Thursday makes it a year that “regular” life came to an end here in New Mexico. Not knowing what I know now, I rather welcomed it. No meetings for the foreseeable future! Remember – we never thought the crisis would go on for sooooo long, and Zoom wasn’t a BIG THING yet. I figured I’d have time to work on my own projects and actually get a chance to explore other ideas percolating in the back of my brain, maybe even move them to the front.
Some of that happened. I certainly had ample time to “play” with the Ribbon Rug Journal. In fact, without Covid, I’m not sure how I would’ve been able to log each day’s entry. (Now if I can only get to writing the magazine article on the damn thing!) I managed, too, to finish “Holes,” a rug about the effects of motherhood on women. But then Karen Miller came up with the idea for In the Studio with its presentations and two! online Workshop Weeks (keep watch; the third will be coming), my own class offerings, and, of course, rugs to make (I do have an Etsy shop). The forced time at home was not quite so restful. Such is our new reality.
A one-line, mirror sketching from 2019. Sadly, a self-portrait.
But some things didn’t change. This March, as I did in 2019 and 2020, I will participate in Sketchbook Revivalpresented by artist Karen Abend. It’s a free, online event whereby each day for a couple of weeks a different instructor presents a a different approach to filling up your sketchbook or journal. As much as I used to be good at that, I’m not anymore. Sketchbook Revival gives me a do-over each year and a way to learn new techniques. As Karen says:
Some sketches are colorful. A “creature” rug perhaps?
“Imagine waking up each day brimming with ideas, excitement, and confidence to open up your sketchbook and start creating, no matter what.”
As far as I’m concerned, sketching can be relaxing and enjoyable on its own, but more importantly, better sketching leads to more and better better hooked pieces. Click on the link above to join. While there are social media pages to share your work and to see that of others’, I generally prefer to keep to myself. And you don’t have to attend every session. I pick and choose. One comes out every day, but the videos stay up for a few weeks.
This was perhaps my favorite sketching session from last year. Who knew? Architectural drawing.
Day-hooking. I mentioned it last post. It’s not necessarily what you think. But it is another benefit of being stuck at home. I generally hook in the evening. Like many of you, if I don’t work with my hands after 8:00 p.m. or so, I’ll fall asleep. That’s when I catch up on TV and movies. But sometimes – like right now – I’m hooking a piece that needs: 1) good light, specifically, the light of day and 2) concentration. Like I said before, in another world in other years, my guild, AWAG, held three retreats and had a teacher visit us, usually for an open workshop. Each event gave me three whole days to work on more challenging rugs. And a multitude of folks to ask for advice when it was needed. Or even when it wasn’t. LOL
While I tend to do other tasks during the day, lately I’ve been trying to carve out some time for day hooking to get through this one difficult project. I feel guilty sitting on my ass, but the work happens, and I can even get some of those year-old NOVAs out of my DVR queue. So, day-hooking, yeah, it’s a thing.
Meanwhile, the night-hooking continues. Which is exactly what the boys bring to you today in the pic. I’ve started on the fourth of what I’m calling my #happyrugseries. I realized that after such a negative year, I’d prefer to mostly focus on the brighter aspects of life. For this one, I’m trying to really just go with the flow; there’s little advance planning in it. Other than the holes, which the rug dictated to me as I sewed on his tape.
“What’s on the Frame.” Bowyn takes being a High on Hooking dog very seriously while Tynan is quite blasé about it these days.
Nancy Hart of AWAG created a rug a couple of years ago that I really loved. I miss you, Nancy, but you’re here with me in spirit, and your rug is my inspiration for this project. Tom’s going to kill me as parked in the living room is a large shopping bag AND a laundry basket filled with all kinds of fiber to pick and choose from as I go. (Plus the day-hooking paraphernalia.) But I’m enjoying working on it all!
What’s got you’re attention these days as we head into the final stretch of the Coronacootie’s reign?
Here in Albuquerque, we’re hemming, hooking, and punching, oh my!
The hemming part of hemming, and hooking, and sewing, oh my!
HEMMING
The secret project is almost done. The hooking’s complete, but there’s a LOT of hemming to be done, rug binding to be sewn down. It’s been taking a LOT of my time. But if I can finish that and figure how to hang it, I think that I’ll enter it into a fiber show up in Santa Fe to run during the New Mexico Fiber Arts Center (formerly Española Valley Fiber Arts Center) Fiber Crawl in May. Check out the info whether you’d like to be a participant or would prefer to check out the festivities this year.
