Category: raw materials

April 5, 2023

Yearlong Environmental Stitching Project

Celebrating Earth Month with the Yearlong Environmental Stitching Project!

As many know, a main focus in my artwork, particularly hooking, is to bring attention to the state of our shared environment. Globally, locally too, it’s not in great shape. Between crazy-ass storms, drought, rising temperatures, air and water pollution, too much trash and waste, etc., etc., we’re suffocating ourselves and other forms of life here on earth. (Though I understand that cockroaches and kudzu are still doing quite well.)

If you’re reading this, I won’t bother preaching to the choir. You’re already aware of the problems. And you’ve probably heard me pontificate or at least share various posts on my social media. A note, my initial career was in environmental regulatory management for industry. I’ve had plenty of time to think about what we put in and on this planet of ours.

Honey bee - Yearlong Environmental Stitching Project — On January 14 I stitched about how the US Department of Agriculture approved the first ever vaccine to prevent the bacterial disease that destroys honey bee colonies. This is GOOD NEWS!

More than wool, I create hooked art using different types of old textiles that I find in Savers (my local thrift store) and am gifted. They can include old t-shirts and other clothing, curtains and bedsheets, and so on. It makes me feel good to tell people what the art they’re fondling is made of. Kids especially love to see and touch recycled t-shirt rugs.

In 2020, I spent the WHOLE YEAR hooking and stitching the Ribbon Rug Journal (RRJ). Not familiar with it? You can read about it HERE. Given the nature of 2020, I had plenty of time to sit down every single night to log in that day’s entry. Still I was psyched that I made it to December 31. And really ready to move on from the project given the time and energy it took. It’s since been the subject of an article I wrote for Rug Hooking Magazine and hung in two exhibits.

Fast forward to late 2022. Surprisingly, I was itching for another yearlong endeavor, preferably something with meaning from the get-go. (When I started the RRJ, I had no idea that 2020 would be the “special” year that it became.) I wasn’t looking to hook something every day; that’s what my regular projects are for. Besides, Tom begged me not to have to work on something every night. So, I pondered…

Brown widow spider - Yearlong Environmental Stitching Project — On March 13, I started the Brown Widow Spider after reading about how the aggressive Browns are “slaughtering” the more docile Blacks (spiders!) in the US Southwest and South. Then they eat them! Meanwhile the Black Widows are expanding their range northward, even into Ontario and Quebec.

Meanwhile, like most everyone else, during 2020 and 2021, I took online classes and became more interested specifically in hand-stitching. In fact, I incorporated stitching into the RRJ because some things, like letters, were easier to do on the burlap ribbon than hooking. I made a Kawandi quilt and was pretty proud of myself. I also did more sketching with the likes of Sketchbook Revival.

I’m not interested in fine drawing or fussy embroidery, but something more basic. To share a thought, make a memory, the stuff of journaling.

Last year too, while on a hunting trip to Savers, I came across a large, linen curtain panel from Ikea. It’s a beautiful, pale green. Come the end of the year, it was just sitting there, waiting for me to formulate an idea. Which I finally did. The color is a great earth color. And I kept seeing and reading more and more environmental stories. Ah ha! I decided on the Yearlong Environmental Stitching Project (YESP): I’d stitch using an environmental theme throughout 2023.

Safety was derailed along with the train in Palestine, Ohio, in February. — After the Norfolk Southern train derailed in Ohio in February, we learned more about how the last administration dismantled railroad safety rules. as the railroads requested. This accident and subsequent environmental and health disaster didn’t have to happen.

