Rug Hooking Magazine, March/April/May 2022 by Ampry Publishing

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VOLUME XXXIII, NUMBER 5 MARCH/APRIL/MAY 2022

CELEBRATION 31 READERS’ CHOICE ROCK STAR— HOOK A 3D ROCK BEAUTIFUL BACKGROUNDS SCANDINAVIAN STAG TWO FINISHES FOR HOOKED PILLOWS

EDITOR’S FRAME

Technology and Tradition

’ve been thinking lately about change. This came to mind due to a technology challenge I’ve been dealing with (long boring story, more than anyone wants to know) and how fifteen years ago, ten years

ago, even five years ago such a problem would not even have been on my radar. I’ve been in publishing for nearly 15 years now, and the changes in technology have been incredible. I, as a person not born with that “I love technology!” gene, have had to run as fast as I can to keep up with the changes and learn how to embrace them. The advances and changes are all miraculous when technology works; when it does not work, my brain starts to sizzle. Somehow, I get through the crisis, and all is good again . . . until it is not. I’m sure you all feel the same way in some aspect of your life. Thank

goodness for our rug hooking traditions, the calming slide of wool strips through linen, the joy of color. The tradition side of this story is my happy place. Rug hooking is traditional. Needlework of all kinds ground and calm me. So you can see that my role as editor of RHM is a constant yin and yang, back and forth, challenges and soothing artistic balm—technology and tradition. In each issue of RHM, we are pleased to bring you both changing times and traditions. Cutting-edge rug hooking, new ways to hook or punch; old-timey traditional patterns, techniques, and projects. It’s a real mixed bag and our sincere hope is that everyone finds something to savor in each issue. There is a lot to love out there, thanks to the incredibly talented rug hooking artists in our world today. I suspect that as time goes on, technology will progress even faster and there will be many more challenges for this techno-challenged wool- and stitch-loving person. As my mom would say, “That’s life, eh?” And she would be right. So join me in embracing the dichotomy—the changing times and the traditions. It is all good.

Debra Smith Editor

Rug Hooking | March • April • May 2022

MARCH/APRIL/MAY 2022

Vol. XXXIII, No. 5

PUBLICATION STAFF Editor Debra Smith

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EDITORIAL BOARD Sandra Brown Ti Seymour Deanne Fitzpatrick Gene Shepherd Cynthia Norwood Norma Batastini Jeanne Field EMERITUS BOARD Linda Rae Coughlin Deanne Fitzpatrick Susan L. Feller JeanneCynthia Fallier Norwood Jane McGown Flynn Marion Ham D. Marie Bresch Jane McGown Flynn Jeanne Fallier Marion Ham RUG HOOKING (ISSN 1045-4373) is published five times a year in January/February, March/April/May, June/July/August, September/October, and November/December by AMPRY PUBLISHING, LLC, 3400 Dundee Road, Suite 220, Northbrook, IL 60062. Contents © 2022. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part without the written consent of the publisher is prohibited. Subscription rates: one year (5 issues), $37.95 in the U.S., Canada, $37.95 plus $5 S/H and applicable taxes (payable in US Funds only) (Canadian GST #R137954772), Foreign $72.95 (payable in US Funds only). Periodicals postage paid at Northbrook, IL, and additional mailing offices. INT’L C.P.C. Pub. Mail #0643289

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Volume XXXIII, Number 5 March/April/May 2022

Contents

28 FEATURES

Beautiful Backgrounds Part Two of a Series by Susan Grant

Shine!

A Special Pattern for International Punch Needle Rug Hooking Day by Rebecca Martin

Monarch Memories

Finding Rag Time in the Gallery

Readers’ Choice

2020 Remembered

Inspired by Butterflies by Janine Broscious Embracing the Space by Nadine Flagel

Hooked on Fairy Tales Once Upon a Time . . . By Robin Rennie

And this year’s Readers’ Choice winners are . . . Drum Roll!!! by Staff of RHM

Rock Star

How to Hook a Rock by C. Susan Ferraro

Rug Hooking | March • April • May 2022

A Ribbon Rug Journal by Laura Salamy

ON THE COVER

Monarch Memories, designed and

hooked by Janine Broscious. For more about this rug, see page 34.

58 DEPARTMENTS 54 Artful Color Painting with The World’s Most Wonderful Wool by Wanda Kerr

72 Destinations Woolly Good Rug Hooking Retreat & Festival 2022 by Lisa Meecham

74 Dear Beginning Rug Hooker Hook, Proddy, Felt, and Stitch for Spring by Gwen Dixon

Designer Showcase Prairie Flower Runner by Laurie Lausen/ The Wooly Red Rug 63 Ask the Experts Part 3 of a Series on Finishing Techniques by Carol Shewan

80 Readers’ Gallery Punching: A Thread Between the Past and Future by Micah Clasper-Torch 88

Beyond Our Borders Scandinavian Stag by Neysa Russo

First Rug on the Last Page North Shore Campsite by Debbi Luedtke

20 COLUMNS 2

Editor’s Frame

Datebook

Index to Advertisers

www.rughookingmagazine.com | Rug Hooking

PART TWO OF A SERIES STORY BY SUSAN GRANT/PHOTOGRAPHY BY THE ARTISTS

his installment presents six more ideas for creative background hooking. Some of these illustrate using a particular type of dyed wool and others feature a hooking technique or design element.

Japanese Mosaic, close-up of meandering Sandra Brown demonstrates this technique in a video. Visit www.youtube.com and search for Rug Hooking with Spot Dyed Wool.

Rug Hooking | March • April • May 2022

Japanese Mosaic, 23" square, #2- to 4-cut wool on linen, adapted with permission from a quilt design by Kitty Pippin. Hooked by Susan Grant, Acton, Ontario, Canada, 2014.

MEANDERING Sandra L. Brown, in her article titled “Geometric Doodling, Shading in Fine-cut Geometrics” in the November/December 2017 issue of RHM, wrote about using a spot dye and “hooking while zoning each color as it comes up next on your hook” and “by keeping loops circling until color disappears.” This technique is often referred to as the annagodlyn technique (annagodlyn means askew). It adds texture and varied color in a soft, subtle way. I used meandering in the rust-colored corner sections of Japanese Mosaic. The spot dye was called copper (from Seeing Spots Before Your Eyes, by Christine Little of Encompassing Designs). I liked the way the technique pulled in several colors—it adds a varied look to the background. www.rughookingmagazine.com | Rug Hooking

Herbie, 19" square, #3- to 5-cut wool on linen. Designed by Jon Ciemiewicz from a photograph and hooked by Susan Grant, Acton, Ontario, Canada, 2015.

STAINED GLASS TECHNIQUE Using a spot dye and hooking the strips in sequence as they are cut creates a shimmering effect. In Herbie, I wanted to pull in some touches of soft color, given that he was a white dog. I used Primary Fusion Spots #63, which added purple, maroon, brown, and tan to the background and added a touch of shimmer. I hooked right to left across the bottom, hiding a lot of my ends of wool; similarly, I hid ends at the beginning of hooking strips when I hooked across the top, to avoid a ridge of ends across the middle of the rug. Another suggestion is to divide the background into sections, and using this technique, hook each section in a different direction.

Herbie, close-up of stained-glass technique 8

Rug Hooking | March • April • May 2022

PAINTING THE BACKGROUND WOOL

First Penguin, 34" x 29", #6-cut wool on linen. Designed and hooked by Jan Grose, Plain City, Ohio, 2009.

The beauty of painting your wool is that you have more control over where you place the colors. Again the strips are hooked in sequence as they are cut. In First Penguin, Jan Grose captured beautiful colors of purple, gold, and orange, and the result glows. www.rughookingmagazine.com | Rug Hooking

Portrait of the Artist, 27" x 26", #4-cut wool on linen. Designed and hooked by Trish Johnson, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 2018.

DIP-DYEING THE BACKGROUND WOOL Using dip-dyed wool allows you to play with light; again, hook your strips in sequence as they are cut. In Portrait of the Artist, Trish Johnson cleverly recreated the shiny effect of a metal kettle in her background. In Celebration 29, in which her rug appeared, she said she dyed the wool twice, finally getting the subtle effect and color she wanted by dip-dyeing with a favorite formula, Maryanne Lincoln’s Winter Cedar. 10

Dip-dyed background wool for Portrait of the Artist

Rug Hooking | March • April • May 2022

ECHOING Circling around the motifs is called echoing. The shapes are repeated and carried out to the edges of the rug, giving emphasis to the motifs and a reverberating effect. Often several colors or values of wool are used to accentuate the circling effect; Jill Hicks used this technique in Shaker Tree #2, and the apples almost look as if they are moving.

REPEATING A DESIGN ELEMENT IN THE BACKGROUND

Shaker Tree #2, 45" x 38", #6-cut hand-dyed, as-is, and recycled wool, left-over wool worms, and wool yarn on linen. Designed by Lib Callaway and hooked by Jill Hicks, Valparaiso, Indiana, 2019.

It could be a copy of an aspect of the rug, or an element(s) suggested by the subject matter. This technique creates interest and helps to unify the rug. In Buckingham, I repeated the design of the small leaves and filled a rather large empty space, hoping to make the rug more interesting and a little different from other interpretations of the pattern. Helen Connelly did this in her rug Buckingham, shown in A Rug Hooker’s Garden.

Buckingham, 72" x 44", #3- and 4-cut wool on burlap. Designed by Jane McGown Flynn and hooked by Susan Grant, Acton, Ontario, Canada, 2013.

www.rughookingmagazine.com | Rug Hooking

Battenberg, 181/2" x 151/2", #5- and 6-cut wool on monk’s cloth. Designed by Ingrid Hieronimus and hooked by Ruby Clarke, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 2019.

SPECIAL EFFECTS/CREATIVE STITCHES Reversed hooking, the weaving stitch, the Aztec stitch, plaids, and many other ideas add interest and contrast as well as texture to a rug. Ingrid Hieronimus describes many of the possible stitches in her book Special Effects Using Creative Stitches, Ragg Tyme Studio. In Battenberg, Ruby Clarke used a form of reverse hooking called the basket weave that has two repeating rows; in the first row the wool is carried over six threads and the next row over three threads, creating a unique pattern. An interesting, textured look was created in Blue Skies by Anne Shaw Hewitt. The center squares are pieces of fabric, dyed dark to light and attached with matching DMC embroidery thread. The rest was hooked with chunky, dyed wool yarn; some squares were clipped, and all were emphasized with two rows of chain stitching. RHM Susan Grant lives in Acton, Ontario, and is a member of the Georgetown Rug Hooking Guild and the Ontario Hooking Craft Guild. She has taught courses at the Martina Lesar Hooked Rug Studio and for guilds in Ontario. Her rugs have won a number of awards at the OHCG Annual, and she is a member of the Celebration Hall of Fame.

Rug Hooking | March • April • May 2022

Blue Skies, 16" square, handdyed chunky wool yarn with wool felt and matching DMC embroidery thread on hessian. Designed and hooked by Anne Shaw Hewitt, North Yorkshire Dales, England, 2019.

www.rughookingmagazine.com | Rug Hooking

Shine!

A SPECIAL PATTERN FOR INTERNATIONAL PUNCH NEEDLE RUG HOOKING DAY STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY REBECCA MARTIN

hine—what a lovely word. To shine is to emit or reflect light; it can also mean to perform well. Its sentiment is appreciated after the last few years. My mind immediately goes to sunshine. Shine evokes a feeling—a feeling of joy and positivity coming from someone or something. I know many people who shine and they truly brighten my life. When I think of a shiny object, my grandfather’s silver teapot that sits on a shelf in my front room comes to mind. It is shiny (when I remember to polish it), but it also shines with the memory of a man who greatly influenced my creative life. I think more in feelings rather than images, so coming up with a design for this year’s pattern was a challenge. At first, I

went with the sun—it was a logical choice based on the word. However, none of my sun designs felt quite right, so I kept going. I love flowers and natural elements, especially stylized ones. I thought there must be a flower, grass, or leaf out there that embodies the feeling of shine. I figured I would know it when I saw it. My 14-year-old son is fascinated by ancient Egypt and has many Egyptian-themed items in his room on a display shelf. Drawings of papyrus reeds caught my attention. To the Egyptians, papyrus was a natural symbol of life itself. They also believed that papyrus pillars held up the sky. The sky then made me think of the sun. Right then I knew I had my inspiration— papyrus reeds mean shine to me. That may be a roundabout way

INTERNATIONAL PUNCH NEEDLE RUG HOOKING DAY: APRIL 9, 2022 IPNRHD is celebrated by punchers and hookers each year in April. RHM is happy to present you with the pattern developed by Rebecca Martin for 2022. Each April we celebrate International Punch Needle Rug Hooking Day with a new theme selected by Amy Oxford, the creator of the beloved Oxford punch needle. This year the theme is SHINE!

Rug Hooking | March • April • May 2022

Shine!, 8" x 8", wool yarn and sequins on monk’s cloth. Punched with #13 and #14 Oxford punch needles. Designed and punched by Rebecca Martin, Longmont, Colorado, 2021.

I didn’t want to leave anyone out of the fun. If you have a regular-sized needle, TIP: no worries—you can still punch the pattern. I feel it looks best using the #13 or Don’t pack. Give your the #14 fine needles and fine yarn; however, it is a great pattern for any needle. I loops a bit of elbow enjoyed punching it with my #9 Oxford regular needle. I can see that it would be room so the piece will fun to punch the main design with #8 (the 1/2" loop) and the background with #10 lay flat as soon as it (the 1/4" loop) as well, to create a raised effect in the main design. I used bulkycomes off the frame. weight rug yarn when I punched with the #9 and thinner heavy-weight worsted rug yarn when I punched it with the fine needles. Bulky-weight rug yarn is multi-ply. I could have divided my 4-ply rug yarn in half to use in the fine needles. Of course, I could also not have used rug yarn at all. I am biased, since I dye rug yarn: I love the way it punches and hooks. It creates such nice upright loops and is so easy to work with. However, this is the perfect pattern to try something new, maybe even a yarn that has some sparkle in it! Remember, yarns that have synthetic materials can’t be subjected to the intense steaming of the finishing process.

