Here at High on Hooking we’re thankful for many things this November.
See why we love New Mexico? I took this pic during one of my early morning walks with Bowyn in the Bosque.
We live in a comfy house in the beautiful state of New Mexico. And we’ve had an incredible, albeit warm fall season. We’ll be welcoming good friends here to celebrate Thanksgiving. Bring on the turkey and the pies!
We’re all healthy and have avoided the Coronacootie. (In fact, we just received our boosters!)
The kid will make it home Saturday. And she’ll actually be here for Christmas this year! That’s something to really be thankful for.
In the Studio Online‘s Workshop Week 3 was a hit in October. Stay tuned for a BIG announcement about WW4 in the very near future. Till then, find out who’s teaching teaching this time around HERE.
High on Hooking will be teaching on the road in June of 2022! Stay tuned for more news on the trip.
The supply chain disruptions aren’t an issue to us. We’re thankful we already have everything we need for the holidays in-house: each other, food, shelter, music, wine, and yarn and other art supplies. What else do we need?
High on Hooking wishes you a happy
and healthy AND thankful Thanksgiving!
And, of course, we are most thankful for the High on Hooking dogs Bowyn and Tynan.
High on Hooking is excited to report that WHIMSY was selected to be in this year’s ART AT THE ABBEY exhibition “One Heart, One Mind.” The show starts tomorrow, Thursday, October 14.
Art at the Abbey invites you to experience our 6th Annual Art Exhibition, “ONE HEART, ONE MIND,” opening on Thursday, October 14th and closing on Friday, November 5th at Santa Maria de la Vid Abbey in Albuquerque’s South Valley. This exhibition is held in memory of Rev. Graham R. Golden, O. Praem. (January 8, 1986 – May 21, 2021) and will also serve to celebrate this 900th Anniversary Year of the Norbertine Order (founded December 25, 1121).
Be sure to check out the Digital/Performance Art during your visit, showing in the Library Seminar Room. If the video is not showing, you may find it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9FDoBMJsJk. The full video running time is 16 minutes, 58 seconds. It will close with an excerpt of a homily by Fr. Graham Golden, O. Praem. from August 19, 2018.
For those who are not local or aware, Father Golden was killed when another vehicle hit his car in May, devastating the Albuquerque area community. While I never met him in person, an artist himself, he befriended me on Instagram, complimented my artwork, and asked me to submit to the Art in the Abbey show back in 2019.
If you can’t make it to Albuquerque and the show, the 2021 Exhibition Booklet can be seen HERE.
OPEN FOR VIEWING:
WHIMSY was hooked with old bed sheets and t-shirts on monk’s cloth. Beads complete her. She’s part of the #happyrugseries.
Thursday, October 14 | 6:00pm-8:30pm
Sunday, October 17 | 10:00am-12:00pm
Sunday, October 24 | 10:00am-12:00pm
Friday, November 5 | 6:00pm-8:30pm
(These dates/times may be subject to change)
LOCATION:
Santa Maria de la Vid Abbey
The Norbertine Library & The Church of Santa Maria de la Vid
5825 Coors Blvd. SW
Albuquerque, NM 87121
I hope that you can make it to the ART AT THE ABBY exhibit!
If you’re in need for a little more color, the boys bring you this week’s WHAT’S ON THE FRAME. It is pumpkin season, even here in the high desert of New Mexico. In fact, fall really blew in these past few days. I woke up to 32°F this morning! The boys love cold weather, so they’re very excited.
Do not mistake their intensity for enthusiasm regarding their High on Hooking Dog job. No, all they want is the dental treat. This is NOT a job well done. (The pumpkin was designed by friend and guild mate Darlene Nelson. It’s hooked using all kinds of things: old silk blouses and ties; t-shirts and bed sheets; and wool yarn and a few strips.)