I’m still not enthused by the title so that might change. And to avoid burnout – my own and the husband’s – I don’t work on it every day. In fact, throughout Sketchbook Revival 2023, the whole thing has sat on the dining room table. Really, it could also be a tablecloth; it’s big enough! As I scan the newspaper and news online each day, I collect stories. Some are pretty horrific, I’m not going to lie. Like the recent report from the UN about humanity’s closing window of opportunity to affect climate change, that our current investment and funding for adaptation to that change are completely insufficient, especially in and for developing countries. Never mind that the US electrical grid is heading for a total meltdown. But there’s good news too. Biden created two new national monuments here in the Southwest. Then there’s the woman in Britain who got so fed up with her town’s lack of recycling that she decoded to take care of it herself. And all kinds of folks joined her. I need those kinds of stories; otherwise the whole project would depress the crap out of me.

I keep all the stories in a file folder and pull one out when I’m ready for a new entry. Having learned from the RRJ, once I finish a stitching, I record it and pertinent info in a written journal. I photograph it too. That way, in January, I won’t wonder what the hell I stitched. Also, the only thing I can purchase for this project is embroidery floss. Everything else has to come from what I already have or am given.

While this won’t be quite as entertaining as the nightly RRJ postings were, I hope that you join me on this yearlong journey. Hey, it’s less than nine months now. Somehow busy-ness and my own winter inertia kept me from getting this all written up, though I have been posting on my Instagram and Facebook accounts all along. Sadly, it’s a constant fight against the cult of busy-ness in this culture. Even when your kids have left home and you don’t have a regular paying job. Also my ability to multitask isn’t as honed as it used to be. (Thank goodness!)

Toadzilla - Yearlong Environmental Stitching Project — Toadzilla, the fierce, burly Cane toad from Australia. He was 6 pounds, the biggest Cane toad ever found! I’ll let you Google him to see why he was in the news in mid-February. This is his outline. I still haven’t finished filling him in. It’s a good lesson to me to sketch more, color and detail less.

How do you cope with climate change and all that the environment’s throwing at us these days? Any good plans for Earth Day?

November 3, 2022

Annual High Desert Studio Tour

Poster for High Desert Studio Tour

…and just in case you can’t make the New Mexico Arts & Crafts Festival on November 19, High on Hooking will also be participating in the 12th Annual High Desert Studio Tour. Of course, you can come to both. In fact, you should.

For the past several years, New Mexican hand-dyer and knitter extraordinaire, Dagmar Beinenz-Byrd of ZiaWoolz has generously invited me to join her at her home and studio for the High Desert Studio Tour (click to download the brochure). We won’t talk about the past couple of years that Covid screwed us out of such things. It’s an intimate venue rather than one filled with all kinds of vendors and activities, allowing one the chance to get in some good conversations with makers, letting you learn more about my work as well as Dagmar’s. In addition, Sarah Lovell of Southwest Sunflower Pottery will have all kinds of things that you didn’t even realize you need. (I know. I have some, LOL.)

To be sure, there are other arts and artists on the tour. They include painters, sculptors, jewelers and more spread out over seven different studios. More info is available in the brochure. And, certainly, if you have any questions, please email me at Laura@highonhooking.com.

Mugs by Sarah Lovell — Her Rio Grande mugs provide just a taste of Sarah’s pottery.

If you’re looking to find holiday gifts for family and friends (and yourself!), please come see us at the New Mexico Arts & Crafts Festival in November AND at the High Desert Studio Tour in December.

April 21, 2022

Earth Day 2022

Earth Day exhortation - recycled art

At High on Hooking we try to remember the Earth every day, not just on Earth Day. It’s not difficult, really. Since we moved to New Mexico almost seven years ago (my mind is blown every time I think of that!), the summer temperatures and number of days above 100 degrees F have steadily increased. Hell, when we made our plans to relocate to the high desert from Massachusetts, average summer temperatures here were less than 95! And while we were aware of the drought, no one thought that it would go on this long. Now it’s considered a megadrought, the worst in 1200 years! On my walks in the Bosque, I’ve witnessed the Rio Grande dribble itself into a Rio “Pequeño.” If I didn’t worry about the mud and the potentially toxic crap in the mud, I might venture to walk across it.

