“Kasha-Katuwe” means “White Cliff” in the native language of the Cochiti pueblo people. The tapered rock formations are called hoodoos (or tents). Some still retain their “boulder caps.”
“Make sure you visit Tent Rocks,” both friends and acquaintances told us. “Go now, before the it gets too hot.” Actually, they said that back in March. We finally made it Sunday even though we couldn’t take Tynan (the dog) which was what made us hesitate earlier. He loves going to new, outdoorsy places. But even without him there, it was easily the BEST, MOST INTERESTING FIELD TRIP since we moved to New Mexico back in August.
Tent Rocks are the products of volcanic eruptions that happened 6 or 7 million years ago.
Technically, the national monument is Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks. It’s located about an hour north and west of Albuquerque. There are very cool geologic formations as well as a couple trails with wicked vistas that include views of the Sandia, Sangre de Cristo, and Jemez mountains and the Rio Grande River valley.
Entrance to the slot canyon portion of the Slot Canyon Trail.
According to the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management (because why should I re-write the wheel?):
The cone-shaped tent rock formations are the products of volcanic eruptions that occurred 6 to 7 million years ago and left pumice, ash, and tuff deposits over 1,000 feet thick. Tremendous explosions from the Jemez volcanic field spewed pyroclasts (rock fragments), while searing hot gases blasted down slopes in an incandescent avalanche called a “pyroclastic flow.”
Precariously perched on many of the tapering hoodoos are boulder caps that protect the softer pumice and tuff below. Some tents have lost their hard, resistant caprocks, and are disintegrating. While fairly uniform in shape, the tent rock formations vary in height from a few feet up to 90 feet.
The view from the top of the mesa. The climb there was quite satisfying. I’m not sure if those are the Sangre de Cristos or the Jemez mountains. Either way, we were jiving on the undulating cliffs.
What are the cool, touristy places you can visit in your area? How do they provide inspiration for your art?
It’s as if the trees grow right out of the rocks! Check out those gorgeous stone curves. They encourage you to wend your way to the right, to keep following the path. And maybe even to create an abstract rug based on them.Unfortunately, I’m not up on my high desert botany yet, so I can’t give you a name, but aren’t these gorgeous? Who says the desert is boring and…brown? I see bright orange flowers in a near-future mat…
Cheryl Bollenbach (r) and Dagmar hold up Dag’s rug for show and tell Friday. Dag’s son was the original artist, but she’s the one putting the life into it. She’s a fearless fiber artist who incorporated all kinds of new techniques into this rug.
Hard to believe, but it’s a full week later and the open workshop with Cheryl Bollenbach has come and gone.
Fortunately, the lessons learned and the camaraderie enjoyed go on. Case in point: many of us from the Adobe Wool Arts guild are gathering Friday for another round of dyeing. Okay, personally, I’m not doing any dyeing; I don’t even have any wool to dye. I’m just going to hang out and provide the comedy.
Even though I was working with t-shirt strips last week, it didn’t stop me from purchasing some of Cheryl’s wools. I love the sparkly stuff; every rug needs a little bling in it.Check out the stem action on Dagmar’s rug. By incorporating cording and stitching and her own hand-dyed yarn, she punched up the texture factor.Linda’s Celtic color-planning. Oh, my!
I’ve included a bunch of pics I took last week. Some are of rugs, some are of rugs and their people, and some are just of folks concentrating on their hooking or having fun.
Mary and her dog sat next to me. She was so life-like (the dog, not Mary; Mary is full of life), that I had to reach over and pet her now and again. Again, the dog, not Mary.How my own psychedelic Tynan (the Welsh springer spaniel) is coming. BTW, he’s made out of old t-shirts.
Cheryl helped each of us develop some new skills, learn a few tricks, and look further into what it is we’re aiming to get out of this art/craft of rug hooking. She did some “long and lovely” dying in the Fry Daddy.
The other Linda’s rug included her Mom. I salute Linda for learning hoe to do a realistic face.Mary’s mountainscape is full of color. It made her absolutely giddy for the three days.
Cathy spent three days hooking and then sculpting these rocks. Very cool.
Friday, Cheryl finally put the “fire” into her presentation as she’d been promising: she demonstrated how we might enjoy aiming a heat gun onto decorated Tyvek to shrivel it. “Cut it into strips and you can really hook this up,” she told us. For those not familiar with Albuquerque springs, they tend to be rather windy. Indeed, Friday, Mother Nature let it gust. The doors of our police substation venue were desperate to open and close on their own; Linda was almost blown down as she stepped outside. Maybe fire wasn’t the best idea for the day especially given our EMS facility. Nonetheless, Cheryl was up for it. Alas, the heat gun on hand wasn’t. Too hot, it blew holes into the Tyvek. They were, we noted, quite interesting-looking holes. (Sorry, the wind precluded photos being taken.) Yet I’m sure something could’ve been done with that Tyvek and some wool and a little imagination. And even the foot-long, blue twist tie Cheryl deposited on my table Wednesday afternoon. That’s how she made us feel about hooking. Anything is possible.
Some of the colors I’m using on Tynan.The values of those same greens. I think that one of the most valuable things I learned was how my phone’s camera can make me use color better and thus improve as a hooker.
