Category: rug hooking pattern

September 30, 2022

Why aren’t we all wearing an orange shirt today?

Logo for Orange Shirt Day I’m wearing an orange shirt today, but only because I have so many Canadian friends on social media. If I didn’t, I’d be clueless to the fact that September 30 is Orange Shirt Day up north. Its other name is the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, but again, it’s only “celebrated” in Canada. My question is why don’t we have that or something similar here in the US?

For those of you who don’t have a plethora of Canadian fiber arts friends, you can read about the day and its origins HERE.

Each year, September 30 marks the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

The day honours the children who never returned home and Survivors of residential schools, as well as their families and communities. Public commemoration of the tragic and painful history and ongoing impacts of residential schools is a vital component of the reconciliation process.
-From the website canada.ca

I get that I live somewhere – New Mexico – that allows me the chance to be aware of our indigenous populations pretty much every day. That “s” making “populations” plural is not an error. Not much more than a mile from my house in Albuquerque, across the Rio Grande, is the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center (IPCC). There visitors can take in the museum, buy jewelry and pottery, watch Native dances, eat really kick-ass food, and do a host of other things that help to educate those of us who grew up without learning much of America’s early history. You know, before the British, French, Spanish, and other European nations came on the scene and decided the land was ripe for the taking and “clearly” not owned by anyone. At least anyone “civilized.”

The IPCC is run and owned by nineteen New Mexico Pueblo communities. Nineteen. And they’re all sovereign nations. And they don’t include the likes of the Apache and Navajo and others who also abide, at least in part, in New Mexico. My point today is that all nineteen came together to create the IPCC on this particular piece of land:

It is located at the heart of nearly 80 acres of land owned by the 19 Pueblos and governed by the 19 Pueblos District (a sovereign government formed by the Tribal Councils of the 19 New Mexico Pueblo Communities) at the former location of the Albuquerque Indian School (1881-1982).
-From the IPPC website

Again, I ask, why aren’t we here in the US wearing orange today in a spirit of solidarity and reconciliation? The same atrocities that happened up in Canda’s schools happened here. And we had more schools!

Last year I wrote about a rug hooking project that was a collaboration between myself, friend and guildmate Ruth Simpson, and Acoma Pueblo artist Patricia Lowden. You can read about it HERE. You can also read about the cushion and our collaboration with Patricia in the current issue of Rug Hooking Magazine (RHM). Unfortunately, I was prompted to write the article after I read another RHM article in which an artist/author indicated that indigenous art is ripe (word used on purpose) for using in rug hooking patterns because: The images of art from indigenous peoples are always ancient, copyright free, and so beautiful. Yes, that is a direct quote, and it went right up my ass sideways. (Pardon my French.)

And people think cultural appropriation isn’t a real thing. How can you if you think all the Natives are dead?

Again, I ask, why aren’t we here in the US wearing orange today along with the Canadians?

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.

October 13, 2021

ART AT THE ABBEY “One Heart, One Mind” Opens Tomorrow

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 show poster

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.

– from Facebook Event Page

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:

Hooked art in Art at the Abbey exhibition — 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

For more information, contact somosdelavid3@gmail.com.

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.

Dogs on hooked art — 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.)

August 10, 2021

Project Porn – the work of summer, 2021

Summer’s been flying by, and I was gone for part of July. But the work of summer, first mentioned back in June – that’s been ongoing. Enjoy the project porn.

Project Porn, hooked rug — ABUNDANCE, the latest of the #happyrugseries rugs. Mixed fibers, many recycled. (15″x48″)

#happyrugseries
I started the #happyrugseries back at the end of last year so that I could concentrate on something other than all the overwhelmingly DOWNER news that we were (and continue to be) subject to. These pieces have to have a certain joy to them, most of which can be seen in their riot of colors. In June I finished a large-ish happy rug ABUNDANCE. She was hooked using a variety of fibers, mostly what I had on hand, in an “automatic” or stream of consciousness style. And, yes, she has holes!

New Mexico Cushion
In late June, Ruth and I finished New Mexico’s contribution to the USA50 project. You can find more about that HERE. It was a relief to get it into the mail and up to Canada. I could finally work on my own projects and start adding to the Etsy shop.

Project porn. New Mexico USA%) cushion. Design by Patricia lowden. — New Mexico’s contribution to the USA50 project. Design by Patricia Lowden. Hooed by Laura Salamy. All put together by Ruth Simpson. Thank you, ladies!

Retreat Week
You might remember that I claimed the last week in June for my personal retreat week after a class I was to teach at had to be postponed. I had a lot on tap for that week.

Write an article on 2020’s Ribbon Rug Journal. Check! It’s written, but I need to take some photographs and submit it. At least the words are done!

Project porn; hand-dyed yarn — Yarn destined for punching.

DYEING! I know, you don’t hear much about dyeing from me, especially given that I hook with so many old bed sheets and t-shirts which come in all sorts of vivid colors. Nonetheless, I’ve been planning to dye some wool yarn for quite a while. I’ll use the bulk of it to punch with or sell/share with punch needle rug hooking students when I can host an in-person class. Had a great time doing it and will definitely do some more.

Project Porn; kawandi quilt — My first Kawandi project. Quilt scraps and recycled linens.