Between smog and wild weather and drought and fires, I understand why young folks have anxiety about their future. My own kid is pretty cynical and depressed about it all. Yesterday’s headline in the Boston Globe certainly didn’t help my own mood: “As Earth’s temperature rises, Massachusetts residents’ sense of urgency on climate change declines.” We’re all tired of the doom and gloom, but I think the most terrible thing is that we seem to have lost hope. The past couple of months have demonstrated Americans’ inability to give up our gas-guzzling ways. A couple of weeks ago, city councilors in Albuquerque rolled back a single use plastic bag ban that had barely been in play since the mayor had put it on hold during much of the pandemic. They couldn’t even wait till June for the study to determine if it was effective was completed. Now, in addition to dirty, used masks, I’ve started seeing plastic bags again on roadsides and caught up in trees. Shit, if we can’t even get the mostly surface level stuff right, if we’re so short-sighted about garbage in our streets, how can we ever be serious about righting our sinking Earth, our only home?

Clearly, the adults of the world don’t care much about what we’re leaving for our kids. Just look at how so many treat Greta Thurnberg of Sweden.

Others diminish Greta Thunberg’s work because of her age. Ever since Greta first made headlines a few years ago and she delivered her now-famous “How dare you” speech, her age has been leveraged against her words. As Thunberg points out in her speech, her detractors are right in a sense. Thunberg shouldn’t have to stand before world leaders, telling them the obvious, which is that we’re being led directly into the jaws of the greatest threat to humanity we have ever known. Climate change.

It’s shameful that Thunberg has to do what she does, but the adults of the world are failing to ensure a future for the next generation. So it’s up to people like Thunberg to try to do something to save the world that the youth will inherit.

–https://www.yourtango.com/news/why-do-people-hate-greta-thunberg

_________

Part of the reason she inspires such rage, of course, is blindingly obvious. Climate change is terrifying. The Amazon is burning. So too is the Savannah. Parts of the Arctic are on fire. Sea levels are rising. There are more vicious storms and wildfires and droughts and floods. Denial is easier than confronting the terrifying truth.

–https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/people/why-is-greta-thunberg-so-triggering-for-certain-men-1.4002264

_________

Laura Ingraham, the Fox News host, called Ms. Thunberg’s United Nations speech “chilling” on her Monday night show, and ran a segment about how climate change “hysteria” is changing American youth.

–https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/24/climate/greta-thunberg-un.html

Climate change has been caused by human activity. And no one likes being told that their actions have contributed to a freaking calamity, but at some point, we have to own up to it and make it so that human and other life can go on. So that the lives of our kids and their kids can go on. That’s what being an adult is about, isn’t it?

Thunberg has already had a demonstrated impact on how her generation views the climate crisis, with one recent survey showing that nearly 70 percent of people under the age of 18 believe that climate change is a global emergency compared with 58 percent of people over the age of 60. …Thunberg isn’t daunted by her status. The way she sees it, the demonization is a diversion from clmate science, to which skeptics have few answers.

–https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2021/08/greta-thunberg-far-right-climate/619748/

Much of High on Hooking's art is recycled art — We try to use mostly recycled or reclaimed materials in the art at High on Hooking every day, not just on Earth Day. But we can’t always resist virgin wool yarns like in that sunflower.

At High on Hooking, I know that I need to do more to care for my and our environment: take shorter showers; buy way less crap; mend more; drive my little Honda Fit rather than the CRV when I’m cruising around Albuquerque; and really be more aware of how my actions affect it all. We can’t buy our way out of this problem. We have to change. In my art, I already already work hard to hook with materials that others might just discard. But it’s not enough. If I can’t adjust what I do, how can I expect others to do anything?

Earth Day 2022 is Friday. Will you mark the day as crucial for our home?

February 28, 2022

Workshop, workshop, workshop! And more…

We’re in workshop heaven here at High on Hooking. Let me explain.

Boucherouite inspired hooked rug — Your Boucherouite will be your own pattern. It can be small just to try it all out in the workshop or as large as you’d like. (Original design.)