A “long and lovely” cooking.…and voila ! Here’s the piece all dyed and washed and ready to use. And it’s all mine because I won it!
Darlene hooking her rose with those skinny, little #3 cuts.
Denise, still new to hooking, even did some proddy work. (I’ve never done that…)
Thank you, Cheryl Bollenbach, for an an informative and plain old fun three days. Kudos to Catherine Kelly for all your organizational work and to all the other members of the Adobe Wool Arts guild for the hospitality and friendship you’ve shown me these last several months since I moved to town.
Denise working hard. So is Pat behind her, Pat who’s been hooking longer than most anyone!Hookers just gotta have fun.Much as Rug Hooking Magazine has the first rug last, Liz presented her first rug and her new second rug. Bravo, Liz!
Just stopped by to dash off a quick post – a “postette” perhaps? – as I’ve got tons to do to get ready for this week’s hooking activities. Tomorrow, being the first Tuesday of the month, will find me at Albuquerque’s Botanic Garden participating in my guild’s monthly demonstration. I’ll be bringing my recently completed bed sheet rug and the new one that I’m working on. Yes, I am rather obsessed and finding these rugs great fun to work on.
One finished bed sheet rug to show off at the Biopark tomorrow.And a new bed sheet rug to demo with the guild.
Then there’s this week’s 3-day rug camp with Cheryl Bollenbach. Like I mentioned last week, I finally decided that I wanted to do a portrait of my dog Tynan. But not a realistic interpretation looks- and color-wise. I do want to realistically capture his spirit. I managed to draw him onto the monk’s cloth a few days ago. Picked the colors only this morning and still have to sew the twill tape onto the pattern. So much to do before Wednesday!!!
Tynan and I are off to workshop with the Adobe Wool Arts Guild and Cheryl Bollenbach Wednesday.
What are your hooking plans and/or goals this week?
Our new “raised gardening beds.” Water goes down the PVC pipe from the hose and collects below the soil in each tub. From there it “wicks up” and reduces the need for daily manual watering. In theory, that’s how it works. We shall see.
Gardening, rug hooking in Albuquerque – what’s old is new again for us here in Albuquerque. At least for Tom and me.
First the gardening. In Massachusetts, planting didn’t happen till mid-May, even early June some years. Not here. Pansies started in late February, and this week we were at Lowes buying herbs and flowers. Today we started planting. Forget the garden bed in the middle of the yard or digging into the soil, though. Instead of dirt, our yard is basically hard-packed sand. So Tom did some – pardon the pun – digging online and came up with these contraptions on the left.
Given how dry it is here in the high desert, they’re supposed to help with watering too. Next week, we’ll pick up a large horse trough and tomato plants. Back east we used to do yard work on automatic pilot. Here it’s gardening 101 all over again.
New mat made out of old bed sheets.
Then there’s my newest rug, one I previewed a few weeks ago in the Experimenting post. I’m just finishing it up now – whip stitching, of course. (From last week’s post, you know how much I love doing that.) The fun thing about this mat is that it’s hooked completely out of bed sheets on a latch hook background. It came out nice and fluffy. Perfect, perhaps, for a bathroom. Already, I’ve been out collecting more sheets at my local Savers so I can start a new one.
I’m so excited to be giving new lives to old linens and clothes. Recycling, upcycling, whatever you choose to call it, keeps stuff out of landfills and looks pretty fine as well.
Whip stitching along the backside of the bed sheet rug.
Many hookers have branched out to alternative fibers these days, if only to add texture and other layers of interest to their rugs. Please post pics of your experiments on High on Hooking’s Facebook page.
Now I remember why I stopped whipstitching and went back to finishing rugs with binding tape. And why so many asked about my method of sewing the tape to the edge of the rug before I pull a single loop. ‘Cause whipstitching is a BIG pain in the heiny!
I can say that because I’ve spent part of the past couple of says whipstitching two small rugs. In order to save some of my dwindling supply of monk’s cloth (my old supplier closed over a year ago, and I bought a LOT then), I drew the two mats pretty close together and didn’t bother to sew the twill tape on. I’ll finish them differently, I told myself. Idiot.
The reality is that I find sewing on binding tape BY HAND ALWAYS pretty “zenning.” I listen to music or Prairie Home Companion while I do it. Not so much whipstitching. But it had to be done. And so it was.
In other news, last Thursday evening, Tom and I headed down to the University of New Mexico – Valencia’s Fine Arts Gallery in Los Lunas to hear Adobe Wool Arts guildmate Mary Schnitzler lecture on rug hooking in general and Grenfell mats in particular. Great job, Mary! Then a group of us walked over to the artists’ reception to look at all the mats that are hanging for the month-long show. If you’re in the area, stop by. In the meantime, enjoy a few photos.
“Great Aunt Margaret on Slovenian Family Farm” by Mary Schnitzler.Guild member Mary Ramsey on demo duty.
“Ketchikan Mask” by Cathy Kelly.
Rugs by guild members: Cathy Kelly, Mary Schnitzler, Pat Wagner, and me, Laura Salamy (“Fireworks”). The large rug in the center is the “guild rug” worked on my members a few years back (before my time).