You know that’s how we feel about 2020 and now 2021. Trade cards from the “New Years 1890 Cards” series (N227), a set of 50 cards issued in 1889-90 to promote Kinney Tobacco Company. (Metropolitan Museum of Art; in the public domain)
Happy New Year to all of our Jewish friends! And to everyone else as well – more about that below.
High on Hooking is headed up to Santa Fe again the first weekend of October. Because it’s more fun to play with others, Cathyand I will again share a booth up at the Harvest Festival at Las Golondrinas. Amazingly, I’ve never been there, but everyone says it’s a wonderful place the visit. Being from New England, I figure it’s kind of like Sturbridge Village or Plimouth. (Never ever fall for that Plymouth Rock thing!) Perhaps you’d like to check the Harvest Festival and the hooked art out too…on October 2 and 3, of course.
I’m not gonna lie, the last two vendings weren’t particularly lucrative. Between Covid and logistics and Covid… Someday maybe we’ll get back to some kind of normal. Someday…
In the meantime, there’s plenty to keep us busy. For instance, there are always a rug or three to hook and projects to crochet. There are classes to prep. (Remember that I’ve added a session to WW3 on October 23!) And I need to get ready for an improv hand-quilting workshop with Heidi Parkes. Unfortunately, I’m in another class the exact same time Heidi’s runs, but she’s taping it, so I’ll use the video. Not quite the same, but for 50 bucks, I’m not complaining, especially for one of her classes. More on that later.
In other news, next week we’ll be looking at four new walls. Keep your eyes on the Instagram and Facebook feeds for that. Hoping it’s good for my journaling/sketching practice which need a jump start. And hiking and just getting away from…people.
There’s a LOT going on these days. So much so that I’ve really got to post more. And I will when I get the chance. A hint: Next June, look for HoH in Tennessee! (More on that later too.)
Lastly – besides the pic of the boys and WHAT’S ON THE FRAME – for me, while I’m not Jewish, September’s always been about the NEW YEAR as much as January 1. If you have kids or you were a kid, you understand. But now that Tom and I are on our own and summer in the desert isn’t even close to ending come August 31, the school year isn’t really a thing for us. And yet, September, maybe because it’s such a time of change (or at least potential change), marks a passage for me much as New Year’s does. It’s time to think about winter and being indoors more and how we’ll pass that time. It’s about taking stock and considering how we’ll face the future. But it’s definitely forward-thinking, not sad. It’s about potential.
Bowyn and Tynan bid you all a HAPPY NEW YEAR! Make the best of it. We intend to. This rug is hooked with all reclaimed t-shirts on monk’s cloth. If you want to try hooking with old t-shirts, check out my WW3 class.)
How about you? Do you see September as a “new year” or is it just bittersweet as we say goodbye to sun and warm weather? (Which one starts to really look at differently living in the desert, let me tell you!)
Case in point: The US Post Office and other shipping companies announced that they’ll be instituting a surcharge on shipments come October 1. That is not a good change. Worse, this means that I’ll have to change, that is, raise some of my prices slightly to compensate. I don’t anticipate having to do it for small items – like mug rugs and the sunflower wall hangings and similarly sized items – but the shipping costs for larger items are WICKED these days even without a surcharge.
Please be advised that I won’t do anything till October 1, so if you’re interested in something, order it on EtsyNOW! Or message me to let me know your concerns. I’m sure we can get a rug to you somehow. In fact, if you wish to purchase anything in the shop before or after October 1, contact me directly rather than going through Etsy. You’ll get a bit of a price break anyway as then Etsy won’t take their bite out of it.
Also note that I’m reviewing options to Etsy, including WooCommerce and other such apps. If you have any words of wisdom or other advice for me, please, please share!