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A side-by-side comparison of the design punched with different needles: The piece on the left was punched with the Oxford Fine #13 and #14, using heavy worsted-weight rug yarn. The loops are smaller and lower than the piece on the right. The piece on the right was punched with the Oxford Regular #9 punch needle, using bulky-weight rug yarn.

of finding an image to represent the theme, but since life has been anything but moving in a straight line this last year, it seemed apropos. The delicate nature of a papyrus reed helped me decide to highlight the Oxford Fine punch needles, especially the #13 and #14 (the smallest of the needles). I like combining the two sizes to create a subtle sense of depth. With that in mind, I punched the main elements of the design, the papyrus leaves and the swirls, with the #13 so they would stand a bit higher than the diminutive 1/8" loops of the #14. I used the #14 for the background. I just love the papyrus leaves. As I punched them, they reminded me of trumpets and music. The design did indeed feel like it was emitting something—it was shining! To fully embrace the theme, I added a truly shiny element to the piece. Sequins are a logical choice. Now, most people don’t think of sequins when holding their punch needle poised to create, but why not? There is no reason that our creations are limited to only a punch needle. We can add appliqué, embroidery, beads, sequins, felted elements, and more. Punch-needle rug hooking plays well with so many of the fiber arts. When punching, I always start with the main elements of a design and the border, if there is one. After I punched the papyrus reeds and swirls with the #13 needle, I switched to the #14 and punched the background. I noticed that the shorter loops of the #13 and #14 meant much less clean-up of the looped front side when I was finished. After only a few pokes and prods of the loops, I was finished. I then removed my work from the frame

Rug Hooking | March • April • May 2022

and covered it with a very wet cloth, loop-side up, and gave it a nice steam with a hot iron. Once steamed, I folded back the remaining monk’s cloth, trimmed it to a 2" width, mitered the corners, and hemmed it to the underside.

ADDING SHINE TO YOUR SHINE! PATTERN This pattern is begging for fancy yarns, ribbons, and more. Remember: many novelty yarns cannot be steamed. Keep this in mind and leave a bit of breathing room between rows if using a yarn that cannot be steamed. This pattern was punched with heavy worsted-weight wool yarn. It was steamed before the beads and sequins were sewn. The sequins were a lot of fun to attach. I added a tiny glass bead to each one so that my thread would not slip back through the sequin’s center hole. The glass beads added an additional shiny element that was both useful and beautiful.

IPNRHD APRIL 9, 2022 International Punch Needle Rug Hooking Day introduces new people to the craft and renews the bonds of those who already punch. Teachers and groups, all around the world, gather to work on the free downloadable pattern. Have fun with this year’s pattern. I look forward to seeing all the different ways people make it Shine! Show us what you do: use the hashtag #IPNRHD on social media. RHM

www.rughookingmagazine.com | Rug Hooking

WHAT CAN I DO WITH AN 8" x 8" PUNCHED PIECE? Here are just a few ideas. I’m sure you can come up with several more.

» S ew it on a tote bag » Mount it to the lid of a picnic basket or the side of a large basket

» Use it as a trivet » Make it larger. Adding more to the outside of the design, turn it into a pillow.

» Frame it » M ount it on a wooden homedecor panel

The pattern and directions are a FREE download. You can find it at www.storytellerwool.com Not interested in downloading? Kits with rug yarn and the pattern drawn on 18" x 18" monk’s cloth are available at www.storytellerwool.com.

Shine! © Rebecca Martin, 2021. For a mat approximately 8" x 8", enlarge this pattern by 130%. For personal use only. Rebecca Martin is a passionate fiber artist and educator based in Colorado. Her studio is filled with all things wool; however, rug hooking takes center stage. She is a certified Oxford Punch Needle Instructor, and in the process of becoming a McGown Certified Instructor. She runs StoryTeller Wool LLC, which has its own line of hand-dyed rug yarn, www.storytellerwool.com.

Rug Hooking | March • April • May 2022

Hand & Mill Dyed Wool, Sari Silk, Merino Roving & Art Yarn... ...One Stop Shop for all your Rug Hooking Needs

www.rughookingmagazine.com | Rug Hooking

Hooked on Fairy Tales ONCE UPON A TIME . . . STORY BY ROBIN RENNIE

TORTOISE AND THE HARE Photographer: Alexandra Eagleson Hooked by: Susan Nash Inspiration: Illustration by Arthur Rackham Dimensions: 36" x 45" The time-honored tale of the diligence of the tortoise overcoming the speed and flash of the hare is given an updated London twist by artist Arthur Rackham. It is a good example of a famous illustration used to market a book of illustrations, using stories that were not the point of the book. Susan Nash brightens Rackham’s pale watercolor palette with brilliant colors.

nce upon a time, bored during the pandemic lockdown, I was spending the day organizing my rug-hooking book library. Mixed into the shelves was an old, worn volume of East of the Sun, West of the Moon, illustrated by Kay Neilsen. Almost fifty

years ago, when I was in college, a friend handed me the book at a New Year’s Eve party.

Rug Hooking | March • April • May 2022

SNOWDROP ACCEPTS AN APPLE Photographer: Alexandra Eagleson Hooked by: Marci Braun Inspiration: Postcards for Red Riding Hood’s Favorite Fairy tales. Illustrator Hilda Miller Dimensions: 16" x 20" An illustration of the scene where Snowdrop is tempted by the witch to sample an apple. It also illustrates the beginning of the transition from darker children’s stories to lighter versions. Note how sweet the witch appears.In many European versions of this fairy tale, Snow White is known as Snowdrop. The name Snow White was popularized in America by the Disney cartoon. Marci, hooking with a #3 cut, stayed true to the color scheme of the original drawing but made this charming scene even more charming with brighter values.

He said, “I know you love fairy tales. For some reason, I think someday this book will change your life.” “Odd,” I thought, but we were theatre students given to dramatic statements. As it turned out, he was right. Finding that book accidently created Hooked on Fairy Tales: The Golden Age of Illustrated Fairy Tales Rug Hooking Challenge. The book has stunning pictures, as do

many fairy-tale books. I was inspired to pull out other fairy-tale books and soon had a long list of fairy-tale rugs I wanted to make. How to accomplish so many rugs in my short life? I had gotten an email from the Northern McGown Teachers Workshop, of which I am a member, suggesting since we would not meet due to COVID-19, we consider buying a pattern from Honey Bee

Hive Rug Hooking Patterns and Supplies. Honey Bee Hive sponsors the McGown Teacher Workshop and the business would be negatively impacted by the cancelations of the five workshops. We could help offset this by buying a pattern. I decided to contact Melissa Pattacini, the owner, and ask her to create a pattern of one of my favorite illustrations. Then inspiration struck. What if I shared the illustration with the teachers from Northern Workshop and challenged them to do one as well? We could all share the rugs when the workshop is next held. Another idea came. Why not challenge all the McGown Teachers to hook an illustration? We’d never done a project that involved all the workshops. We could then have the rugs travel from workshop to workshop and share our work. For those not familiar with McGown Teachers Workshop, Pearl McGown

www.rughookingmagazine.com | Rug Hooking

MOTHER GOAT GOES TO MARKET Photographer: Alexandra Eagleson Hooked by: Martha Lowery Inspiration: Illustration by O. Herrfurth Dimensions: 20" x 311/2" Fairy-tale illustrations were often used as postcards and collected by children. This postcard from Vienna, Austria, from the early 1920s shows the picture of Mother Goat Going to Market from the Grimms' Fairy Tales story, "The Wolf and the Seven Kids." In the story, the mother goat is warning her kids not to let in strangers. Of course, they don’t listen. They let in the wolf and he eats them. When she comes home, Mother Goat is dismayed but is resourceful. She tracks down the wolf to the bank of a stream. She cuts open his stomach, lets out the kids, and fills his stomach with seven large rocks. Then she pushes him into the stream, where he drowns. She takes the kids home, where they are put to bed with no dinner for not listening and opening the door to strangers. Martha stayed as faithful to the illustration as she could, replicating every detail. It is hooked in a #3 cut.

developed a rigorous teacher certification program which trains a rug hooker in all types of hooking techniques, dyeing, and color theory. To become certified, one attends a series of workshops to hone these skills. It normally takes five years to complete the process. Once certified, most McGown teachers choose to continue attending workshops to continue developing skills and enjoy working with other talented teachers. 22

Rug Hooking | March • April • May 2022

I ran the idea past six other teachers I Zoom with each week. They immediately wanted to select their rugs. I called Melissa. She embraced the concept and began to add to it. The more we talked, the more the challenge grew. Not many rug hookers get to attend the shows held by the McGown Teacher Workshops. What if we created a traveling exhibit so the rugs could be enjoyed by a wider audience? What if she added a

pattern line to Honey Bee Hive so more hookers could create the illustrations? It was time to reach out to the McGown teachers. The rules were simple: They could interpret color any way they wished—since many of the illustrations had faded with time and some were in black and white—but it was required that they remain faithful to the artist’s illustration. First, everyone needed a background on the Golden Age of Illustration. It is normally placed between 1880 and 1930, peaking between 1890 and World War I, although some art historians extend it as far as 1800 to 1960. The best examples are in children’s books, but it includes some magazines and other publications.

THE GOOSE GIRL Photographer: Alexandra Eagleson Hooked by: Sibyl Osicka Inspiration: Illustration by Henry Justice Ford Dimensions: 24" x 41" In this tragic tale, a princess is forced by her maid to trade places as they travel to the princess’s wedding. On arrival, the evil maid has the head of the princess’s talking horse cut off and hung by the city gate. The princess is forced to work as a goose girl, and every day as she and the geese leave the city she laments, “Alas, Falada, that you should hang there!” The horse responds, “Alas, my Princess, that you should walk there.” Nobody gets suspicious about the talking horse head for a long time. Eventually someone notices, the princess is restored to her proper place, the horse gets his head put back on, and they all live happily ever after. Sibyl took this black-and-white pen-and-ink drawing and hooked it in stunning colors using a #3 cut.

RAPUNZEL Photographer: Alexandra Eagleson Hooked by: Judy Carter Inspiration: The Early Poems of William Morris; Illustration by: Mae Morris (1914) Dimensions: 18" x 261/2" A good example of a fairy tale being chosen to show off an illustrator’s skill as an artist. The tale of Rapunzel was an afterthought to the illustrations and the book was clearly not intended for children. Judy used a mixed of cuts in the rug, ranging from #2 to #6, to achieve her effects, and she used textures very effectively. The dress is done from one piece of textured blue. www.rughookingmagazine.com | Rug Hooking

SLEEPING BEAUTY Photographer: Chizuko Hayami Hooked by: Chizuko Hayami Inspiration: “De Schoone Splaapster in Het Bosch” (Sleeping Beauty in the Woods), H. Gerlings, Amersterdam. Dimensions: 241/2" x 32" A lovely book cover for the traditional Sleeping Beauty tale. Chizuko hooked in #3 cut, giving her own twist to the colors.

Children’s books were originally illustrated with line drawings or woodblock prints. With the rise of a middle class in Britain and the United States, the demand for children’s books grew. At the

Rug Hooking | March • April • May 2022

same time, advances in publishing made color illustration much more affordable. Publishers began to add colored plates to collections of children’s stories. The public responded enthusiastically.

Publishers discovered the better illustrated a book was, the better it sold. Fairy tales were a natural choice for publishers. They were popular with children, considered good for them since they often had moral points, and best of all, were readily available. For a minimal price, an author could be paid to adapt a fairy tale, since the point was to showcase the illustrations, not the actual plots. For example, “The Comptesse de Segur” in Old French Fairy Tales (1919), decided on stories to best show off the illustrations she wished to do rather than choosing stories first then drawing illustrations. As an artist’s work became famous and collectable, the books they illustrated were designed for a more upscale market. At the dawn of the twentieth century, it was not unusual to publish such books in two editions. The collectible, limited edition would be elegantly presented, leatherbound with the best paper, gilt

edges, and featuring beautifully printed illustrations. The “everyday” edition would be marketed toward the ordinary market and produced with a much lower-quality binding and paper. With the publication of “Queen Mary’s Book for the Red Cross,” illustrated by Edmund Dulac in 1906, the idea of special edition books took on a new life. They became a fashionable way to raise funds for charity, and that tradition continued though World War II. Books raising money for the British and French Red Cross sold for as much a $500 a volume. That would be equivalent to $13,000 in today dollars! Melissa and I estimated that about 30 teachers would respond. To our delight we have almost 100 participating. Some are doing more than one rug and so over a hundred rugs will be included in the rug display. Hooked on Fairy Tales will be a traveling exhibit that will be seen in several locations, not just the McGown Workshops. Plans are underway for exhibits throughout 2022-23 in at least 10 locations, many including talks, classes, and workshops taught by McGown teachers. Remember how I despaired of hooking all those beautiful illustrations into rugs? I have hooked three of them so far. I have also convinced others to hook over 100 more, so I am seeing my dream realized. The Hooked on Fairy Tales Challenge is my version of happily ever after! RHM

Would lkie a Fairy Tale Pattern? Patterns can be ordered through Honeybee Hive Designs, rughook.com or by calling 1-800-RUG-HOOK.

A McGown Certified Instructor, Robin Rennie has been hooking for years. She’s loved looking at fairy tale illustrations for her entire life.

www.rughookingmagazine.com | Rug Hooking

THE DRAGON FLIES OFF WITH THE EMPRESS

CINDERELLA AND THE BIRDS

Photographer: Cindy Irwin Hooked by: Cindy Irwin Inspiration: Illustration by Henry Justice Ford Dimensions: 20" x 32"

Photographer: Alexandra Eagleson Hooked by: Linda Powell Inspiration: Illustrated by Hermann Vogel Dimensions: 14" x 23"

This is a complicated fairy tale with an empress who must be rescued from a dragon. Don’t worry—she escapes and lives happy ever after with her prince, but they go through a lot to succeed. Cindy hooked this rug in a #3 cut. The illustration was a black-and-white pen-and-ink drawing, which Cindy interpreted as a vivid red dragon contrasted against a night sky. Tiny jewels adorn the empress’s crown and twinkle in the dragon’s eye.

Rug Hooking | March • April • May 2022

In this very traditional version of the story, Cinderella does not have a fairy Godmother. Instead she prays daily to her mother in heaven. The little birds come to her and bring her gifts, including the dress, shoes, and jewelry that she wears to the ball. The original illustration is a pencil drawing. Linda remained true to the drawing and hooked a monochromatic rug in a #3 cut.

www.rughookingmagazine.com | Rug Hooking

HOW TO HOOK A ROCK STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY C. SUSAN FERRARO

hroughout the cold months of the Maine 2021 winter, I spent plenty of time thinking about ideas on how to create new and different rug hooking designs. In January, I began designing my final piece for a rug series on rocks. It would feature rocks and other treasures that captured my eye on the island where I live. I started bringing home rocks, and it was apparent after collecting for several weeks that I was obsessed. If a rock resembled a heart, had lots of sparkle, or had beautifully ingrained lines, it was a keeper.

So now, how are some of those specimens going to be hooked and made into wall hangings? Dimension is at the top of the list for my work. Recreating forms smooth and rounded, or squared with a bumpy surface, was a challenge. I came up with a basic concept and ended up making about 50 individual rocks. They were all shapes and forms. After completing the wall hanging, there were about ten leftover rocks. That’s where other ideas began to come to life.

Darts are little “vees” cut into the edge of a clothing panel that are sewn closed to create a form-fitting shape, such as the area for the bust on the front of a blouse. 28

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I developed some techniques that might be inspirational for your next rug. Let’s begin by going through the process of how each rock was initially designed, formed, and added to a linen backing. You will see several ways to go beyond the basics.

