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) –
Vintage Boucherouite rug offered for sale on Etsy by Shkoon.
looking for inspiration for my next hooked rug and somehow I came across Boucherouite rugs. I must have been in my Indigenous Art folderor 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.
Tynan presents “What’s on the Frame Today.” It will eventually be my hooked “Boucherouite” table runner.
I can’t believe that I forgot I hooked that rug! Yes, it went plumb out of my mind. Let me explain.
Unfinished and, therefore, unnamed rug being hooked with t-shirts sometime last fall.
Last night I was going through my laptop files looking for a particular rug photo. (I read a blog that encourages people to share their gardens and crafts and such. Of course, they want to see my rugs. 🙂 ) So, I’m combing through the blog file, the guild file, High on Hooking’s inventories, every file containing pics of rugs for whatever reason. And I come across this photo of an unfinished rug.
And I think, where the hell that rug?How come I haven’t been trying to sell that??? It was a pretty large, circular deal. About 28 inches in diameter.
Like many of you, I am not a woman who keeps things that bother me to myself. I less than casually mention it to Tom who responds with What rug? (Insert my eye roll here.) Once I show him the photo, oh, I remember that one! Thank God. I was starting to think senility might be creeping in. Then he asks about its whereabouts. Duh! Then he asks if I ever finished it. Of course, I finished it! I had to have done it before I started the big, blue floral rug around January 1.
I check the wicker trunk and the cedar chest. Nada. I take a cursory glance around the closet and laundry room, but they both hold my hooking raw materials, not finished rugs, most of which currently abide in my mobile store. It’s definitely not with them.
Again to the cedar chest. I do a better search, actually take things out. Nope. The rug seems to have vanished. I briefly consider that Melinda might’ve taken it. She reallyliked it when I was working on it. Nah, I would’ve seen it at her house. So, it has to be in mine!
Tom’s lost interest by now. I head back to the closet and the laundry room. Okay, I have not cleaned or sorted my laundry room counter in a very l-o-n-g time. Been too busy. This time I actually pick up some pile, move things around, and…lo and behold!…there, neatly folded, is that rug. I grab it, unfold it. Oh, the hooking is done – just like I remembered – but the finishing, not so much. Never bandy that word senility around so casually when you live in a glass house. It will come back to bite you in the ass.
I definitely hooked that rug. I most definitely did NOT finish that rug.
Now I have another job to do so that I can get this baby out to the Rail Yards and the other places I’m selling at this season. (That would include, I recently found out, the Sunflower Festival in Mountainair, here in New Mexico on August 26.) Since tonight I’ll finish hooking another rug (see photo below) and have yet to design something new, I guess that I’ll be sewing binding on the “Tree of Life” when I meet with some guild members tomorrow for a mini hook-in. Like you, I’d rather hook.
Last week brought some interesting news. Along with 59 other hookers who feel a need to share the hooking gospel via social media, specifically via a blog, High on Hooking’s blog was named one of the best 60 rug hooking blogs. (It didn’t specify where, so I’ll go with in the entire world.) I admit that when I saw the email that morning, I scoffed to Tom that it was some kind of scam, false news, as it were. But, no, when I got on Facebook later in the day, congratulations were flying. Thank you, Rug Hooking Magazine and Feedspot for a lovely and unexpected boost.
Lastly, Tynan is back with “The Rug on the Frame.” Though he did mention that it felt like a demotion after being allowed to write the blog last week. I told him that if he’s good, he’ll get another chance. And if he stops calling us idiots. This rug is a favorite of his, though he’d make me take out the “WOOF” and put in his name. Then I couldn’t sell it, I explained. Exactly, he said.
Tynan says, that rug should be mine. “Woof” is hooked all in t-shirt. Much cooler than wool this time of year.
Me presenting my piece at the end of our workshop with Cheryl Bollenbach. Those with sharp eyes and a Rug Hooking Magazine subscription will recognize the pattern I used. Thank you for sharing this with the hooking world, Brigitte Webb! I hope to do it justice.
It’s been almost a month, and I’m a day or two late, but I had to come back sometime. Not going to apologize for loving time off from the blog, but logging into WordPress for the first time in weeks, I realize how much updating I have to do on the entire freakin’ site. Along with some other electronic “toilette.” Sigh. Work is never done.