Unfortunately, our two forays this year into public sales (one outdoor, one indoor) haven’t had the best results. Damn you, Covid! While we usually do the Fall Fiber Fiesta in Santa Fe, I’m just not that sure it’s a good bet given the virus and its mutations. It’s indoors and three days and a lot of driving or hotel rooms. I usually love this event, but maybe next year. Another bad change…
Now that the unpleasant stuff is out of the way, I’m reminding everyone of the coming In the Studio Workshop Week 3 in October. I’m teaching two sessions of Hooking with T-Shirts. I have a few spots left in each class (both on Saturdays, October 23 and 30). Some workshops are full or almost full, while others have some room. Contact each teacher if you’re interested in their class. More info HERE. Besides myself, teachers include the very cool and fabulous: Susan Feller; Karen Miller; Beth Miller; Meryl Cook, Carmen Bohn, Charlie Dalton; Anastasia Tiller; and Lisa Meecham.
No change here – Tynan and Bowyn bring you the current WHAT’S ON THE FRAME. It’s the rug that I started while traveling and have finally gotten back to (repurposed t-shirts on monk’s cloth).
So, how’s your fall shaping up? Are you back to the usual stuff or is Covid still cramping your style too?
Will you be at Mountainair’s Sunflower Festival Saturday?
Bowyn will be sad if he doesn’t get to meet you at Saturday’s Sunflower Festival.
Unfortunately, last weekend’s textile art sale in Santa Fe was a bit of a logistical bust. But is it really a loss when you spend time hanging with a bunch of other talented fiber artists here in New Mexico or anywhere. NO! Fortunately, Cathy, my partner in crime, and I have the Sunflower Festival in just a few days. It’s always a fun time what with the arts, the music, the food… And Mountainairis a cool, little mountain town, very BIG sky country.
As you can see, I’m ready for the Sunflower Festival. Sunflowers are truly one of my favorite flowers, and if you’ve been following me for at least a year, you know that I like to hook some version of them annually. This year I went small, three wall hangings. And instead of keeping it all t-shirt all the time, I mixed it up. Each one has some amount of t-shirt, bed sheet, wool strips, and wool yarn. The variegated backgrounds were dyed by my own little hands during my “retreat week” back in June. Oh, and I included itty-bitty glass seed beads in the – what else? – sunflower seed heads!
Sunflower wall hanging. (Old t-shirts and bed sheets; wool strips and yarn; glass seed beads.)
It’s the end of summer here in New Mexico, and while the sunflowers are blooming and it’s still warm, you can see that fall’s on its way. Kids have been in school a couple of weeks. (Being from the East Coast, that’s still weird for me.) Already I’ve spied some turning leaves here and there. The Hatch chiles are roasting in the grocery store parking lots. That heavenly aroma!
Fall is a looking forward time for me. How to change up the house decor – pumpkins and candles, of course. The holidays! We just rented a house for a week’s vacation in Arizona (which lets us be self-sufficient in this unnecessarily continued time of Covid, but I digress). New rugs and other textile projects. Workshops.
On that workshop note, I want to remind everyone that In the Studio Workshop Week 3 will be here in two months. Less than that, actually. I’ll be teaching two sessions of Hooking with T-Shirts. The first will be Saturday, October 23. There are a few places still open in each class, so if you’re interested, email me at Laura@highonhooking.com. Some workshops are full but may have a waiting list available. Others still have room. Just contact the teacher of the class you’re interested in.
Lastly, a gentle reminder. The rug hooking week at Sauder Village just wrapped up. Trolling Facebook, I’ve seen wonderful photos of the gorgeous rugs that were on display. One thing, though, that I noticed about many of the posts was the lack of attribution. We need to remember that when we post pics of others’ artwork, we need to give the artists their due and provide their names. An easy way to get that info is to take a quick pic of the little card that’s invariably right next to or just below the rug, painting, quilt, or other piece of art you’re photographing. Then you’ll have everything together when you go to share the art porn.
As summer winds down here in the northern hemisphere, what plans are you making in order to really appreciate and enjoy the autumn? Maybe you’ll head out to Mountainair!
I’m not gonna lie, the last two vendings weren’t particularly lucrative. Between Covid and logistics and Covid… Someday maybe we’ll get back to some kind of normal. Someday…