MARCH 12: BUILD A BABY BOUCHEROUITE

Because of interest during Workshop Week 4, we added another session for those who couldn’t make it in January. (The class was getting a little large too.) If you’re interested and available on Saturday, March 12, at 1:00 p.m. Eastern, give me a yell. We’re at six right now, so there’s a little more room. For info about the class, see HERE. (Also, watch for coming announcements regarding Workshop Weeks 5 and 6!)

APRIL 15: INTRODUCTION TO PUNCH NEEDLE RUG HOOKING

Albuquerque’s BIG, BIENNIAL FIBER ARTS FIESTA, postponed from last year, will be open for business Thursday – Saturday, April 14-15. There’s a superb line-up of classes including my own punch needle workshop on Friday at 10:00 a.m. It is in person, and you’ll need to be vaccinated, but masks will be optional at this point. Yay! You can contact me here or see WORKSHOPS LISTING.

JUNE 19-25: HOOK RUGS, SAVE THE PLANET

This is a week-long residency workshop in Sewanee, Tennessee, as part of the SHAKERAG WORKSHOPS. We’ll be doing

Rug hooked with reclaimed textiles (old tshirts and bedsheets). — Table runner/wall hanging hooked with recycled textiles (old tshirts and bedsheets). (Original design.)

both rug hooking and punch needle rug hooking. In addition, though we’ll still have wool to work with, we’ll strive to look beyond the wool to materials that otherwise might end up in landfills. You know, old textiles you probably have in your house this very moment: ripped t-shirts, stained tablecloths, clothing and scarves that have seen better days… If you’re looking to pair vacation and fiber art therapy, this one’s for you. More workshop information can be found HERE and below.

Shakerag Workshops is a group of arts classes for adults held in June each year on the St. Andrew’s-Sewanee campus, in Sewanee, Tennessee. Instructors from around the world offer classes in a variety of media – knitting, basketry, book arts, clay, digital arts, felting, fiber, mixed media, jewelry, wood working, sculpture, and painting. Most participants, faculty, and staff stay on the campus, eating and working together for the week. After classes, participants enjoy hiking on the campus trails, swimming in the stream-fed mountain lake, and relaxing in yoga classes. Meals feature locally grown and organic foods served in historic Robinson Dining Hall. In the evenings, faculty members show slides and talk about their work. The studios are open throughout the night. The week culminates with a Tennessee meal on Friday evening for faculty and participants.
-from Shakerag’s website

As you can see, we’re busy these days here in the New Mexican desert. Covid’s waning, and folks are slowly getting back into the swing of things. More good news came in the mail yesterday in the form of Rug Hooking Magazine. If you recall that, during 2020, I spent much time on a yearlong project, the RIBBON RUG JOURNAL. If you turn to page 50 in RHM, you can read all about it! I also urge you to peruse Pretext Studio Rug Hooking’s Nadine Flagel‘s article on page 40. We share attitudes about the growing textile waste crisis. Her website slogan is Making Art out of Making Do: Reclaimed Text & Textiles. “Boucherouite” is a Moroccan-Arabic word for “torn” or “reused clothing.”

Dog with hooked rug — The High on Hooking Dogs, Bowyn and Tynan, bring you WOOLLEY MAT HORSE by Woolley Fox.

Bowyn actually calmed down enough to be in this week’s WHAT’S ON THE FRAME. This is a pattern I inherited when a member of the Adobe Wool Arts Guild passed away a few years ago. As a guild, we’ll be highlighting Pat’s rugs in a special exhibit at Fiber Arts Fiesta in April. The pattern, as I received it, was not identified.

You might remember, I hooked it a couple years back after receiving it. Because it sold, I needed to make another for the exhibit. Patti on Instagram was able to identify the pattern this week; she hooked it herself awhile back. LOL It’s from Woolley Fox and is called Woolley Mat Horse. As before, I’m hooking it with old t-shirts. Because we believed it to be Pat’s design, not a purchased pattern (also based on an antique rugs by Magdalena Briner Eby), I won’t hook the design again after I finish this iteration.