Rock layout

The rocks look as if they were made by the Waldoboro process, hooked with very high loops, then carved into rounded shapes. That is not what I did. I hooked each one individually, and then cut each out from the linen backing, leaving about an inch around. I then sewed darts together along the perimeter. I sewed on a fabric backing, leaving an opening for stuffing with polyester fiberfill. Then the “rocks” were stitched onto a large wall-hanging backing. The background of the piece was hooked around all the rocks.

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Some I hooked on both sides, sewing the sides together with an opening for stuffing with polyester fiberfill. These can either become pillows or small decorative pieces. On one I hand-felted a dragonfly onto the surface and sewed on decorative beads for accents.

I added a dense, flat piece of foam to the backside of these rocks, stuffed them, then turned them into pin cushions. I added French knots with embroidery thread and a heart bead in the center for more texture. Small beads were glued on straight pins then pushed into the cushion for a radiating effect.

MAKE A CAIRN Let’s go one step further and make cairns. A cairn is a carefully piled rock stack out in the landscape that act as a landmark for hikers on trails or beside waterways. I wanted to be able to pile up the soft hooked rock forms in different configurations instead of sewing them together permanently. With lots of trial and error, I came up with a solution. By inserting powerful magnets close to one of the inner surfaces, the rocks could connect in lots of different ways. I sewed a small bead into the outer hooked surface of each rock to show where the magnet is. What a great challenge in making this project come to life!

GEODES So, what else can we make from the elemental rock as a hooked object? How about geodes that light up? My father was a lighting designer for Corning Glass Works. He taught me numerous ways to use lighting for different applications. Lighting is in my blood, so making a lit geode was an intriguing idea. It was complicated at first, but doable. 30

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For the geodes, I hooked all four parts (two flat tops and two curved bottoms), leaving the flat top centers blank. I filled those with vintage glass buttons, beads, and crystals.

I needed to make the geode lighting portable and easy to light up. I also wanted to have a view of the rock sliced open showing the middle, so I needed to make two halves. The sliced surface would have to be flat, and the backside would be rounded and bowl-like. The lighting was next. I attached a round, battery-operated puck light to the inside of the bowl form and added batting surrounding the light to make it more secure. Finally, I pinned the top and bottom together and sewed the geode closed. Tap the middle and it lights up! Making these with different-colored glass buttons, crystals, and beads really adds bling.

WALL POCKET The last design shown is a favorite of mine: a wall pocket to hold fresh or dried flowers. I drew an oblong rock design and included darts on the bottom so the “pocket” would have a curved opening. After hooking the rock, I added crystals to the front and applied shells over the crystals to resemble barnacles. For extra sparkle, I hooked shiny black-and-silver yarn within the form. I sewed the darts closed and traced around the front to make a pattern for the flat back panel. I used stiff Pellon for the inside of the back and inserted it into a fabric pocket. The front and back were sewn www.rughookingmagazine.com | Rug Hooking

together, leaving the top open. Finally, I added a small plastic curtain loop to the back for hanging. Plastic inserts cut to size are easily available. I use them when I want to put cut flowers in my wall pocket.

CREATE YOUR OWN ROCK ART The possibilities are endless—these are just some ideas that might encourage you to become more creative and get you thinking “outside the box.” Use your imagination as you design a simple hooked rock. RHM Artist C. Susan Ferraro works from her home studio in Maine. She will be teaching a class about hooking with different techniques at Sauder Rug Hooking Week in August 2022.

Rug Hooking | March • April • May 2022

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MONARCH MEMORIES INSPIRED BY BUTTERFLIES STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY JANINE BROSCIOUS

Photo that was the inspiration for Monarch Memories

My grandaughter’s butterfly excitement

ow can an insect fascinate and evoke memories? Monarch butterflies do just that for me, even though I don’t like most insects. I own nature guides to flowers, trees, birds, and insects, and although some are very worn, the insect guide looks almost new. I just don’t enjoy looking at all those creepy critters. Monarch butterflies are an exception—I’ve had a love affair with them since I was a child.

Photography captured my interest as a preteen, and for many years I stalked the flittering monarchs, endeavoring to get a good photo. I decided that unless you were quick and had a fast shutter speed, it was an almost impossible challenge. When our youngest son was a teenager, both he and I purchased good cameras and we ventured to a butterfly garden. It was 34

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filled with flying color! We had such fun taking photos of the gorgeous creatures, and we made memories while learning our cameras together and sharing a hobby. At one point I looked over and he had a butterfly on his head. I know I took a photo, but I can’t find it. The image is stored, however, in my memory. Through the years I have accumulated

many amazing memories of butterflies. I’ve used these memories in my rug designs. As I looked around, I realized that most of my hooked rugs include a butterfly of some sort. In fact, the second rug I ever designed has an orange butterfly in it, but it is one I made up. (Made-up flowers are called padulas.I wonder what made-up butterflies are called?)

Monarch Memories, 18" x 18". #4- to 6-cut wool, wool yarn, acrylic yarn, silk yarn, cotton yarn, roving, ribbon, jersey, and nylon on linen. Designed and hooked by Janine Broscious, Somewhere on the Road, 2021.

I decided to hook a detailed, accurate monarch. I looked through my many butterfly photos and chose one that I took years ago while at that butterfly garden with my son. The monarch is on not a milkweed plant, but a Dombeya, also called a tropical hydrangea, and I liked the gorgeous colors. I learned even more about my favorite butterfly as I examined

the details of the photo closely while I designed the pattern. Such bold colors and lines. As I gathered supplies, I realized that I didn’t have enough wool cloth to hook it. Rug hooking events, where I usually buy materials from vendors, were not being held. And because we were on the move constantly, mail order wouldn’t

work. Faced with these circumstances, I gathered all my yarns and alternative fibers and decided to make do. I have come to believe that often “having to make do” brings about an unexpected, yet beautiful, result in art. First, I outlined the wing in black textured wool in a #4 cut. I stayed inside the lines and didn’t hook on the lines.

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The photo of the butterfly revealed white and off-white areas along the orange spots. I had never noticed them before in my casual observations. I hooked the off-white areas in wool cut in #4. All the pure white areas in the butterfly are hooked with cotton yarn, such as would be used to crochet dish cloths. The mixture of wool and cotton is beautiful.

Steaming

Hooking on the lines caused the black areas of the butterfly to get too large. As I hooked, I thought about the flight of those beautiful wings. I was amazed when I learned that even though most of these butterflies live only a few weeks, every year there is also a group that live longer. These specially equipped butterflies fly 3,000 miles from northeastern USA and Canada all the way to Mexico to escape 36

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the winter. I felt an affinity with the monarchs as I, too, flee the cold each year. Luckily I had collected enough hand dyed wool in my favorite color to hook the orange parts of the butterfly. I wondered why orange appeals to me so much. I think of the color as cheerful, exciting, fun and as a reminder of my favorite season, autumn. And yet the color on the monarch means that it is poisonous from eating milkweed leaves. That orange color helps protect it from predators. I used #4, 5, and 6 cuts in orange and burnt orange. I like the look when cut sizes are mixed. The dyed wool was not a uniform color, and the variation gave a more realistic look, with light and slightly darker areas. Each white spot within the butterfly was hooked first, and then I hooked around them with the black textured wool. Keeping the white shapes uneven and organic-looking was more lifelike. I used a variegated, slightly darker orange yarn to hook the veins in the orange parts. I made sure to hook her antennae (her smell sensors) so that they were obvious, and then hooked her curled proboscis

and her legs. (Fun fact: Did you know that even though she sucks up nectar with the proboscis, she tastes with her legs and feet? Amazing!) I hooked the outside border of the piece in the black textured wool, then tackled the Dombeya flowers. I was glad that I had followed my impulse and purchased thick fuchsia wool yarn while we traveled in Nova Scotia. I had no idea where I would ever use such a vibrant color, but I had to have it. It was perfect for the deep-valued areas of the flowers. I wished for a medium value but did not have any. So, I made do and hooked the light areas with some wool strips, but mostly with acrylic yarn that I had left over from a different project. A local craft store was handy, and I bought some pink wool-blend yarn to mix in. I used creamy off-white wool strips for the stamens and dark purple wool for shadows. Darker values inside the flowers made them more three-dimensional. Green flower buds and leaves were next, and I was on a roll with using alternative fibers. I threw in everything that I could find in my craft bin: wool

WHERE MONARCHS LAY THEIR EGGS Monarchs lay their eggs under the milkweed leaves, and the showy caterpillars eat those leaves until they are 2,700 times their beginning weight. The sap of the milkweed is tolerated by the caterpillar, even though the sap is poisonous. Without milkweed, there would be no monarch butterflies. Thankfully, people are starting to plant milkweed again to help save these cheerful beings. I’m glad to report that in the past couple of years, during my photography excursions, I have seen more monarchs. Last summer my grandchildren found several chrysalises. They were a beautiful green with gold dots, and we knew they each had a transforming monarch inside. We were able to move one and bring it home to study. We made a beautiful memory together as we took care of the newly-hatched butterfly and saw it take flight. Afterwards, we drew monarch caterpillars, chrysalises, and butterflies in our art journals as we excitedly chatted of our experience.

Materials used in Monarch Memories

strips, wool yarn, roving, jersey, sari silk, silk yarn, ribbon, and nylons. Glorious textures. Again, I was glad that I had collected many different shades, tones, and textures of green. You can never have too much green if you hook nature or landscape pieces. I hooked highlights and shadows. The light is coming from the upper-right corner, and I endeavored to depict that whenever possible in the flowers and the leaves. Finally, all was completed except the background. I had it in my mind to do a dark blue to purple background, but my live-in critic thought differently. Yes, my dear husband loves to watch my progress

and give his opinion. Much discussion followed and he was quite adamant. I’m not sure I could envision what he saw in his mind, but I tried. At this point, we were able to once again attend a rug-hooking event, so I searched for yarn in the color he wanted: green. I bought some and started hooking it, but I just wasn’t happy with it. I had to follow my inner compass, just as the monarchs do as they fly south for the winter. So, I tore it out and used the wool yarn I had bought just for this piece when we toured a wool mill in Wyoming. I supplemented with yarns that I already had and was pleased with the out-of-focus look it www.rughookingmagazine.com | Rug Hooking

Monarch Memories © Janine Broscious. For a mat approximately 18" x 18", enlarge this pattern by 260%. For personal use only.

gave. In photography, that effect is called bokeh and it is the background in most of my butterfly photos. The yarns I used created a perfectly-varied blue, purple, and green bokeh background. Thankfully, my live-in critic agrees that it is beautiful and had no problem telling me that he is glad I followed my instinct. I finished the piece by steaming it and whipping the edges with black wool yarn. 38

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Steaming was a bit challenging because of the acrylic yarn. I was careful to avoid touching the hot iron to the areas where it was used. As I was hooking this piece, my granddaughter sent me numerous messages and videos about this year’s monarch adventures. They had captured six caterpillars and she, together with her siblings, ran a butterfly nursery. I received play-by-play

videos of monarch caterpillars chewing milkweed leaves, chrysalises being formed on the underside of canning jar lids, the darkening of the chrysalises, and finally baby butterflies stretching their wings. She taught me new things about these butterflies that she learned from a book I gave to her, such as how to determine the sex of a monarch butterfly. It made me realize that the one I hooked was a lovely

THE MONARCH’S LABEL I designed a label on the computer, printed it on printable fabric, and sewed it to the back. It is tempting to skip the label, but I feel it is important to document our art form as information for future generations.

A page from my art journal

female. My granddaughter took videos of her little brother dressed up and fluttering about in the silky monarch wings I had sent. It was a joy to witness several weeks filled with their butterfly excitement. The last chrysalis hatched while I was writing this article. I stopped when I heard the message notification on my cell phone, eager to hear all about it. They were traveling in the car, but my granddaughter had brought the jar with her and sent a live video. She sounded a bit sad as she showed me the final monarch butterfly stretching its wings. We both knew that soon it would take flight and we would have to wait another year to witness such an incredible transformation. Even though I couldn’t be with her in person, it was a precious time of sharing the love of nature with my granddaughter. I enjoyed witnessing the next generation making memories, as I created my own monarch butterfly. And it made my new hooked-art piece, Monarch Memories, all the more special. RHM As she travels full time in her RV with her husband, Janine Broscious enjoys exploring new places, meeting people, and creating art. Her biggest challenge is not filling the RV completely with wool as she hooks on the road.

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FINDING

IN THE GALLERY EMBRACING THE SPACE STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY NADINE FLAGEL

The gallery, with my inch mat Where All the Ladders Start, 56" x 32", #8-cut reused wool blankets and wool yarn on linen. Designed and hooked by Nadine Flagel, Vancouver, British Columbia, 2020.

y second solo exhibition took place in a challenging gallery space in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia. It’s two stories high and contains an oculus (a round window in the ceiling). It’s hard to compete with the stabbing shaft of sunlight slowly moving across the room, and with the enormous glass wall offering views of a nearby green area and water feature.

Rug Hooking | March • April • May 2022

The Michael Wright Art Gallery is also a multipurpose event room. It helps to house a weekly farmers market and offers space to choirs and other groups. In keeping with its hospitality to the community, the large circular room contains a gas fire feature on one wall and a gleaming upright piano. I was intimidated by and uncomfortable with the space at first. Then I realized that I didn’t need to compete with the gallery features I couldn’t control; instead, I could integrate them with the exhibition. I was finally able to fully plan for and visualize the exhibition when I decided to embrace the gallery’s distinctive and community-oriented features. Rag Time, 12" x 28", repurposed wool clothing on linen. Designed and hooked by Nadine Flagel, Vancouver, British Columbia, 2021.

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I haven’t given the pattern a background. That was a deliberate omission, because the background will need to be improvised depending on the reused fabrics you have and their amounts. In my case, I auditioned a few backgrounds before deciding on black and dark-gray stripes, with a black wool speckled with bright colors outlining the musical notes and edges. Therefore, in my version of Rag Time, the background is composed of three different wools rather than just one.

I made a pad for the piano bench seat and hung a large, more traditional—yet deliberately unfinished—inch mat over the fireplace. That way, the fireplace and the piano could become part of the exhibition as installation pieces. By engaging with the fireplace and piano, I heightened the more familial, homely qualities of the room and referenced the historically domestic contexts of hooked rugs. The theme of the exhibition was “Snagged,” and it displayed moments in the lives of textiles we don’t often show: a woman shopping in a thrift store, and bales of rags in a rag warehouse where secondhand clothing gets recycled or becomes landfill. It was no great stretch to think of a musically themed piece that would fit in with the show, courtesy of the title Rag Time. Rag Time is not just a play on words: it’s a whole philosophy. It can be hard for most North American consumers to imagine how closely integrated production and consumption of cloth can be. In other places in the world now, rags are an essential part of textile production. Historically, a number of job titles from England and America in the nineteenth century reflect the relative value of both pre-consumer and post-consumer textile waste: rag picker, rag gatherer, rag dealer, rag grinder, rag sorter, rag collector, rag washer, rag duster, rag cutter. Businesses cen42

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tered around reusing textiles, too: rag market, rag-and-bone shop. While I respectfully acknowledge the AfricanAmerican musical inventiveness and traditions that inform the music of ragtime (you can find discussion of the etymology of that word online), I would say that the sense of rag time I’m working with here is somewhat different, as indicated by the break I’ve inserted between the component words rag and time. Rag Time is grateful to African-American musical and linguistic history for the original phrase, but, for the purposes of this piece and this exhibition, rag time is engagement with the complexities of textiles, and it involves careful consideration of materials’ sources and destinations. It’s being accountable for and making visible a textile’s life cycle, from fiber production to garment deconstruction. It’s extending out the line of that life cycle as far as possible through careful washing and mending, through alterations and repurposing. Finally, to return to its musicality, those of us who work with recycled and reused or salvaged fabrics know that work with rags has a musical rhythm. That rhythm is rag time. I invite you to dance along by making this rug pattern out of reused cloth. RHM NOTE: Thank you to Lyndsay McKay (Instagram @540seconds) for permission to photograph Rag Time during her show at the Michael Wright Gallery.

