hadn't tried it in a long while. I got out my journal and began working with it to see if I could still do it. This was the result--still very much in progress but here's what I have so far--> After tangling for a bit, I sat at my table and was sort of in a blank state, wondering what in the world I could do about the quandary with the rug project. My eyes fell on the previously laminated objects I'd taken off the rug. With nothing else to do, since I really couldn't think how to move forward, I found myself admiring them and wishing I could still use them. But clearly I could not re-apply them as they were. I picked one up and began cutting most of the lamination away, leaving only a tiny border (and taking a risk, since the tiny border meant the lamination could peel off). After all, I really couldn't use them...could I? Could I? Hmmm. Hey. Maybe I could. So the bottom line: I cut every one of them way, way back, so that basically only the surface of each is laminated, with a tiny border. I re-rounded all the corners. Then I punched holes in the tiny border on each. And I had a brainstorm--use French Knots to attach them to the rug. So that is what I am doing. And although I'm afraid to say it, it seems to look much better. I won't know until I actually finish, but this may do the trick. "Round 2" turns out to be more of same--with less. I cannot wait to see if this works. 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. Many years ago now I stumbled across the website of the Motawi Tile Works and fell in love with their work. They make art treasures with tile. At that time (late 1990's I think?) I had been asked by a friend to make her a traditionally hooked top for a pillow. I wrote to the Motawi Tile Works and asked for their permission to use their design "Ladybell." Graciously, they granted it. I went off to rug camp in Connecticut and with help from Nancy Miller, my teacher at that camp, produced this pillow top. My friend loved it. In my experience, artists will often give permission to use their designs, when asked. Not every time perhaps, but more often than not. It makes me sad when people use photos without permission, or copy designs without permission and without attribution. I'm grateful that the Motawi folks gave me permission to recreate this design in wool. I'm also grateful to great teachers, like Nancy Miller, who walked me through the process of translating this design from a hard ceramic surface to a soft woolen pillow top.
In the past, like many people, I've sometimes been anxious about wanting keep "my" things close--"my" information, "my" designs--and hope I've learned about generosity from the many artists and teachers who've shared their work and their knowledge and skills with me. When we respectfully check in with others to ask their permission and they grant it, I think we are all enriched. Designs can then be passed on, to be altered and augmented by new artists. Knowledge can then be passed on, to be updated and renewed or recreated by the students who receive it. It's how we all grow. In no way am I saying we can't be original; only that, to be original, we need the help of others. "I invent nothing. I rediscover." (Auguste Rodin) |
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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