LASTLY, PLEASE KEEP THE PEOPLE OF UKRAINE IN YOUR THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS. IF YOU’RE LOOKING TO HELP OUT IN A SMALL WAY, SEE THIS DIGITAL DOWNLOAD ON ETSY, BY A UKRAINIAN ARTIST. (THERE ARE OTHER ARTISTS AND PRODUCTS AVAILABLE; JUST USE THE SHOP LOCATION FILTER UNDER SEARCH.) IT PUTS $5 IN HER POCKET, AND GOD KNOWS SHE AND ALL OF UKRAINE NEED IT.

May 11, 2021

On to Ghost Ranch!

Meet up at Ghost Ranch in June!

You know that old saying “The Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away”? Well, indeed He does. Just ten or so days ago, I wrote about how excited I was to be finally attending an in-person fiber festival up at El Rancho de las Golondrinas near Santa Fe. Then, last week, Cathy and I got word that, due to state or county Covid guidelines, they had to cancel it. Not sure why, as that county is opened as much as anything can be here in NM. And I’d gone to a couple of farmers’ markets that were pretty crowded down here in Albuquerque where we aren’t quite as open. I was so anticipating the festival and chatting folks up about hooking and all things fiber…

But there is some good news. Because, I’m fully vaccinated, I taught a lovely 80-year old to punch last Friday. In person! She’s quite the pistol too. I hope to have pics when the yarn I ordered for her comes in, and I can get over to her house again. And I have a student coming this Friday as well! I’m looking forward to spreading the fiber gospel some more. In person! Thank goodness for the vaccines!

Then there’s even better news. I’d alluded earlier to the fact that I was planning to teach at a “special” venue. It’s finally up online so I can spill it. June 27 – July 2, I’ll be teaching at Ghost Ranch in Abiquiú north of here in New Mexico. Having only driven by and never stopped, I can’t wait to spend the better part of a week there. We’ll be working on both hooking and punching, stressing all the while the use of recycled and reclaimed materials in our work. Think old t-shirts, bed sheets, plastic bags, and so on. The workshop is titled HOOK A RUG SAVE THE PLANET! (Click on the link for more info.) There will be plenty of downtime to hike and explore the Ranch and surrounding area.

For those not familiar with Ghost Ranch,

The landscape of Ghost Ranch—made famous by painter Georgia O’Keeffe and the incomparable hospitality of first director, Jim Hall—encompasses 21,000 acres of towering rock walls, vivid colors and vast skies. People from all over the world come to work together in creation care, to paint, write poetry, to hike, ride horseback, to research globally renowned archaeological and fossil quarries or simply to rest and renew their spirits.
-Ghost Ranch website

Photograph by ghostranch.org.

Georgia O’Keeffe is indelibly and colorfully linked to the Ranch though she only owned seven acres of it. More info on that HERE. The actual owners gifted it to the Presbyterian Church who created the Ghost Ranch Education & Retreat Center. The Center “fosters well-being and spiritual health through this historic, inspiring southwest landscape.” They do that by offering various activities on the land like hiking, camping, and horseback riding as well retreats and workshops. And that, my friends, is where my class comes in. The Ranch values good stewardship of the earth. An art workshop stressing re-use of materials to make something beautiful and maybe even useful falls right in their wheelhouse. And I couldn’t be any happier. I’m thinking of what it can mean for my own art and then just to have that time away from “home” stuff. Time to talk fiber, time to hike and sketch.

Chile pepper hooked rug — “The Ripening” is all New Mexico. (Old t-shirts; 9.5″x9.5″)

If you’re thinking about traveling this summer, maybe a peaceful, fiber retreat in northern New Mexico, a place filled with our special light and color, is the place for you. Chile peppers always available!