Note, I may not have been blogging, but I have been hooking. That is rarely a chore. Oh, maybe it is for those of you who whip-stitch. Yeah, I hardly ever do that crap.
What have I been doing? Funny you should ask.
May started with a bang. The Adobe Wool Arts Guild (AWAG) invited Cheryl Bollenbach back to conduct a three-day workshop. As usual we learned a lot and bought even more…wool. My project was unusual, though only for me. It’s very…traditional. I’m working with wool strips – no t-shirts! I’m trying out linen for the first time. And see in the picture – no rug binding sewn on before hooking commenced. Don’t get too excited. There will be no whip-stitching. I’ll have it framed when I’m done. A girl can only go so traditional.
A view of our guild booth at Fiber Arts Fiesta.
Albuquerque Fiber Arts Fiesta went down May 19-21. Of course, there was A LOT of work to be done before that. AWAG ran a successful booth. We had many visitors and several ladies who signed up for more information. In fact, I just gave a lesson this week to one of them. Ah, to spread the gospel of hooking. Below is a montage of pics taken by Melinda’s husband Gary of Gary Lamott Photography. Enjoy! And thank you again, Gary!!!
Our “shop” at the Rail Yards is open. Here we share the gospel of hooking with folks who have never seen the art form. Others tell me tales of parents and grandparents who hooked. Come on down! Great fruits and veggies, plus arts, music, and yummy food.
High on Hooking started our selling season at Albuquerque’s Rail Yards. Despite it being Memorial Day weekend (holidays are notorious for slow sales) and thanks to a woman visiting from Las Cruces who loves textiles, we had a good day. Come visit; we’re there every other weekend till mid-October.
Sadly, those of us from AWAG who do demos at the Biopark’s Botanical Garden gave our last spiel till August. We had over a hundred kids in talking about what we do and trying their little hands at hooking. The park kicks us out for two months to use the Heritage farmhouse for summer camp programs. I guess it’s a good enough reason. In the meantime, in addition to our guild meetings, we’re meeting at members’ homes because we refuse to give up that whole social thing.
Finally had the chance to do all the planting and potting that I’d been putting off till after Fiesta. Now I’m just waiting for my first crop of basil. I make A LOT of pesto to freeze for winter, but there’s nothing that says summer’s arrived like the aroma of basil.
Summertime and the living is easy. If you have a floatie. And a big rubber duckie.
And the pool’s up! I’ve even had a chance to chill in it on my floatie. Which pretty much takes up most of the pool when you add in my bulk-ritude. It is only 10 feet in diameter. But it works, especially for the hot flashes.
Then there were visits from family members back east. And this and that. You know, the usual life “stuff.” You remember John Lennon saying how life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans. (Actually, any number of people may have said that. You can read all about that here.) Actually, I’m already planning another week off from the blog in a few weeks when Tom and I and the dog motor up to Pagosa Springs, Colorado, for some R&R (read: hiking and hanging on the patio with a beverage or three and a book or five).
What are your plans this summer? Do they involve hooking or other kinds of fun? Some form of escape? Travel? Getting together with friends? Share what you’re up to and make me jealous!
Congratulations, Melinda Lamott on receiving the Peoples’ Choice Award for rug hooking at Fiesta 2017!
EVFAC is located in Espanola, New Mexico, about a half-hour north of Santa Fe on the way to Taos.
My two-part class at the Española Valley Fiber Arts Center (EVFAC) finished up yesterday, and yes, peeps, we have welcomed at least one new acolyte to the fold. Woohoo! Felicity, who happens to also hail from Albuquerque, was already a fiberista first class: she knits, sews, weaves, dyes, and I don’t know what else. Except for rug hooking. She’s added that to her repertoire now. I suspect she’ll do some cool stuff with it all.
After an incredible drive up north that reminded me of why I moved to New Mexico – big, blue sky; purple mountains majesty; snow-covered peaks even in April… – I was unpacking and found that my other student had texted that she couldn’t make the class. (Fortunately, she lives near me too, so, hopefully, we can do a quick wrap-up here in ABQ.) When Felicity wasn’t there by 10:20, we got worried and called her. “Sorry! Be there soon!” She’d gotten caught in some traffic. Whoo, I thought wiping the sweat away, I’d been worried I’d turned two people off the craft.