Rag Time, © Nadine Flagel, 2021. For a mat approximately 12" x 28", enlarge the pattern by 300%. For personal use only. Nadine Flagel is a self-taught textile artist and trained academic living in Vancouver, British Columbia. Her mission is making art out of making do. She recently held her first two solo exhibitions. You can find her work on instagram at @pretextstudio or email her at pretextstudio@gmail.com.

Rug Hooking | March • April • May 2022

And this year’s Readers’ Choice winners are...

DRUM ROLL!!!

READERS’ CHOICE, CELEBRATION 31 BY THE STAFF OF RHM/PHOTOGRAPHY BY THE ARTISTS

CELEBRATION 33

opens for entries on October 1. Look for instructions in the September/October issue of RHM and on our website. We look forward to seeing all your beautiful rugs!

ach year, Celebration of Hand-Hooked Rugs gives readers the opportunity to vote for their very favorites among the amazing rugs in that year’s edition. You can imagine that there isn’t a rug that’s not someone’s favorite! Here are the ones that resonated most with readers of the 2021 edition of Celebration. I am hard-pressed to choose my favorites because each and every one is a work of art. Enjoy this collection of rugs from Celebration 31. For more of the backstory on each piece, check out the Celebration 31 book—order it from the RHM website: www.rughookingmagazine .com. And let these pieces, and all the rugs in Celebration 31, inspire you to enter your masterpiece into this year’s Celebration this fall! RHM

Feel at Home in the Arms of Woods, 36" x 24", #3- and 6-cut hand-dyed wool, wool yarn, hand-dyed rug yarn, novelty yarn, and glittering acrylic yarn on monk’s cloth. Designed and hooked by Agnes Durda, Miskolc, Hungary, 2020. SANDOR NAGY www.rughookingmagazine.com | Rug Hooking

Bison, 20" x 20", #3-, 4-, and 6-cut as-is and hand-dyed wool on rug warp. Designed and hooked by Judy Carter, Willow Street, Pennsylvania, 2020.

Way of Life, 53" x 28", hand-dyed wool yarn with other fibers on linen, backed by quilted cotton fabric with batting. Designed and hooked by C. Susan Ferraro, Bailey Island, Maine, 2020. Original oil painting by Walter Brightwell.

Rug Hooking | March • April • May 2022

Leonard Cohen—”I’m Your Man”, 161/2" x 22", various wool yarns and roving, unraveled to desired thickness, on cotton backing (400 holes per square inch). Adaptation (with permission) from a digital painting by Ivan Turcin (Croatia). Drawn and hooked by Susan J. Baker, Stanbridge East, Quebec, 2020.

Eurasian Blue Tit “Reflections”, 20" x 24", textured wools, hand-dyed wools, and hand-painted wools on linen. Designed and hooked by Sandy Ducharme, Marshfield, Vermont, 2020. ROZ DANIELS www.rughookingmagazine.com | Rug Hooking

2020 Remembered

A Ribbon Rug Journal 366 DAYS OF HOOKING STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY LAURA SALAMY

January 1—Fireworks! Mixed fibers, including blingy, wired ribbon. I really learned why burlap is a sucky foundation. Strings break and, worse, those near the hem fail regularly, leaving me with large holes. Wrapped bottom hem. Tried to stay off top hem. This piece will always be a bit delicate.

February 12—For the Love of Kermit. Wool and novelty yarns. Tom and I went to the Albuquerque Museum today to see the Jim Henson exhibit. Excellent.

nce upon a time—for years—I was a journal writer. I still keep a journal, but I’m not quite so committed. A large box sits in my bedroom closet filled with black, spiral-bound sketchbooks, my journal of choice. The 51/2" x 81/2" size is completely portable, perfect to take on vacations and other excursions. In them I can record daily happenings, sketch items that might make interesting art later. 48

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February 27—Don’t panic! Wool strips. The dreaded Coronavirus of the day has been rendered cute and almost cuddly in wool strips. It appears to be getting a hold here in the U.S. Tom and I spent $264 in Costco today. We bought extra things in case we don’t want to be out and about. No need to panic, though; just wash our hands. And buy more Bordeaux!

June 18—Choking on the Environment. Needle felted wool roving. Woke up to smoke, smoke, smoke. Tucson, 447 driving miles from ABQ, is on fire. As are other parts of the Southwest. Could barely make out the mountains on the other side of town. We are still in a super drought. When the earth is unhappy, its inhabitants are unhappy.

Back in October 2014, in Stamford, Connecticut, I saw Susan Feller’s Year Study at the Hooked Art 2014 show. Her dedication to that project stayed with me. I purchased the March 18 square, Miriam. The date is significant; it was my grandmother’s birthday. End of December 2019: I’m taking a shower. (This is important; it’s where I do my best thinking.) The shower door is glass, allowing me to see into my walk-in closet where I keep much of my fiber-art-making stuff. Burlap ribbon rolls, the kind with wire, are up on a high shelf. I’d picked them up for cheap a few years earlier, thinking that I could do something “hooking related” with them. Suddenly the burlap ribbon and my prior life experiences come together: Hook a little something every day into the ribbon—you know, kind of Jack Kerouac-like. Not as polished as Susan’s 5" x 5" squares (as my own goals are in no way as lofty as her exploration of materials and techniques). Rather, mine would be more like sketches of something I found notable about a given day. I envisioned it as something I could do quickly each evening.

» The burlap ribbon must come from a cheap, big box store. » The plan is to use materials I have on hand. » Each day should have some notes here (in the accompanying written journal). » I expect I will lose some days to life happening. I’ll try to make them up somehow but won’t sweat it if I don’t. Here’s hoping we make it to Dec. 31! (I had to write that down so that I would believe it. In the end, I was too anal to “lose” any days.)

On January 3, 2019 (because I was busy January 1 and 2), I cracked open a brand new black, spiral-bound sketchbook and wrote the “rules” for the Ribbon Rug Journal (RRJ) project. » Each day will get a space of 21/2" x3" and be separated by a line of black, hooked rug yarn. (As the year went on, some days were larger.)

Yet I persisted. Posting each night on Instagram and Facebook gave me accountability. The RRJ built up quite a following over the year. I did find that it took a LOT longer to hook and write up each day’s journal entry than I anticipated, given the small work area. There was subject matter to choose. Perhaps I had a photo or at least something easy to draw like

You come up with a “great” idea and you run with it. You don’t really think about: » What every day of a whole year means, when even posting to a weekly blog has become too demanding. » What if you travel? » How your days are already filled with other commitments and projects. » That burlap ribbon might not be the best backing to hook into. » That you might actually get sick of the RRJ.

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August 26—ZOOMed Out. Embroidered with jute thread. Not one, not two, but three ZOOM events today. Eyelids drooping. Two art talks and one 2-hour class.

LEFT: October 6—Aerosols suspended “for minutes to hours” can transmit virus after infected person leaves area. Wool yarn. Thanks, CDC, for reconfirming something we already knew. Masks, people, masks! and avoid crowds! RIGHT: November 4—The Rag Bale. Mixed media; black acrylic paint; hooked recycled textiles.This entry is an homage to Nadine Flagel’s In the Studio talk today: “Slow Art Versus Fast Fashion.” Nadine’s current work brings very needed attention to the world’s (environmental) fast-fashion problem. She has a series of three “rag bale” pieces. One of her goals is to make textile waste visible. I’m with her. It’s one of my goals with much of my own work. But my thought today listening to Nadine speak: “Not only did she preach to my choir, but she built the Church.”

fireworks on New Year’s Day or something I’d seen on a morning walk. The day in January Tom and I saw the last installment of the Star Wars franchise, Sky Walker Returns, I hooked the roly-poly droid BB-8. On March 20, Tom Brady officially left the Patriots for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Hooking TB12 upside down seemed appropriate. 50

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While my plan was to hook all entries, I soon found that some ideas were better suited to other techniques, like basic embroidery stitching. This was especially true as I dealt with words and numbers. “45-0” was the score when the sadly underperforming Patriots trounced the LA Chargers (December 6). I also occasionally incorporated felting, applique, and painting.

December 31—The End. Wool yarn; mystery yarn; plastic bags.

Because I use plenty of alternative fibers in my regular hooking practice, I did the same in the RRJ. Materials included old t-shirts, wool strips and yarn, jute thread, ribbons, novelty yarns, quilting fabric, teabags, kitchen string, toilet paper, plastic bags, roving, dryer sheets, cottonwood tree “cotton,” wood, and so on.

AND THEN THERE WAS COVID… While I successfully kept up with the RRJ the first couple of months of 2020, I suspect it would’ve become more difficult if it weren’t for the novel coronavirus putting us all under virtual house arrest. Here in New Mexico, that happened right after Saint Patrick’s Day. Sure, during the summer, Tom and I got out a bit, dining on restaurant patios, but late spring, fall, and winter found us hunkering down at home. Had I followed my usual routine of meetings, workshops, and social events, I suspect that the project would’ve become much more burdensome given the 30-60 minutes I spent on it each evening. And that didn’t even count the time it took to share it on social media. Not only did the pandemic give me the time to work on the RRJ, but it provided regular topics to represent. Toilet paper hoarding, masks, Zoom, the Pfizer vaccine, blood donations, the Amabie (you’ll have to Google that one)—all these ideas were featured in the RRJ. Other journal fodder: the quotidian, food I prepared, holidays, nature seen on our walks, my dogs, Tom’s signature margaritas, how hot the desert summer is, the Space X launch, my first basil harvest of the year, Hamilton, the notorious hurricane Laura that took out Houston, Ruth Bader Ginsberg,

hot air balloons (huge here in Albuquerque), murder hornets, the vertigo that plagued me all fall and winter, Baby Yoda, U.S. Postal Service woes, and porcupines sleeping in trees (a real thing!). I will add that because 2020 was chock full of political issues like the presidential election, Black Lives Matter, immigration, voting, and, again, masks, I recorded them in the RRJ as well. Suffice it to say that some of these things generated much discussion on social media. Like the rest of the population, rug hookers and other fiber artists can be passionate about the things we care about and our need for creative self-expression. There were definite lessons to be learned during a year of daily fiber-journaling. Some evenings it was really difficult to come up with something to use for an entry. Especially if I was tired. And let’s face it, 2020 was exhausting. There was only one day, November 14, that I left blank. I titled it “NADA.” Apparently, the aforementioned vertigo had really taken it out of me. If only I’d known how long the dizziness would go on . . . I realized pretty quickly that ideas in my head didn’t always pan out. “Death by Quail” (March 8) was one such entry. The damn bird didn’t even get an eye. Frankly, without the title AND my written journal description, you wouldn’t have guessed it was a bird. Nevertheless, I took to looking at my work as practice sketches. And sketches aren’t made for erasing; they’re for learning. Besides, who wants to start over after an hour when an actual rug is waiting to be hooked? Not surprisingly, yarn worked best in the journal. Not rug yarn; it was too thick and would rip the burlap ribbon apart. A #6 strip was okay too, though a #4 was better. And burlap www.rughookingmagazine.com | Rug Hooking

ribbon did indeed suck to work with. The threads often pulled out. Eventually, I learned to stay away from the edges (where the wires are) to keep holes from forming and my loops from falling out. But I had problems with it all year long. I don’t advise anyone to hook into burlap ribbon. I also learned that drinking and hooking in tiny, burlap spaces can be . . . unfortunate. In late January, Tom and I had a great bottle of wine on our anniversary. There may have even been wine before the wine. But after the festivities, there was still the RRJ. Every night there was the RRJ. If I blew off one evening, the next day there would be two RRJ entries. That would even be more unfortunate than sub-par, inebriated hooking. The prudent thing was to suck it up and complete the exercise daily. Without doubt, the greatest thing to come out of the RRJ was how it resonated with folks all over the world. Social media allowed folks to comment on each installment. That, in turn, buoyed up my own enthusiasm for the project. I even received requests some days! My personal hell fun engaged others.

After a full year, I wasn’t sure how to end the Ribbon Rug Journal. I’ll share with you what I recorded that night. It’s been 366 days! But tonight is the last entry of this yearlong project. Now having prosecco! I wasn’t sure exactly how to end it, but Tom suggested 366 for every night we lived this ribbon rug journal. Of course, we got an extra day this year—Leap Year! It just added to the cachet of 2020. It’ll take a bit for me to work through the entries, see what it was that made 366 impressions on me during this tumultuous year. But in a few hours, it’ll be 2021. Sure, we’re carrying plenty of baggage into the New Year, but it seems to promise more hope and newness. Happy New Year, all! In writing this and looking back at both the RRJ and its accompanying written journal, I’m amazed at the things I’ve forgotten about last year. I’m glad that I have both records. 2020 was, after all, the year that we thought would go on forever. RHM

Laura Salamy began hooking and punching rugs in Massachusetts almost 20 years ago. Today she lives, hooks, and teaches in New Mexico, where she’s found that experimentation with all types of fibers is very much encouraged. She’s president of the state’s only hooking guild, the Adobe Wool Arts Guild, and active with the In the Studio Online group. Find more of her art and story at https://highonhooking.com.

Rug Hooking | March • April • May 2022

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ARTFUL COLOR

Painting with The World’s Most Wonderful Wool A wooly palette STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY WANDA KERR

ince the first loop I ever pulled, I’ve felt rug hookers are simply painting with wool. Like a painting, our rugs can be in any style—as complex or as simple as the hooker/painter wishes. It’s a freedom we embrace and revel in. Unlike slippery and viscous paint that’s easily layered, wool must be the right color from the start. We don’t usually change or cover it over unless we are working some unusual techniques. Even when we use tricks, it’s not easy to change a spot of color in wool. In my last article (January/February 2022), I showed you how to make The World’s Most Wonderful Wool. It might not look like the most beautiful wool, but it is very useful for many artful flourishes. In this article, I’ll show how to use those very samples and the tricks and devices I use to make it say what I need it to in my artwork.

PREPPING THE WORLD’S MOST WONDERFUL WOOL Remember what this wool looked like?

