Started a new rug hooking course with Deanne Fitzpatrick about 4 weeks ago. It is an online course where she sends you two videos a week along with some commentaries and answers to questions that have been asked. You send in pics of your in progress rug and she will make suggestions.
I do like online courses.. you work at your own pace and I find that very relaxing. I tend to be more productive. I have taken some classes with her in Amherst, Nova Scotia and that definitely is an experience you should go to if you can. I am NOT very productive in these classes and tend to listen and watch what everyone is doing. I soak it all in….mull it around and then apply it to my work when I go home.
If you have a chance to take an online course do so – it is well worth it.
I will be posting the progress of my rug in the next few days…
This was the next step.. I outlined all the layers with some contrasting wool and then started hooking the leaves. In order to check if I had enough contrast I took a B/W picture of the rug… I think that so far I have enough contrast…
Here is an example of a B/W of another rug in progress. You can see that I have a contrast issue here… Too much medium value going on here.. so what I will do is clip some sections.. pull them and hook with some colour that will give the element more pop and provide more of an eye pleasing look.
Next to do the layer below the trees. That will be an ocean with salmon in it….I hang the rug on the wall and I start auditioning colours and textures. It usually takes me a couple of days to think it over. I will think about it when falling asleep and when I awake up and during the day my mind will drift to the question – how am I going to hook this…Then maybe a couple of days later when I get all fired up with a clear plan I lay all the fabrics down and then start picking them apart til I come up with a palette I am looking for. In this layer I will use yarn, fabric and sari ribbon. I plan on outlining the salmon with a lime green so there is a bit of contrast and we’ll see how that works.
Here is my palette and some of it might just not make it into the rug… I figure you have to try it first – one can always pull the pieces that don’t work! we’ll see… off to do some hooking.
Red Sands Rug Hooking Studio 