Kawandi Quilting – It’s a form of kantha-like quilting. While I have plenty of friends who are quilters, I am not. At all. Mostly, I don’t like how much room it takes and that you need a machine. But I’ve always loved kantha quilts and stitching by hand is more to my liking. After doing some research online about what I might actually be able to make, I was happy to find these Indian quilts which are pieced together using scraps of fabrics. Another form of recycling – yay! I had plenty of quilt scraps from Ruth; plus there are all kinds of old sheets in my “stable” that I can hook with. But I wasn’t done: I have a lot of old cloth napkins that have seen better days. Cut everything up and…I had a quilt. Sure I made some errors, but I was pretty happy with it in the end.

Project porn; ecohooking — VOYAGE PLASTIQUE was hooked using plastic bags that might have otherwise made their way to the ocean.

#ECOHOOKING – Given all the wildfires, the melting tundras, violent storms, and ocean pollution, I decided to do my own little part and hook a piece with plastic bags that otherwise might have ended up caught in a tree. Having already hooked a larger such piece, I’d kept the most colorful bags I didn’t used. Despite the heavy environmental theme, I was hoping she might make some folks smile given her sunny disposition. It worked! Tom mailed VOYAGE PLASTIQUE off to her forever home in New Hampshire just this morning.

July travels
Last month Tom, Bowyn, and I saddled up the CR-V for a 2200-mile trip or so back East to see friends and family. (There were another 2200 miles to drive back, of course.) Tynan got a staycation with Ruth. Sitting in a car for several days does call for some handwork, and I was prepared.

Personal best crocheting project – I prefer not to hook in the car, but I will crochet. Before we left, I decided on a project that was NOT a shawl, my usual travel go-to. Nope, I searched and searched online for something.
Finished! “Easy crochet top down” by Modessa.

Some tops looked interesting, but I couldn’t deal with having to crochet up two identical halves. (Mostly because I doubt my ability to do that, especially on a distracting trip). I finally came upon the cool EASY (emphasis on easy) CROCHET TOP DOWN. Reading it, the syntax and directions are off a bit as the chick who created the pattern isn’t a native English speaker. If you choose to crochet the pattern, I’d advise that you watch the video. I did. Many times. Oh, and there’s not a lot of counting in this piece. A big bonus. BEST: I finished the top last week, and it even fits me. I’ll block it this week then post me wearing it on Instagram.
New rug – While I don’t hook in the car, if I’ve driven to my destination, I will hook when I get there. Usually more than I did on this particular journey. But before I left, I drew up a new pattern, sewed on my tape, and gathered up and stripped some old t-shirts. I find that hooking with t-shirts works best when I’m on the go. That wool allergy isn’t going anywhere, and bed sheets shed thread like the dickens.
Bowyn sharing the floor with the “travel” rug. He’s happy to be out of the car.

What’s on my plate at the moment
Since I like to crochet all patterns twice so that I know I’m proficient, that I didn’t just get lucky, I’m planning to do up the top in another color. It helped that JoAnn’s has a summer yarn clearance going on. (I spent a lovely hour there yesterday picking up some bamboo and hemp yarns. I hope to do a bag with the latter. All those colorful yarns; I couldn’t help myself.)

And because I have two sales coming up very soon, I decided to put the travel rug away and do a few small wall hangings. Sunflowers! I love sunflowers and try to hook at least one each year. Plus, one of the sales is the Sunflower Festival down in Mountainair, a mountain town south of Albuquerque.

Project porn - summer 2012. — Bowyn takes this chance to have a treat and bring you the sunflowers in this week’s WHAT’S ON THE FRAME.

All in all I’ve been pretty productive this summer. And there are still a few weeks left! Perhaps it’s a byproduct of the pandemic; I realize that I’ve become a little less social. I like having more time to myself to create, to concentrate on projects that I deem worthwhile, whether they’re for my shop or my own growth. The challenge will be how to keep at least some of that time for myself once the Delta variant disappears and we can move back out into the world for real.

Hope you’ve enjoyed the project porn. How has Covid affected your art practice?

December 5, 2020

The Angel of 2021 – Notorious

Hooked rug - angel of 2021 — “The Angel of 2021 – Notorious”

As I promised the other day, here is High on Hooking’s annual angel for the coming year. Because last year’s “Angel of 2020 Prays Very, Very Hard” clearly did NOT pray hard enough, this year’s celestial being had to be a bit more…forceful. Enter “The Angel of 2021 – Notorious” who has arrived to kick 2020 ‘s butt to the curb. “Notorious” sports a hand-crocheted jabot as well as wire-rim glasses. In each corner of the piece is a symbol of RBG’s life: scales of justice; a courthouse; the sign for equality; and the spiral of life. That last item can be found on the petroglyphs here in New Mexico where the great lady spent a significant part of the year.

Card featuring The Angel of 2020 — This is a card featuring “The Angel of 2020 Who Prays Very, Very Hard.” She sold right away last year, but she clearly needed some better prayers.

“Notorious” is 22.5 inches by 16.5 inches. She was hooked on my usual monk’s cloth using: wool yarn, wool strips, and ribbons.

Hooked rug - The Angel of 2021 — A close-up of “Notorious”

I’d like to say that she’s available, but she sold almost as soon as I loaded her up into the Etsy shop. (I still can’t get over that!) The base angel pattern is available to be drawn up on request (linen, monk’s cloth, or rug warp). Email me if you’re interested.

Along with the “Angel of 2021 – Notorious,” I wish us all a much brighter and happier 2021.