Four versions of The World’s Most Wonderful Wool: Forest, Flower, Falls, Algonquin Fall

Rug Hooking | March • April • May 2022

When I dyed this wool, I knew I would be using it to create something to show you—something to help you use wools such as these to add vivacity and wonder to your work. Trouble is, I didn’t exactly hone directly in on what I’d make, and I’ve gone through some troubles because I lacked a direction for creating with it. I lacked a destination for this wool, and with that, a keen reckoning of the values I’d need. All is revealed in this confessional black-and-white rendition of the wool picture. So many values are the same! We shall talk more of this later.

artwork—is we can do it the way it works best for us.) I started with the landscape. I turned to my Wonderful Wools. I choose to use a section of Forest. I tore this square out of the wool by clipping and ripping on either edge of this color block. I wanted to use this section in my grassland. To get the best of the color, I rip the section directly through the color area I want. This way I have direct access to the color from either side of the rip. I can cut on both ripped edges.

need something to be the darkness: to be where there are no flowers, to make the flowers look more spectacular.

The flowers and the ‘not flowers’! Here is a sweet way to pool colors so you don’t get a bunch of tiny dots appearing as bright, repetitive colors. I use a loop-pulling technique I call do si do. It’s a beautiful clockwise movement that’s useful to fill up weird spaces and is especially great to use with color-changing wool.

I ripped right through the blue-green from Forest. Here I judge the color contrast with another section of Forest. I wanted to add flowers to my field, and I wanted all the colors present. So I cut along the full length of the Flowers wool (across the width), a different direction from the one we are usually advised to use, and different from the one I had just used.

Let’s look now at the tricks and ways I used this wool. I drew up some quick, rough samples of common motifs we hook: a landscape, a geometric, leaves. (I’m a much better hooker than I am a draftsperson, so exact lines are not important for me. I often hook without them, and I’m not afraid to run away with them—or from them. (The most beautiful thing about hooking—or any

To have all the colors in a small area, I ripped Flower against the selvedge edge, not along it. Now I was ready to hook. When I hook little bits like this, I

Pull up a strip end and make loop 1. Move to the right and pull loop 2. Move below this loop and hook loop 3. Then move to the left and hook loop 4. This can continue along a whole strip. I don’t always know what color is hiding below my backing, but when I pull up a violet loop, I nestle the next violet loop beside it and continue on until the color begins to change and is no longer violet. Then I move over to start another little color-family collection of loops. I may cut the wool, but usually I do not; I use the “between” color to move the loops along to a new color family. And I meander; as the great gardener Vita SackvilleWest said, a flower will naturally grow in drifts. For the best results in any scene, we should remember this. Drifts are better than speckles.

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ARTFUL COLOR

I’m working both wools to create what I need to: areas of floral fun and areas of darker calm. If I encounter colors that don’t work well, I pull up long ends and tall loops and chop them off.

The field progresses. The Flower section began to have a blue end and a bright yellow end. I arranged them so they would be just where I wanted them, colors together on the far left of the bottom. As I proceeded up to the trees, I lessened the amounts of Flower wool and let any Flower color be very dull. I put in the darkness that is beneath all trees on a bright day. You can see me keeping out the colors that are not dark on these strips by using pulled-up loops and ends. I had to bring in this dark from Algonquin Fall. We don’t need to run a whole strip if the colors become something we don’t want. However, if there is one lone loop with a too-light loop or a dark dismal one-loop spot, I’ll just cut the top right off that loop.

So here it is. I’m calling it White Cloud Island; it’s a place not far from my home.

Rug Hooking | March • April • May 2022

I found all the colors of water and sky I needed in Falls. Though without any saturation difference, the water doesn’t fade away like it should. I used the dullest and lightest parts of Forest for the far islands on the left. The trees were made with parts of Forest and Algonquin Fall. I didn’t cheat and bring in other wool—and let me tell you, that took some restraint. These Wonderful Wools are best when we know ahead what we will need and dye accordingly. And perhaps let ourselves combine them with other wools as needed. I don’t worry much about the direction I hook. The sideways water and the up-and-down sky: I did my best to hook the light sky, but I didn’t have as much light as I thought, and I might have pooled my colors there to make more natural-looking cloud shapes. And I longed to have a lighter, duller version of my water so I might have it traverse the distance more effectively. This is the thing, right? You hook something in, you look, and you make a decision: Do you want it to look better? I held fast to my premise, and it turned out alright.

Two leaves, no contrast those little orange dots. Oh, my. The ridiculous things we will try.

I still have an enormous color problem where they meet; the leaves still mash together, unpleasantly mysterious.

VALUE So let’s look back at our value problem. It raised its determined head when I drew my leaf. I had one leaf laying over another. We need to make sure when we do these things that we have a way to separate them. Do I have a way? Looking back at the black-and-white view, value is not on my side. No contrast. I tried. And I want to share with you why this isn’t working. Yes, it is about value. But it’s also about saturation. Things that are dull are far away or behind. The leaf that’s behind is showy yellow-green. It will never take a back seat to that lighter tan color it’s under. Let’s switch them. You can see my feeble attempts at separation with

The solution? Then I tried a darker green from Forest, and now I see separation. Contrast is complete—through value and saturation—with the brighter green. That said, the background is very close to the value of the back leaf. Does it work well enough because of temperature difference?

MY ANSWER TO WHOLE-CLOTH DYEING After thinking I felt satisfied, I looked closer and still felt unsettled. As part of my lesson here, I want to let you know you are not stuck with this wool as it is. It can be overdyed to help you. And so I decided to help myself with some Majic Carpet Yellow and Brilliant Green in one pot.

here. We can overdye anything and I work in the “land of little bits,” making a glorious whole. Anything can be any color. Clever placement of colors makes marvels. Make your work yours alone. And what a collection of useful wonders they are. I’m looking forward to bringing them into play in my work,

Before overdyeing (left) and after overdying (right). See the results in my leaf in the title photo. Next let’s tackle the geometric. I decided to add outlining to help allay the problems I had with the leaves. I pooled colors on the ends of the wool and have beautiful little glimmers meeting at points. I love how a little glow appears. Be systematic about placement, and this will happen quite naturally. It isn’t a mysterious skill only a few have. It’s about looking and making a judgment about similarities on wool strips and making sure you use a rule about it. I decided to have all orange ends in the same place in the diamond, the violet part.

FLORAL PLAY I decided to explore outlines some more and created a flower, with plans to outline all the petals and leaves. Forest did the work for me here, just as-is. (Forest was my favorite piece of the four.) I got good contrast here. I also play the lighter/brighter game with the flower petal to create a glow in the center as well. You can see this example in the title photo too. I started out with 2 yds. of wool, and I have a little less than a yard left after I made these samples. Nothing is wasted

whether in the dye pot, in protégées’ projects, or in my own work. So many possibilities, right? In rug hooking, dyeing makes the world our oyster! Painting with wool is about the ways and ideas we have for handling the wool or materials that make up our loops. And there are so many ways textiles can work harder for us. Keep up your clever explorations. RHM

I’m not a believer or practitioner in “the whole-cloth solution.” The whole-cloth solution is when we feel we can create something by dyeing one cloth only, that it might hold all we need to shade or develop a viewscape, skin, trees, or anything. The World’s Most Wonderful Wool comes close to providing this type of solution. But you’ll see that I used four different pieces, intermingled in the samples with quite different colors (even though there was not a wide range of values). I believe that a bunch of wonderfully-, separately-colored wools are far easier to manipulate than a whole cloth. This way we can dip into many different varieties in color families, which are needed for dimensional work. RH ads spex:1/12 9/14/10 4:40 PM

Wanda Kerr runs a terrific online studio called The Welcome Mat made just for you, the seeker. She teaches, inspires, and encourages unique artistry with color. Join weekly class where you can ask Wanda anything about dyeing, hooking, inspiration, and get help with rugs you are stuck on. Zoom with us Thursdays as part of class. The Mat’s delicious archives are available to pilfer through, a treasure chest of everything you wanted to know about rug hooking. Wanda is the Majic Carpet Dye Maven and hosts a free Friday Dye Day live show to all members of The Mat. Just sign up—no need to be a subscriber to watch Wanda dye. Find out about all she does at www.wandaworks.ca.

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Pag

DESIGNER SHOWCASE

Prairie Flower Runner NATURAL DYES AND A PRIMITIVE DESIGN PROJECT AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY LAURIE LAUSEN/THE WOOLY RED RUG

pring is in the air, and dreams of the flowers soon to bloom in the gardens fill my days. Prairie Flower Runner is the newest addition to my Prairie Flower series. The original chair mat version is one of my most requested designs. Here I created a simple, stylized flower and vine motif for you with scrappy hit-or-miss patches. It is nostalgic and old fashioned—I hope you enjoy hooking it. I hooked the model with my plant-dyed wools, giving you a glimpse at the beauty that comes from the plants in my dye garden. There is a certain glow to natural, plant-dyed wool that I can only describe as a magical gift from nature. However, this design lends itself to any color combination! It’s a great pattern for using up our endless supply of leftover cut strips. My favorite backgrounds are a mix of similar colors and values that echo the rug’s central motifs. The echoing adds interest and movement. For this background, I gathered a variety of neutral textures and overdyed them with black walnut elixir.

Rug Hooking | January • February 2022

DYEING WITH NATURAL DYES The flowers are hooked in four values of wool dyed with madder root, yielding colors ranging from rose to red. The leaves and vines are a mix of textures first dyed with marigolds or goldenrod, then overdyed with indigo, producing some stunning greens. The hit-or-miss triangles are hooked randomly, using wool from the flowers, leaves, and vines. I added in textures dyed in coreopsis, dahlia, hickory, indigo, logwood, and marigold.

Prairie Flower Runner, 18" x 32", #8.5 and #9-cut wool on linen. Designed and hooked by Laurie Lausen, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 2020. www.rughookingmagazine.com | Rug Hooking

DESIGNER SHOWCASE

HOW TO HOOK PRAIRIE FLOWER RUNNER Enlarge this pattern to your preferred size or for the full-size rug of 18" x 32". Prepare the foundation. After determining the desired completed size, add an additional 8" in length and width to your desired mat size, for ease in stretching the pattern onto your frame or hoop. The wool suggestions given here are for a finished size of 18" x 32", hooked in mostly a #9 cut; adjust as needed. Think about the background before you begin: For medium to light backgrounds, use the following as your guide for choosing wools. For a dark background, use the opposite value to make sure your motifs pop.

• fi ll with a mix of light-to medium-value greens; 1/32 yd. • h ook a few loops with darker textures in some of the leaves for variety and interest; 6 to 8 strips

Background:

•m ix of medium to lights values; 1 yd. Hit-or-miss patches:

•A variety of wools strips in colors of your choice. Include a range of light, medium, and dark values; 1/2 yd.

Beauty line:

• P ick one of your hit-or-miss colors or hook a multicolored beauty line using all of the wools in your hit-or-miss; 1/8 yd.

Flowers:

• o utline all petals with a medium value; 1/8 yd. • fi ll with a lighter value; 1/4 yd. • a ccent with a darker value; 1/16 yd. • h ook a few loops with darker textures in the flower centers for variety and interest; 6 to 8 strips

Leaves and vines:

• o utline leaves and hook vines with medium-dark greens; /8 yd.

Border:

•H ook with a texture a bit darker in value than the back•

ground; 3/8 yd. W hipped binding: Whip with the same wool as in the hooked border; 1/8 yd. RHM Hand-drawn pattern on linen is available for $70.00 plus $7.95 postage. www.woolyredrug.com

Laurie Lausen has been working with wool for as long as she can remember. She is a faculty artist/instructor at Minnetonka Center for the Arts. Through The Wooly Red Rug, now in its 35th year, she focuses on dyeing, rug hooking, wool appliqué, and punch needle. Known for her keen sense of color and whimsical, primitive folk-art designs, her museum-quality hooked rugs and accessories are in private collections across the country and have earned her recognition as one of America’s top traditional craftsmen. Visit her website at www.woolyredrug.com where you will find links to her blog, hooking tutorials, downloadable pattern catalog and gorgeous wool and thread. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/woolyredrug.

Rug Hooking | January • February 2022

Rug Hooking | March • April • May 2022

ASK THE EXPERTS

A Good Finish PART 3 OF A SERIES ON FINISHING TECHNIQUES

Two ways to finish a pillow

MATERIALS • cotton cording • pins • needle and thread for basting • whipping needle • fabric for the backing • pillow form (or fiberfill) • wool yarn

STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY CAROL SHEWAN

Pansy Pillow, 18" x 18", #5-cut wool on linen. Designed and hooked by Carol Shewan, Westport, Ontario, 2021.

FINISH A PILLOW WITH A WHIPPED EDGE I like this finish for a pillow because it gives the impression of a piped edge that enhances the hooking. Once the hooking is finished, trim the excess backing down to approximately 11/2"; serge or zigzag the edges to prevent fraying. Take the excess off the corners, but leave at least an inch so that it will cover the cording. If you have some fabric that is not good for hooking, you might use it for the pillow backing if it co-ordinates with the colors in the design. I use a feather pillow form that is 1" to 2" larger than my project. A 20" feather cushion fits an 18" or 19" pillow pattern—it fluffs up as it is handled and fills the pillow nicely. (There are other choices for filling a pillow. A foam pillow form will be stiffer and may need a bit of an

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ASK THE EXPERTS

allowance in the backing—1/4" should be sufficient. Fiberfill works as well but it is not my first choice.

STEPS FOR THE WHIPPED EDGE: 1. M easure a length of cording the length of the perimeter of the pillow; add a few extra inches and cut. I use a 9/64 cotton Venetian blind cord, but any similar cording will work. 2. Pin the cording in place. Baste the cording in first so that you can adjust the corners and ensure the cord edge is nice and straight. The cord must be flush with the edge of the hooking but not rolling to the back. 3. Start at one of the loose ends of the cording and baste your way around the pillow. When you get to where the two loose ends meet, trim the excess cord and butt the ends together. 4. Baste the backing fabric to the linen, leaving one side open. Basting takes a bit of extra time, but it is worth it in the long run. (Working with the pillow only pinned together, instead of basting it, might save some time but the finish might be a bit wavy because of the ridges the pins make.) 5. When the pillow, cording, and backing fabric are complete, test the form to ensure you are happy with the fit. 6. Start the whipping on one side of the open edge. This will ensure

Rug Hooking | March • April • May 2022

your tension is nice and even before you get to a corner. As I am right-handed, I whip from right to left and back to front. Bringing the needle from the back to the front allows you to see the thread of the backing where the last loop is. I use a 2-ply 100% wool yarn such as Briggs & Little™; I’ve found that an acrylic yarn will tend to pill.