Felicity has become a student of the gospel of rug hooking. Woohoo!
Imagine my concern then when Felicity informed me that she hadn’t finished hooking her t-shirt mat, In fact, she’d not worked on it at all! Damn, what the hell had I done or said last week? But wait! I had it all wrong. She pulls out her monks’ cloth and tells me that she started a new rug! (I’d given them enough to do just that but figured it would happen after the first one.) She has all kinds of wool yarn sitting
Felicity said she’d send me pics when she finishes her project. But I really can’t wait to see what she does with rug hooking, how she integrates it into her other artistic endeavors.
around her house and decided she wanted to try hooking that! So, there she was trying different directions and textures. I though that it was very inspired of her to go all rogue like that. Sure, she couldn’t go through the finishing process, but I had a few small rugs on me that needed to be finished up; we used them as demos. Felicity’s clearly a quick study, so she’ll get hers done up, no prob. Even better, she was able to score a Puritan frame for just $70. It had been sitting around the store for months and was in great condition.
Pic of a Puritan frame. (Sorry, no longer available from iloverughooking.com).
Because there’d been some issues getting the class online for sign-up, I was lucky to get two students, the minimum needed for a class to run. The good thing is that where our tiny class was located required folks to walk by us and naturally stop to check out what we were up to. Several women mentioned being interested. “Would they be running the class again?” It’s up to them to bug request that EVFAC do just that. I’m up for it. And since I joined the Center as a member (which amongst other things lets you sell in the shop and outside sales they sponsor plus provides discounts for classes and items for sale), I’ll be stopping by any time I’m up in that area. And there’s a wicked sounding, one-day photography class with my name on it.
EVFAC is filled with all things fiber. You certainly can’t get out without buying something. (Read: good stuff and reasonable prices.) Classrooms galore. During our class yesterday, there were workshops going on in felting and quilting. A new weaver was trying to warp a loom, and spinners were hanging around the couches…spinning. What else?
EVFAC’s an hour and a half ride for me, but worth it. Do you have a fiber “facility” that’s not all that near to your home, but that inspires you to drive? Extol its virtues here.
And to those celebrating this week, Happy Easter and Passover! Tom, Tynan, and I will be taking some time off. It’s a good time to put away the social media for a bit and enjoy what we have.
Mary Ramsey, AWAG president, indoctrinating, I mean, sharing rug hooking, specifically her “Chicken Cha,” with visitors to Heritage Farm in Albuquerque’s Botanic Garden.
Where’s High on Hooking? Like Waldo we could be almost anywhere. Though yesterday we were with other members of the Adobe Wool Arts Guild (AWAG) at Albuquerque’s BioPark for our twice monthly demo gig. After last week’s news, though, we really could be almost anywhere.in the coming months.
Like Lauren at Rugs and Pugs, last week was spent suffering through all kinds of nasty sinus issues and such. And we’re still on the mend! But life looked a hell of a lot better when one day’s email brought news of High on Hooking being juried into Albuquerque’s 8th Annual Recycled Art Fair. That’s the last weekend of April and conveniently located only a couple of miles down the road from my house at the Open Space Visitor Center. Besides vendors, there will be food, live music, and all kinds of good stuff.
Another email finally green-lighted me into this year’s Rail Yard’s Market downtown. Woohoo! I loved doing the market last year: tasty food, music, fabulous people-watching, and the chance to spread the gospel of rug hooking to new believers.
There are other irons in the fire. AWAG’s got Cheryl Bollenbach motoring down from Colorado to teach another class in early May. Fiber Arts Fiesta comes up a couple of weeks later. Lots of work going on with that! (It being my first Fiesta ever – having moved here only a year and a half ago – I feel like I’m about to be hit by a beautiful and handmade freight train. A freight train nonetheless.) Oh, we’ve got company coming twice! in May before Fiesta starts.
Life’s busy and that’s a really good thing. I mean, who wants to be bored? Not me. I can play “Where’s High on Hooking” all year long.
Keeping busy: This is a problem that you’re glad to have.
–American actor Michael Winslow
Tynan presents this week’s “Current Rug.” Actually, there are three on the frame, all mug rugs as we get ready for the 2017 selling season. No, he’s not particularly interested in the mats; Tom was in the kitchen making “food” sounds. That was soooo much more compelling.
