Boucherouite rugs are my new passion! Sort of. See, I was going through my Pinterest pins – I put tons of things up on Pinterest for for later use (far more than I’ll ever be able to use) –
looking for inspiration for my next hooked rug and somehow I came across Boucherouite rugs. I must have been in my Indigenous Art folder or something and one thing led to another. Anyway, these rugs are colorful geometrics, very rustic-looking. Right up my alley!
Doing a little research, I found out that the Boucherouite rugs, also called carpets, are woven by Berber women in North Africa (often Morocco). They recycle old textiles and clothing to create one-of-a-kind rugs. Ah…sound familiar? Apparently, they became quite the home decor rage a few years ago. This blog post by Decor8 gave a nice overview back in 2013. (I am sooo behind the times…)
Looking at them, the rugs reminded me of how woven bedsheets hook up, so it seemed a natural extension to draw out something on the monks’ cloth that approximated a Boucherouite. Tynan’s showing you below what I came up with. It’s not a floor rug this time, but a table runner. I’ve got basic colors in mind, and I will use primarily bedsheets, but I plan on making a lot of it up as I go along. Please join Tynan and me on the journey. More next week…
In the meantime, where do you look for artistic inspiration? Favorite sources? Please share them with us in the comment section below.
Wow! I’ve never heard of these rugs. I googled and didn’t find much info. I was curious whether they were flat or pile rugs. I love the colors and the wonkiness of them. I will be very interested to see what you design and hook.
I’m in Franklin TN today and tomorrow Peter and I are off to IL for a machine quilting event. Franklin was a spot I visited in my where to live next trips It’s a lovely spot and was high on the list.
Inspiration for hooking? I haven’t done a lot of hooking recently, as you know! I do have a rug of my own design in the works that I quite like. It’s funny birds. I was trying to find a way for beginning hookers to design their own rugs. I’ll blog about it when I finish it…some day!
Damn, funny birds. Now I want to see it! I’ve heard that Franklin, TN, is nice. I’ll have to see where it is on the map. Tom and I are planning to drive back up to New England the 2nd half of October (between selling gigs here). First trip back! I’d prefer to take a southern route there to see national parks and such. In fact, I’d like to see so much, who knows if we’ll have time to see family and friends?!!? Undoubtedly, we’ll have to kill ourselves driving back. They are woven rugs, but do look like they aren’t necessarily completely flat. It is difficult to tell. Big thing for me will be to make some of my hooking run in straight lines as if it was woven. Not that I can do that with the border because I zig-zagged it.That’ll take me a while to hook. Why do I do these things to myself. I’m doing it in bedsheets, so it’ll have the kind of stringy, wonky look. ANd I am poor at making something look like there’s no color-planning at all. Nah, can’t do that. Completely incapable. 🙂
Looks like the “reasonable route” is way north. Franklin TN is just south of Nashville. A suburb.
No, I agree. Coloring planning and auditioning are my middle names. I cannot be random, even when weaving rag rugs! I’d have to copy one of those rugs….
I didn’t copy one, but I can’t be all willy-nilly color-wise, so…I won’t be! I’m just adapting a style anyway, so I can adapt as I see fit. 🙂