I whip with doubled yarn to get good coverage. 7. Whip into every hole in the linen; a bent-tip needle will allow you to easily catch the edge thread with the last loop. This will ensure that no backing is visible between the hooking and whipped edge. As you pull the yarn through from back to front, hold the yarn flat with your index finger, keeping threads smooth. 8. As you start the yarn, hold a short tail along the back of the edge and whip over it to secure it. Finish the section by pulling the yarn back under two or three threads to secure the yarn, avoiding any lumpy knots to cause wear spots. Whip through the fabric, keeping a nice, even line where you push the needle through.

Proddy Pillow, 18" x 18", #5-cut wool on linen. Designed and hooked by Carol Shewan, Westport, Ontario, 2021.

FINISH A PILLOW WITH A PRODDED EDGE

Prodded edge 9. A s you come to the corner, keep the tension even to avoid “rabbit ears.” Whipstitch twice in the hole right before the tip of the corner and in the next two holes as well; this will ease the threads and give good coverage of the corner. The goal is a nice, rounded corner. Mitered corners are not possible with a corded edge. 10. W hen the whipping is complete, you should have an opening to insert the pillow form. Whip the opening closed and you are done.

Add a prodded edge for another nice pillow finish. I used two purple fabrics for the proddy: a solid dark eggplant, and a purple Dorr Ombre. Both were used in the pattern. It takes a quite a lot of fabric, so make sure to have enough on hand. 1. Hook and prepare the pillow as above. Prepare the piece for the proddy edge. 2. Each of the fringe pieces was 3"x 1". I rounded the top edge slightly for a softer effect. The prodding is done after the hooking is complete but before you trim the backing. I don’t use a proddy tool; I pull the

pieces through with a primitive hook. The hook opens the holes enough to get the proddy pieces through. 3. Once the fringe is complete, trim and zigzag or serge, leaving a 11/2" border. 4. Cut the pillow back fabric to size. If you are using a feather form or fiberfill, leave a bit extra to allow for the shape of the pillow; this is not needed for a polyester form. 5. Sew the back, easing as necessary. Sew as close to the prodding as possible, trying to cover all the linen. A buttonhole or blanket stitch helps to pull the fabric and backing together. RHM

Carol Shewan owns Willow Creek Rug Hooking and is an Ontario Hooking Craft Guild and McGowan certified teacher. Carol teaches in-person and on-line classes on a number of topics, including beginner rug hooking, stained glass, dyeing and color theory. Her studio is in Westport, Ontario, and is open for a visit or shopping, by appointment.

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BEYOND OUR BORDERS MATERIALS

Scandinavian Stag

• W hite pre-felt: 2 pieces, each 24" x 28"

Felt or hook this magnificent creature

• 3 8-gauge triangular felting needles

STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY NEYSA RUSSO

• N eedling board: 1" thick insulation board

rtistic renderings of the stag have been used as motifs in handiwork for centuries. Deer exist on nearly every continent and have been a lifesustaining force for our existence. Therefore, it is not surprising that they are honored in many art forms. This playful version of the stag leaves room for creative flexibility, both in color choices and design elements. The simplistic shapes make the pattern suitable for many types of needlework. Needle felting uses barbed needles and carded wool to decorate a felt surface with design. Wool pre-felt is the blank canvas for tapestry needle felting. It is a delicate non-woven fabric. One layer is transparent enough to see through, which makes it easy to trace a pattern with a permanent marker. Once the design is sketched onto the wool, another layer may be added to the back, for needling through both layers simultaneously. That extra layer will provide your finished tapestry with better drape when hanging and better wear as a rug. Enlarge the pattern to any size. Cut two pieces of prefelt a couple of inches larger than the pattern. This extra area, around the outside edge, will provide space for binding, stretching, sewing, or framing. It may always be trimmed off at the end if not needed. Trace the stencil with a permanent marker. For the best results, use a light hand and don’t apply too much pressure to the delicate pre-felt. You do not have to trace every detail. Your tapestry will evolve as you progress with the needling, so stay flexible. Adjustments are a constant part of the artistic process. Your needles must have a place to land when they puncture the wool. Insulation board from the lumberyard is the best alternative. It may be cut to any size and provides a firm foundation for the needles to land, with less strain to your wrist and hand. Felting needles have barbs on the bottom inch. The barbs grasp the strands of wool and push them through the pre-felt as you poke. The needles are fragile and will break if mishandled. For this reason, it is important to

Rug Hooking | March • April • May 2022

• H arrisville Wool: Jade, Sand, Hemlock, Grass, Teak, White • M aori Wool: Tiger, Earth, Dune, Bread, Ivy, Leaf, Ireland, Onion, Soft Fruit, Pumpkin, Sage (or any variety of colors you choose)

use a straight-up-and-down poking motion. The work of the needles is done on the bottom inch, so the needles should penetrate the pre-felt fully, landing well into the needling board below. Choosing a color palette can be the most timeconsuming part of the artistic process. The choices are personal and will make each tapestry uniquely yours. I played with a variety of colors, experimenting until I found a combination that pleased me. Some of the fiber strands will stick into the needling board as your work progresses. On occasion, gently lift your tapestry from the board and rotate it to work on another section. If you distort the shape of the pre-felt, gently tug it back into shape before continuing.

Scandinavian Stag, 26" x 22", felted wool. Designed and felted by Neysa Russo, Bradford, Vermont, 2021.

FELTING TIPS

• T o stabilize the delicate needles, try pinching two together, using them simultaneously. • Poking the needles in at an angle is often necessary to adjust the placement of fiber. Be sure to remove the needles from the board at the same angle that they were inserted to avoid breaking or bending them. • If you are not satisfied with a shape or color that you have needled down, try pulling it out or, if the wool has been needled tightly, you may simply needle the new color right on top.

You may begin needling anywhere. With needle felting, you can easily move from one area to another. I recommend that the background colors be needled in place first and the flowers needled directly on top of the background colors. Layering the wool in this way allows you to achieve finer details and avoid gaps where two colors come together. You might add more flowers if you wish. A multi-needle tool is handy. With the power of eight (or more) needles working at once, large areas may be covered more quickly. I needle the background colors tightly before I add the floral details on top.

To aid in alignment of the facial details, use the needles to define the placement of the facial features before you poke in the colored wool for the eye and nose. The tree canopy frames the scene, and the fruit in the trees adds a splash of color to the top of the tapestry. I felted the sky with three colors in a splendid gradient. The colors were needled down in bands that striped the scene horizontally. Then, small amounts of fiber were used to blend the three layers together. To blend, take a tiny dab of fiber and, before you needle it in place, pull the fiber apart with your fingers so that it is wispy. Then lay it on top of the

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BEYOND OUR BORDERS

The border frames the design and adds color. I usually decide on the color of the border towards the end, after the colors of the tapestry have been needled in place and I can find the best color to complement the scene.

WET FELTING

color you are blending. Needle the wispy strands down to create the shading. To be certain that you have needled enough, look at the back of your tapestry. You should see the design coming through clearly. Another way to tell whether you have needled enough is to hold the tapestry up to the light. This provides an excellent visual for areas that need touching up. Outlining is the final step in needling, but that does not mean that you must save it all until the end! Once an area has been needled tightly, use black fiber to accentuate each color change and shape. This technique helps to fill in any gaps where two colors come together; it also highlights each shape and brings the design elements forward from the background.

Rug Hooking | March • April • May 2022

Once the needling is complete, you are ready to wet felt. Wet felting your tapestry will shrink the fibers down by forcing the strands of wool to entangle. Don’t use a washing machine, as the results are too unpredictable. Instead, you will simply agitate with your hands. Set up a work area on your kitchen counter. Lay down a towel to absorb any spillage and a piece of plastic on top to contain the water. Place the tapestry face down on top of the plastic. You will agitate the backside of the tapestry. Fill a bowl with a few cups of hot water and some soap. The soap may be bar soap, olive-oil soap, or even Ivory dish detergent. Scrunch up a plastic grocery bag in your fist and submerge it in the hot water, then place the bag over the tapestry. Press down, releasing the trapped water onto the pre-felt. Repeat that process until the entire piece is saturated. Water should pool around your fingers when you press down. Put soap on the palm of your hand and glide it over the surface, gently at first, then more aggressively. The soap helps to cut the surface of the naturally water-resistant lanolin in wool. Your hand is creating the agitation,

tightening the fibers. If your hand stops gliding smoothly, add more soap. Apply more pressure as the fibers begin to entangle and tighten. To be sure the tapestry maintains its shape, use an even amount of pressure in all areas. If one area shrinks down more and distorts the shape, try applying agitation to the opposing area to bring it back in line. Add more hot water and soap as needed. Use a ruler to be certain the tapestry is shrinking evenly. Expect 5-10% shrinkage. Once the agitation is complete, rinse the wool thoroughly to remove the soap. Press the tapestry with a hot iron. Place a cloth between the iron and the wool to prevent scorching the wool fibers. Lay it flat to dry.

If you find the tapestry is distorted, stretch it into shape while it is wet. Because of the resiliency of wool, if it needs more than a little tweak, wet it all over again and felt the areas that need more attention, bringing it back to shape. It is never too late to touch things up with the needles if you need to. You may use this pattern to hook if you are not a felter. Enlarge the pattern to your desired size, transfer it to your chosen backing, gather your wool and get started. Hooked or felted, Scandinavian Stag is a great project to experiment with colors. RHM

Scandinavian Stag, 26" x 22", #4- to 8-cut wool on linen. Designed by Neysa Russo and hooked by Debra Smith, Landisburg, Pennsylvania, 2021.

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BEYOND OUR BORDERS

Scandinavian Stag © Neysa Russo. For a mat approximately 26" x 22", enlarge the design by 310%. For personal use only. Neysa Russo works from her studio in Bradford, Vermont, where she felts tapestries, teaches, designs, and writes. Her work is displayed at various exhibits, galleries and shows throughout the year. She is the author of Needle Felted Tapestries, Woolen Masterpieces, and Felted Fiber Menagerie. You may reach her at www.thefeltingstudio.com. 70

Rug Hooking | March • April • May 2022

Spread the Joy of Rug Hooking and Punch Needle! If you’re interested in learning rug hooking or punch needle, or if you want to share the art form with a friend or family member, then try our popular introductory books! Introduction to Rug Hooking: A Beginner’s Guide to Tools, Techniques, & Materials guides you though the basic techniques that every rug hooker needs to know. Plus, it includes eight step-by-step projects. Mastering the Art of Punch Needle Rug Hooking: Techniques and Projects leads you through the basics of starting your punch journey. Find detailed instructions for beginner and experienced punchers, plus six projects. Order online: www.rughookingmagazine.com/STORE

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DESTINATIONS

Woolly Good Rug Hooking Retreat & Festival 2022 Upper Island Cove, Newfoundland, Canada STORY AND PHOTOGRAPY BY LISA MEECHAM

Retreat One: June 25–28, 2022 Retreat Two: June 29–July 2, 2022 Public Hook-In: July 3, 2022 Festival: July 4–9, 2022

n 2019, I founded Woolly Good Rug Hooking, based on the recognition that rug hooking is good for us. The Woolly Good Rug Hooking Retreat & Festival is a celebration of all that is rug hooking and its associated techniques, in a relaxed and productive event, promoting tactile mobility and mindfulness of our art-craft, balanced with positive social interaction. The Woolly Good Rug Hooking Retreat & Festival aims to grow into a world-class event on the historically significant and culturally rich Avalon Peninsula—a lovely hour’s drive from St. John’s. Expect the warm embrace of hospitality, open-mindedness, inclusivity, and risk-taking in our art-craft and teaching. We encourage consciousness of our collective contribution to the ongoing dialogue of traditional rug hooking in Newfoundland and beyond, while taking our skill to new levels and unexpected places.

Rug Hooking | March • April • May 2022

Once upon a loop, a transplanted Nova Scotian met up with a transplanted Newfoundlander, in a kitchen (of course) in Ontario over tea and cookies. Within an hour of their first meeting, the Newfoundlander invites the Nova Scotian to the island province to participate in “rug camp.” The Nova Scotian says “Yes,“ and the Newfoundlander ever mentions her role in inspiring the Rug Hooking Guild of Newfoundland and Labrador some 25+ years earlier. That would be Elizabeth Walker of St. John’s for you: a modest

presence, phenomenal rug hooker, and tremendous mentor to me and fellow artist Linda Peckford, (first President of RHGNL and 2004 Order of Newfoundland and Labrador recipient). The Woolly Good Rug Hooking Retreat & Festival is a complete departure—a constant scaffolding of what has been and what is to come. Our goal is to become THE Atlantic Canadian modern heritage art festival experience and an annual art-based destination. A modern and contemporary interpretation where

YVONNE ITEN-SCOTT

creating relief, textures, and dimension. The focus is on experimentation with stitches, colors, alternate fibers, and combining rug hooking and stitching with found ocean treasures. Beyond this incredible retreat experience, the Woolly Good Rug Hooking Retreat & Festival program offers next-level design and learning opportunities with celebrated Newfoundland, cross-Canada, and United States rug hooking artists. Follow along on Facebook at Woolly Good Rug Hooking, join our

MOLLY WHITE

heritage is cherished and change is welcome, we are intent on a fully immersive heritage and cultural experience, with rug hooking at the forefront. Situated seaside, plein-air, and in architecturally-relevant buildings, talented cutting-edge instruction focuses on showcasing Newfoundland and Labrador teachers, makers, and artists claiming their rightful place within the broader fiber-arts world. We offer a four-day retreat format (20 people total) led by our selected Woolly Good Artist-in-Residence, and/or two-day a-la-carte classes (9 choices of up to 15 people each). Sunrise yoga, local hiking, fireside sunsets, live music, artist talks, and performances—all touchpoint moments for physical, emotional, and artistic release meant to soothe, rejuvenate, and feed the soul. The first WGRH Retreat begins with the earth-inspired energy of Agate Adaptations to move us away from the confines of a physical and mental COVID world and reframe our work into a powerful place of acceptance and positivity, manifesting in benefits to health, relationships, and wealth in our creative practices. Celebrated fibre artist Yvonne Iten-Scott (YvonneItenScott.com, @yvonneitenscott) will lead a transformative journey balancing mind, body, and spirit through a multitechnique and multi-medium design based on agate, a gemstone known for its transformative properties. The many colors of agate stones and their properties equally reflect and are responsive to the diversity and inclusiveness of the universe, humankind, and self, raising our consciousness. Renowned Newfoundland craftsperson, Molly White (Molly Made Fibre Art) leads the second WGRH Retreat. She looks to the natural environment and teaches SEA TO SHORE, hooking and stitching on even-weave foundation,

group of Woolly Good Rug Hookers there, and watch for further updates on the retreat and festival, including registration forms, suggested Airbnb’s, and much more. Instagram @woolly_ good_hooking; www.woollygood.ca. RHM

Lisa Meecham is an accomplished artist in multiple media, including furniture and fiber. Repurposing and upcycling are regularly deployed in her work of creating functional pieces of art. She leads others in Design and Mat Making and she founded the Woolly Good Rug Hooking Retreat & Festival in Upper Island Cove, Newfoundland in 2020. #thisisnotyournansrughooking

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DEAR BEGINNING RUG HOOKER

Baby Bird Hook, proddy, felt, and stitch for spring PROJECT AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY GWEN DIXON

TOOLS AND SUPPLIES Tools: • a pair of felting needles (sizes 38 and 40) • traditional rug hook • rug hooking frame • needle with an eye large enough for the cotton floss • sharp scissors • sewing machine Supplies: • backing of your choice • a piece of Styrofoam or another surface for needle felting • wool strips (browns, white, and shades of blue) • wool yarn (browns, white, and shades of blue) • roving wool (browns, red, blues, white, yellow, black) • green wool fabric and green cotton floss • blue cotton floss • cotton binding for finishing • wool fabric for finishing (optional) • 2 plastic hoops for hanging • regular sewing needle and white or cream colored thread • sewing pins • paper tape or packing tape • freezer paper

Baby Bird, 13" x 13", wool strips, wool yarn, wool roving on linen. Designed, hooked, and stitched by Gwen Dixon, Riverview, New Brunswick, Canada, 2021.

f you are a bird lover, your favorite part of spring will include the return of the migratory birds. My friend Carol told me that each spring, her father wrote “first robin” on his calendar on the day

of his first robin sighting. I love that practice. This project was inspired by my love of nests and of baby birds. It uses traditional rug hooking, proddy rug hooking, needle felting, wool cutting, and stitching. This is a beginner-level project with photos to guide you along the way.