HOOKING Cathyand I have one more evening in Santa Fe as artists in residence at the Inn on the Alameda. There’s not been all that much action, but we usually get in a few good chats with a guest or two. Two weeks ago we met a group of ladies who came from all over the US to take a workshop that would teach them how to make clothes from the cloth that they’d woven back at home. They were really into the tactile nature of our hooked rugs. One woman had inherited hooking paraphernalia from a relative and got all hyped visiting us. Another loved the idea of using used clothing, especially t-shirts, and wants to give hooking a try. Alas, she isn’t from here, so she’ll have to find a teacher on her own.
Meanwhile, Friday, a friend of a LeeAnne, an AWAG guild mate of mine, came here for an intro lesson Friday. (Bowyn was a BEAR, wanting desperately to become her new best friend. Ideas of what to do with a dog when you teach in your home? Till he’s trained, that is.) Barbara came last week so that she could attend AWAG’s first hooking retreat of the new year. If you’re in the area of Hope Church on Juan Tabo in Albuquerque Wednesday or Friday, 10-3, we cordially invite you to stop by. If hooking’s your thing, bring that. Knitting, embroidery, whatever, we’re happy to have you. (FYI, Thursday, we’ll be holding an in-guild miniature punch needle class, so our hospitality will be “compromised.”)
Tynan brings you this post’s “what’s on the frame”!
Lastly, as you can see in the photo, Tynan brings you this week’s “what’s on the frame.” It’s a cheery and color-full rug that I’m hooking with old woven bed sheets. Unlike other on-going projects, it’s highly portable. Each evening, too, I hook my daily entry on the ribbon rug journal. More on that next time.
Come punch with me in Santa Fe on February 29.
PUNCHING
And lest anyone forget, Saturday, February 29, I host my first Intro to Punch Needle Rug Hooking class up in Santa Fe, in the New Mexico Fiber Center’s new shop. It opened back in November. Most exciting, doing a class in Santa Fe instead of Española cuts my commute by a full 30 minutes! If you haven’t been there, make sure you make a trip. It’s cute and carries more finished goods than the Española headquarters. And if you’d like to try punching à la Amy Oxford, sign up ASAP. If you can’t make that class, contact me about a class in my home or even yours.
My other two boys, Tom and Bowyn. Like most days in New Mexico, Saturday was sunny, so the four of us piled in the car went off on a jaunt. Have you done any good walks and hikes lately?
Okay, things could be a lot worse. Hemming, hooking, and punching are all better than working in an office or shoveling snow or even having a mammogram or dental work. Frankly, they’re better than teaching Bowyn over and over how to be a good canine citizen. He’s stubborn and more than a little crazy, that one. But you have to love him. Or at least Tom and I have to. WHAT ARE YOU UP TO THIS WINTER DAY?
Want to learn a new skill and recycle some old stuff at the same time? We’ll be doing just that in my workshop “Hook a Rug, Save the Planet.”
November 2, 2019 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM
Learn the basics of traditional rug hooking but with a twist – using old t-shirts, recycled wool strips, yarn, ribbon, and anything else you have in the house that you can pull a loop with. We’ll talk about “virgin” fibers, certainly, but we’ll do our part for the environment and save some money while we make something beautiful. During the class, you’ll learn how to:
• transfer a pattern onto a monk’s cloth backing;
• prepare your materials;
• begin hooking a mug rug and table “mat” or wall-hanging.
Laura Salamy will present “Hook a Rug, Save the Planet” workshop November 2.
We’ll discuss various ways you might want to finish your rug after all the hooking is done. *No experience is necessary; just come prepared to play with color and textures!
Rug hooked using recycled t-shirts.
Material students should provide: good scissors and quilting hoop if you have one. If not EVFAC will provide a 12” hoop for use in this class (available for purchase)
Material instructor will provide: Monk’s cloth backing; hooks; rug binding; extra frames to try; thread/needles; hooking materials
Laura is an experienced, albeit “less-than-traditional” rug hooker who owns a business, High on Hooking (www.highonhooking.com), selling hooked items primarily in local shows and on Etsy. She’s lived in Albuquerque for over four years, leaving gray New England for the Southwest’s sunny, open skies. In 2018, she was elected President of the Adobe Wool Arts Guild (AWAG), New Mexico’s only rug hooking guild.
This class requires a minimum of three students.
Non-Member: $80 (Member $65)
Materials Fee: $15 Materials fee is paid at first class meeting.
Another August, another Mountainair Sunflower Festival for High on Hooking. (See what happened one other year.) Come see us along with Cathy Kelly, fellow rug hooker. Sample our wares, fondle the rugs, buy one! Mention our social media and get 10% off any item. Don’t forget to wear your sunflower bonnet!
G THING yet. I figured I’d have time to work on my own projects and actually get a chance to explore other ideas percolating in the back of my brain, maybe even move them to the front.