Rug Hooking | March • April • May 2022

STEPS FOR MAKING BABY BIRD

1. Make your pattern and prepare your backing Draw or trace the pattern onto backing, using the template. Enlarge it to the mat size you desire. The mat shown here is 13" x 13". Prepare your backing. Stitch around the outline of the pattern itself. Then stitch another square at about 1" to 11/2"out from the outline. Next stitch about 1/2" in from the edge of the backing. Tape the edges with paper tape or packing tape (2" wide).

2. and 3. Hook the border, middle line, and outlines of the small squares ook the border and middle line of H the mat. I used #6-cut strips and have hooked 5 rows. Use the lines as a guide and make the border as wide or as narrow as you like. Hook with the tails to either the front or the back. If you hook the tails to the back, there will be a bit more finishing to do at the end. I have hooked the tails to the back. Next, hook the line in the middle section.

I have hooked 4 rows of #6-cut strips. Then hook the outlines of the 3 small squares at the bottom, using one row only. This can be done now or later; do it before you begin working on the hooking and needle felting for the insides of the 3 small squares.

4. Hook the branches Hook the branches with wool strips and wool yarn. The yarn adds texture to the branches. Make the branches as varied in color as you like. I have used only one or two values of brown to outline the branches in the sample and have used the yarn to fill in the branches. I have hooked 3-4 rows for the branches.

5. Hook the bird nest Use your traditional rug hook to proddy hook the nest. To proddy hook, simply bring up one tail, then go to the opening beside it and pull up the other end. Trim off the excess and use the rest of the strip in a new spot. Hook 4 times in 4 spots to outline the nest. Continue working around the nest. Make the nest as full as you want. Use a variety of the browns to make the nest.

If you have some scraps from your stash in yellows, oranges, golds, or another color, try those. Birds like to gather lots of things to make their nests, so use as many colors if you like. Continue filling in your nest, toward the inside circle that holds the eggs. Hook more sparsely as you get closer to the circle with the eggs. You may decide to stop adding to the nest before you reach the inside circle.

6a. and 6b. These two photos show the nest being filled up with proddy hooking.

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DEAR BEGINNING RUG HOOKER

10a

10b

10c

7. Remove proddy pieces if the nest is too full.

a continuation of the sky above, or make it different if you prefer.

This can be done just after you finish proddy hooking. I removed some of the proddy pieces in the photo here as I worked on the sky. You may need to add more blue pieces if you remove proddy pieces from the outside edge of the nest.

8. Hook the branches in the lower right square Use the same wool in these smaller branches that you used to make the ones in the larger square. Outline the branches with the wool strips, then fill with the wool yarn.

9. Hook the sky Hook the sky with the tails to the front or the back. Hook it straight across or in loose areas of color. In the sample, the sky is hooked using mostly straight lines across the piece. Hook movement into the sky, or vary the color values moving up the sky. Make the sky in the bottom section the same as the one in the top section,

Rug Hooking | March • April • May 2022

10a., 10b. and 10c. Needle felt the small squares Start with the square on the right. Place the piece of Styrofoam under that square. Use one felting needle and needle felt with blue or white wool roving to represent the sky. Tuck the felt into the corners and along the edges to fill the square. This will help the loops in the outline of the square to stand up. Use your rug hook to pull up the loops slightly or straighten them. Gently poke the wool into place. You will occasionally hit some backing. It is best to poke in the squares of the backing, but this is not always possible. Use a light touch when poking so that you don’t break your needle. Needle felt the middle square. First felt down a layer of shades of brown wool roving. Again, work it in around the edges and the corners to give your square a good shape. To make the eggs, roll blue-green wool roving into oval shapes and begin to needle felt

them in place. Leave one end wider to get an egg shape. For a “puffy” look, felt at an angle, attaching the side fibers to the base. Tuck the fibers in and shape each egg as you work on it. Needle felt the square with the baby bird. Start with the white underbelly, then the red breast. Add the brown feathers, beak, eye, and then legs and feet. Keep adding wool until you are happy with the fullness of the baby bird. Then do the background. You can use white wool roving or blue for the background.

11a. and 11b. Needle felt the nest and eggs First cover the bottom of the nest by felting down some brown wool roving. Add three eggs to the nest. Make an egg by rolling the wool roving into an oval shape and needle felting it, using your Styrofoam block. Attach each egg in position in the nest by needle felting at the base of the egg through the brown wool roving that is lining the bottom of the nest. You may also stitch the eggs down using blue floss, with just a single stitch though each egg.

11a

13a

12a

12b

12c

12d

12e

12f

11b

13b

14a., 14b. and 14c. Trim off the extra burlap 14a

14b

out the shape and peel off the freezer paper. Stitch the veins in the leaves with the cotton floss, using a back stitch. Position the leaves, then stitch them to the backing with one or two stitches, using the green floss. Use as many as you like to embellish your Baby Bird mat!

I trim just inside the second stitched square, (which was stitched about 11/2" from the square that outlines the hooked area). The stitching that is around the hooked area is still intact. Cut a piece of recycled wool that is about 121/2" to 123/4", (slightly smaller than your piece, which is 13" x 13"). If you cut around the corners of the square slightly, it will be less bulky. Iron the corners of the burlap down, then fold and iron the edges of the four sides of the burlap.

13a. and 13b. Finish the back 14c

12a. – 12f. Add wool leaves Cut a leaf template: Trace the leaf outline onto the matte side of the freezer paper. Iron the waxy side onto the wool fabric, then cut

If you have pulled the tails to the back, the back will look like (13b). Whether your tails are on the front or back, trim the extra long pieces carefully, making sure not to trim something that you do not want to, or to make the tails too short. I trim no shorter than 1/2" to 3/4" long.

15a. and 15b. Pin the cotton binding and wool square to the back of your piece Pull the wool snugly and tuck it under the burlap fold. Then place the cotton binding on top and pin in place. I use 11/2" cotton binding. Picture 15b is how the corner looks from the outside.

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DEAR BEGINNING RUG HOOKER

16a. – 16e. Stitch the outside edge of the cotton binding to the backing 15a

15b

16a

16b

Stitch between the first and second rows of brown loops—be careful not to pull any loops out as you stitch. Picture 16a is what the stitching looks like close-up. Picture 16b is what the back of the piece looks like once you have stitched all the way around. Picture 16c is what the pieces that join will look like, after you have stitched all the way around. ) Fold the edges under and stitch these pieces in place, where they meet. Now stitch the inside edge of the cotton binding to the wool square. At the corner, fold the cotton binding to make a mitered corner. Picture 16f shows the finished back.

17. If you have pulled your tails to the front, you do not need to use a wool square on the back

16c

16d

16e

16f

Rug Hooking | March • April • May 2022

In this case trim and fold the backing, then sew the cotton binding in place, over top of the backing. Stitch the inside edge, mitering the corners. To hang your piece, sew two plastic hoops to the cotton binding on the back of your mat. Hang it and enjoy! RHM

STITCH

BORDER

Gwen Dixon is a fiber artist and adult educator from Riverview, New Brunswick, Canada. You can find her on Facebook (Gwen Dixon), by email (gwendixonwoolarts@gmail.com) or on her website (Gwen Dixon Wool Arts). If you want to connect, to ask questions, or to show your finished Baby Bird, please be in touch.

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READERS’ GALLERY

Punching: A Thread Between the Past and Future What’s old is new again STORY BY MICAH CLASPER-TORCH/PHOTOGRAPHY BY THE ARTISTS

n just a few short years, punch needle rug hooking has exploded in popularity. To those unfamiliar with the craft, it can seem like it came out of nowhere! But punch needle rug hooking has a rich history rooted in traditional rug hooking, and understanding this past can help us to better appreciate and give context to the exciting new work being made by today’s punchers. My journey with punch needle began in 2018. Drawing from my background in fashion design, I began creating one-of-a- kind punch needle coats and wearable works of art. I saw this as a way for me to move my work, and the craft of punch needle, into the future. But as my work evolved and I dove deeper into the “why” behind punch needle techniques, materials, and methods, I was fascinated by the history of punch needle and its origins in rug hooking. Mastering time-honored techniques and creating my work using traditional tools and materials became an integral part of my process. When I founded Punch Needle World in 2020, I was eager to share my knowledge of this craft and its history with others, and to build community with other artists and makers working in this medium. Interviewing and showcasing other punch needle artists quickly became one of my favorite parts of my job. It has enabled me to stay on the pulse of what is new and has opened a window into the wide range of contemporary work all over the world—as well as providing insight into the process and inspiration behind these artists’ work. What I have come to realize is how clearly the threads of history are still present in today’s work—in fact, some of the most exciting artists working today, knowingly or not, are continuing the legacy of rug hooking in technique, ethos, or inspiration.

Rug Hooking | March • April • May 2022

Embody, 36" x 48", reclaimed wool and cotton fibers on cotton backing. Designed and punched by Katie Berman, using AK-II Loop-Pile Tufting Machine and Oxford Punch Needle #14. Durham, North Carolina, 2020.

KATIE BERMAN

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP RIGHT: Horizon: Cream; Horizon: Desert; Horizon: Sage, 24" x 12", wool fiber, reclaimed wool, cotton fibers, and suede on cotton backing. Designed and punched by Katie Berman, using AK-II Loop-Pile Tufting Machine and Oxford Punch Needle #14. Durham, North Carolina, 2020.

Forgotten #1 (on wall) and Forgotten #2 (in hand), 2020, 24" in diameter (each), reclaimed wool and cotton fibers on cotton backing. Designed and punched by Katie Berman, using AK-II Loop-Pile Tufting Machine and Oxford Punch Needle #14. Durham, North Carolina, 2020.

ne of the first artists whose work struck me in this way was Katie Berman, a textile artist based out of Durham, North Carolina. Katie works within the realm of responsibly-made fiber art, using self-taught, evolving methods such as natural dyeing and punch needle rug hooking to create tufted wall hangings and fiber sculptures. Primarily a weaver until 2018, it was her frustration with the leftover yarn waste in her work that led her to punch needle, when she realized that “this method can use up small bits of yarn and, if approached well, have no yarn waste at all.” Visually, Katie’s organic, abstract artwork is a far cry from traditional rug hooking. Her earthy color palettes and elegant balance of shape and texture is created through various pile heights, fringe, and both the front and back of the punch needle stitches. In her work and practice, Katie is “drawn to the act of reclaiming/recycling materials and reimagining a new life for

them.” She uses primarily secondhand materials or sources from local, ethical brands, and makes use of the leftover scraps, right down to the stray threads from her monk’s cloth. I was immediately attracted to the ethos behind Katie’s studio practice, and the way her use of natural dyes and reclaimed materials beautifully echoed the original spirit of rug hooking. From the 1830s, early hooked rugs were made with old clothing and rags, cut up, dyed, and hooked through the leftover burlap from feed sacks. In fact, hooked rugs were so synonymous with secondhand materials and leftover scraps that in its earliest days it was considered a craft of poverty. Katie’s mission in her art is a beautiful continuation of the early roots of this craft, though what used to be done out of necessity can now be a conscious artistic choice. What was once the answer to scarcity, is now the answer to excess.

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READERS’ GALLERY

VENUS PEREZ

enus Perez is a self-taught artist based in San Diego, California, sculpting exquisitely crafted punch needle portraits out of yarn. As rug hooking became more prevalent across North America in the late 1800s and turn of the century, different regions became known for certain styles or techniques. One of the most notable communities was that of Waldoboro, Maine, where the women would painstakingly clip their yarn-hooked rugs, sculpting them into velvety, three-dimensional shapes. This technique is extremely time consuming, and when I saw Venus’s work, I knew she had taken this technique to a whole new level. While the Waldoboro rugs featured flowers, Venus’s work features people. “Faces are my inspiration. The human face is a challenging subject for me. Not only to capture the looks, but to evoke the feeling behind it.” Her incredibly detailed portraits are a success—they are alive with emotion and personality. Like many traditional rug hookers of the past who

didn’t have formal design training, Venus’s love of textiles was instilled in her by women in her family who sewed, and her style and technique evolved through experimentation, practice, and commitment to her craft. While tufting and trimming with electric tools have become popular with some artists these days, sculpting by hand takes time and dedication. It is a continuation of the traditional methods, practiced before those tools were available. Venus’ process includes punching with various sized needles and sculpting the yarn with three different types of scissors. It is not unusual for her to spend hours on a nose or eye, and it takes weeks to complete a full portrait. In our modern world that loves speed and shortcuts, Venus’s work is a reminder of a slower and more intimate connection to creating and working with materials. Through her work, she hopes “to show people the endless possibilities that can come from a single strand of yarn. [I want] people to touch it and feel the hills and valleys, a sensory playground for the eyes and hands.”

God’s Hand, 28" x 28", wool yarn on primary tufting cloth. Designed and punched by Venus Perez with AK-III Industrial Tufting Machine and #10 and #8 Regular. San Diego, California, 2021.

Jesus Christ, 20" x 24", wool yarn, metallic gold embroidery thread, and cotton rope on primary tufting cloth. Designed and punched by Venus Perez with AK-III Industrial Tufting Machine and #10 and #8 Regular. San Diego, California, 2020.

Rug Hooking | March • April • May 2022

CARO BELLO Another artist showing us all the possibilities that can come from yarn is Caro Bello, a graphic designer and punch needle artist from Buenos Aires, Argentina, known for her playful characters and fun, bold style. While working as a freelance graphic designer, Caro explored numerous other artistic mediums such as painting, photography, and pottery. This openness to different forms of creativity led her to experimenting with punch needle to bring her illustrations to life, when she “wanted to decorate [her] home with textile objects that existed in [her]

mind but not on the market.” Caro’s skill in illustration quickly led to a recognizable style and a prolific portfolio of punch needle pillows, tapestries, and toys. While early rug hookers sketched their rug designs on paper or drew on burlap fabric, Caro begins her process in the digital universe, designing vector illustrations on the computer and recreating those designs in yarn and fabric. As she goes from digital design to physical product, she asks herself, “How much of that digital perfection can I reach with yarn?” There is something exciting in the challenge of turning a two-dimensional illustration into a tactile object. Seeing Caro seamlessly apply her artistic training from one form to another reminds me of painters like Marguerite Zorach, George Biddle, and Alexander Calder, whose work spanned various mediums, including hooked rugs. Some of these artists hooked rugs themselves, others designed hooked rugs that were produced by studios such as Ralph Pearson’s Design Workshop. For all of these artists, yarn and fabric offered an exciting new way for their designs to be realized, and translating their artwork to functional items such as rugs created an opportunity to share their art with the broader public.

WHAT IS NEXT? As I continue to practice punch needle, study its history, and champion its future, it becomes increasingly clear that the work being created today is a natural evolution of this craft, following in the footsteps of those who came before us. What I see from today’s punch needle artists continues the same legacy of self-taught dedication, resourcefulness, and creativity that led to the early practice of rug hooking in the 1800s and its continued success through the twentieth century. I am so grateful for and inspired by my fellow artists pushing this craft in new directions. What’s old is made new again, and through the evolution of a new generation pushing the craft forward, punch needle rug hooking is sure to have a long, exciting future. RHM

ABOVE LEFT: PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH, 40cm x 40cm, acrylic and cotton yarn on Panamá backing. Designed and punched by Caro Bello, with Lacis Lavor needle (3mm). Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2020. LEFT: Unicorn, 30cm x 40cm, acrylic and cotton yarn on Panamá backing. Designed and punched by Caro Bello, with Oxford Punch Needle Fine, and Lacis Lavor needle 3mm. Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2021

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READERS’ GALLERY

Punch Needle Fan Club, 24cm x 90cm, acrylic and cotton yarn on Panamá backing. Designed and punched by Caro Bello, with a Oxford Punch Needle Fine, and Mercado de Haciendo Mini. Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2020.

To learn more about these artists and their work, visit https://www.punchneedle.world/ or find them at the following links: Katie Berman: www.katiebermantextiles.com / @katiebermantextiles Venus Perez: @func.n.rec Caro Bello: @porcarobello

Rug Hooking | March • April • May 2022

Micah Clasper-Torch is a fiber artist, Certified Oxford Punch Needle Instructor, and the founder of Punch Needle World. Her punch needle coats have been featured in publications such as Mollie Makes, Love Embroidery, and Koel Magazine. She lives in Los Angeles.

DATEBOOK

A Rug Hooking Engagement Calendar

In each issue of Rug Hooking and online, Datebook lists rug-hooking events, exhibits, and classes across the United States and in Canada. In addition, information on meeting days and times for regional rug-hooking groups (Gatherings) can be found exclusively on our website at www.rughookingmagazine.com. Listings are in alphabetical or chronological order within the categories. Look for listings in your area under these geographic headings: Canada, Northeast, Southeast, Midwest, West, and International. We categorize listings as follows: EVENTS: Attendance is open to the public and event encourages and expands the art of rug hooking. In addition to the dates, times, complete address, and contacts, please include a brief description, and we’ll print if space allows. INSTRUCTION: It is a goal of Rug Hooking to encourage individuals to learn and develop their skills in the art of rug hooking. As a service to our readers, all instructors are invited to provide dates, name of school, city, state, and phone number. This information, as space permits, will be published in Datebook. GALLERIES: Information on exhibits of hooked rugs. Please provide date, time, location, contact information, and a brief description of the exhibit. GATHERINGS: These are local groups of rug hookers who meet on a weekly or monthly basis, and who welcome new members. Because of the extensiveness of this list, we offer it exclusively online at www.rughookingmagazine.com. We encourage you to use this resource to connect with other rug hookers in your area. For inclusion in both the print edition and online Datebook (Gatherings will only appear online), email rughook@amprycp.com. Or send your information to Rug Hooking, PO Box 388, Shermans Dale, PA 17090. Listings appear until they are outdated. Upcoming Datebook submission deadlines are April 1, 2022 (for June/July/August 2022); July 1, 2022 (for September/October 2022); September 1, 2022 (for November/December 2022); November 1, 2022 (for January/February 2023; January 1, 2023 (for March/April/May 2023). Rug Hooking reserves the right to edit all submissions. Datebook is the property of Rug Hooking magazine. Listings are not to be duplicated in any publication or in any other form without the consent of the editor. NOTE: Unexpected changes do occur. Please contact each event to confirm details. CANADA

INSTRUCTION Edmonton Rug Hookers Guild. Pleasantview Community Hall, 109 St. and 58 Ave. First Thursday of each month (except July and August). McGown Certified Instructors; supplies and workshops available with membership. Contact: www.edmonton rughookingguild.com/contact-us/. Mary Grant, Certified Rug Hooking Instructor. 232 Colonial Heights St., Fredericton, NB, E3B 5M1. Contact: (506) 459–8525, mary.e.grant.rughooking@gmail. com; www.marygrantrughooking.com.

GALLERIES The International Gallery of Hooked Rugs. 19 Lawrence St., Amherst, NS. Open Wed., Thurs., Fri., and Sun., 12–4 pm. A unique gallery and market of new and antique hand-hooked rugs in a house from the 1870s. Rugs from many countries; free exhibit space. Contact: Avis Chapman, (902) 667–0988. Hooked Rug Museum of North America. 9849 St. Margaret’s Bay Rd., Hubbards/ Queensland, Nova Scotia. Open weekends in May and 7 days a week June through mid-October, 10 am-5 pm. The Museum has over 8700 square feet of gallery space

exhibiting historic and contemporary rug hooking art and artifacts; featuring an exhibit from a Canadian and International Artist of the Year and local rug hooking groups. Our Fibre Market Place sells rug hooking supplies. Events include workshops and hook-ins. Contact: Suzanne Conrod, (902) 275-5222, or Sherry Chandler, (902) 275-4743, hookedrugmuseum@gmail.com; www.hookedrugmuseumnovascotia.org

EVENTS June 25–July 10, 2022 Woolly Good Hooking Retreat: June 25–June 28, 2022. Festival: July 4–July 10, 2022. Upper Island Cove (Avalon Peninsula), NL. Canadian modern heritage art festival, where tradition is cherished and change is welcomed. Talented cutting-edge instruction in a combination of four-day retreat and/or two-day á la carte classes. Plein-air hooking by the sea and in architecturally relevant sites. Experience heritage and cultural touchpoint accommodations and experiences throughout—just one hour’s drive from St. John’s. Facebook: Woolly Good Rug Hooking Retreat & Festival, Woolly Good Rug Hooking, Woolly Good Rug Hookers. Contact: woollygoodhooking@gmail.com Instagram: @woolly_good_hooking. #thisis notyournansrughooking.

www.rughookingmagazine.com | Rug Hooking

DATEBOOK August 18–August 21, 2022. Rug Hooking Guild of Newfoundland & Labrador Rug School 2022. Emmanuel Convention Centre, Lewisporte, NL, Canada. Courses available for beginners and experienced rug hookers. Newfoundlanders are known for their love of a good time and rug hookers are no exception. Come enjoy good food, good company and learn a thing or two. Registration opens April 2022. For more information visit the website www.rhgnl.ca.

NORTHEAST INSTRUCTION

Norma McElhenny. Monday morning classes at new location in Plymouth, MA. Contact: Norma McElhenny, normam31@verizon.net, (508) 224–5969.

SOUTHEAST INSTRUCTION John C. Campbell Folk School offers adult courses in traditional crafts, including several different rug-hooking options. Located in the mountains of western North Carolina, the school offers weeklong and weekend courses. Contact: (828) 837-2775; www. folkschool.org. Rug Hooking Classes in Northeastern Tennessee. Tri-Cities Area. Beginners welcome. Contact: Eva Valentine, evavalentine@gmail.com.

EVENTS

ty years of rug hooking know-how and 30 years of teaching experience. Contact: Victoria Ingalls, (816) 833–1848, ingalls rugs@sbcglobal.net; www.victoriahartingalls.com. Beginning Rug Hooking Classes at Straight River Rug Hooking. Owatonna, MN. Visit store or website for registration and more information. Contact: www.StraightRiver Rughooking.com or StraightRiverRug Hooking@gmail.com.

WEST INSTRUCTION

Open Rug Hooking Classes with Gene Shepherd. First Saturday of every month (except June), 9 am–2 pm, and most first and third Thursdays of every month, 10 am– 3 pm. Gene’s Studio, 108 North Vine St., Anaheim, CA 92805. Beginners welcome. Dye classes by request. Contact: (714) 956–5150, gene@geneshepherd.com.

INTERNATIONAL OCEANA To see what is going on in Australia, visit the website of the Australia Rugmakers Guild at www.rughookingaustralia.com.au/ current-events/.

GENERAL June 3– August 20, 2022. Fiberart International 2022–Fiberart International 2022 will exhibit the best of contemporary art reflecting a wide range of works related to the fiber medium. The exhibition is recognized around the world as a benchmark that documents trends and innovations in the field. The exhibition includes innovative work rooted in traditional fiber materials, structure, processes, and history. Visit www.FiberartInternational.org for more information.

INDEX TO ADVERTISERS Ali Strebel Designs for Kindred Spirits...................53 ATHA....................................62 Ault’s Rug Hooking Equipment Co...................33 Baa Baa Barrett.....................25

Heartfelt Fibre Arts...............19 Honey Bee Hive........... Inside back cover

Rug Hooking Guild of Nova Scotia...................25 Rustic Rugs...........................65

Hooked in the Mountains.....52

Sauder Village......................17

Hooked Treasures.................19

Searsport Rug Hooking..........3

J. Conner Hooked Rugs.......32

Seaside Rug Hooking...........65

Julie Mayfield Home............33

Spruce Ridge Studios...........43 The Irish Hook......................62

March 25–28, 2022. The Eastwood School of Fiber Arts. Inn on the Lakes, Sebring, Florida. www.seasiderug.com; seasiderug @gmail.com.

Bee Line–Townsend..............33

Checkmate Farm..................53

L.J. Fibers/ Wooly Red Rug..................17

February 23–25, 2023. Florida Hookin’ and Fiber Arts Convention. Punta Gorda, Florida. Searsport Rug Hooking. Contact: searsportrugs@aol.com.

Colorama Wool....................19

Little House Rugs.................52

Cottage House Primitives.....57

Loop by Loop.......................24

Dorr Mill Store........ Back cover

Mary Jane’s Farm..................27

Ewe and Eye.........................62

Martina Lesar........................62

The Rug Hooking Store at Black Horse Antiques........19

Fancy Fibers.........................33

Nistock Farms.......................62

The Wool Farm.....................79

Finally Finished.....................79

Odd Duck Dies.....................53

The Wool Studio...................17

Fluff & Peachy Bean Designs.....................39

Olde Cape Cod....................24

The Woolery.........................32

Ontario Hooking Craft Guild.........................33

Victoria Rudolph...................65

MIDWEST EVENTS Oct. 6-7, 2022, Fall workshop with Caroline Twigg, Buckeye Rug Hooking Guild, Newark, OH. Contact: mfraioli@ columbus.rr.com to register; www.buck eyerughookingguild.com. INSTRUCTION Susan Elcox, New World Rug Hooking. Certified McGown Instructor. Boise, ID. Group classes and private instruction. Contact: (208) 229–3319, newworldhooking @msn.com; www.newworldrughooking. com. Victoria Hart Ingalls. Classes and workshops in traditional and wide-cut rug hooking. For-

Rug Hooking | March • April • May 2022

Briggs & Little.......................53

Gene Shepherd’s Internet Rug Camp...............19 Georgeville Store.................43 Goat Hill Designs..................43 Going Gray....................... …17 Green Mountain Rug School........................13

Pine Island Primitives............39 Primitive Quilts and Projects.......................71 Punch Needle & Primitive Stitcher..............................17 Rug Hooking Traditions........85

Halcyon Yarn...........................1

RHM Back Issues..................87

Handmaiden Designs...........43

RHM subscription.................71

The Needleworks Shop........19 The Old Tattered Flag..........32 The Oxford Company...........65

W. Cushing & Company .................. Inside front cover White Cat Wool....................62 Woolsocks and Hollyhocks.........................43 Woolly Good Rug Hooking..53 Wooly Woolens....................43

Please Accept or Decline Your Book Club Benefits! Dear Rug Hooker,

Please review the benefits of Book Club membership, and join the Rug Hooking Book Club today! We typically publish 4 books per year. And when you join now, we will send your FIRST book for an exclusive discount: only $9.95 USD, plus shipping and handling. That's HUGE savings for new Book Club members... more than 60% off the regular price! Look at the benefits you’ll receive:

Guaranteed discounts on new books

Special sales only for book club members

Go green! Hassle-free automatic book payments

A free E-Newsletter with book club members-only content

Exclusive monthly discounts on our online store

First access to our newest books

BONUS! Special one-time discount off your first book! RETAIL PRICE*

$28.95 USD BOOK CLUB PRICE*

$22.95 USD YOUR EXCLUSIVE PRICE

$9.95 USD To learn more about the Rug Hooking Book Club and become a Book Club Member today: https://www.rughookingmagazine.com/RBC995 (877) 297 - 0965 (U.S.) or (866) 375-8626 (Canada) *Retail and Book Club prices can vary with each title.

Exclusive offer for new Book Club members only!

FIRST RUG ON THE LAST PAGE

North Shore Campsite/Debbi Luedtke North Shore Campsite,14" x 18", #8-cut wool on monk’s cloth. Designed and hooked by Debbi Luedtke, Excelsior, Minnesota, 2021.

etiring and traveling in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic is possible . . . especially if you have an RV! It’s also a great time to learn a new craft—rug making—at North House Folk School in Grand Marais, Minnesota. My husband and I stayed in our little RV at the municipal campground so I could attend a 3-day rug hooking class led by Mary Logue. The design of the rug came after taking a walk along Lake Superior and looking across the bay at our trailer. The light of the sky, a shimmery lake, the rocky shoreline, and the colors of our RV all came together for a project idea. It was fun to

sit in the North House classroom (working six feet away from the other students), listening to the harbor sounds through open windows, learning how to hook rugs, and sharing in the making of mistakes. My finished project now hangs from a piece of driftwood found along the Lake Superior shoreline and serves as a good reminder that the RV will continue to take me on retirement adventures. This is a good life—and I’m taking time to be creative and nurture the artist within. I’m happy that rug hooking is a very portable craft that I can partake in while traveling! RHM

Hooked a first rug you would like to share with us? Teachers, do you have a student with a great first rug? Send a high-resolution digital photo of the rug, and its story in about 300 words to: rughook@amprycp.com

Rug Hooking | March • April • May 2022