Memory Lane’s got me in her grip, but I managed to come up for air for a few moments. For one thing, this post is due tomorrow. As long as I can get a draft done today…
I’ve been going through hundreds of old family photos that my brother and his wife generously uploaded to Shutterfly from slides my father’s been taking for decades. It’s a huge undertaking and the job’s not done yet. But at least family history – the good and bad of it – won’t be lost, and the collection of pics doesn’t have to be split between the four of us kids.
Why am I going through photos today? And not just my father’s but my own family’s as well? It actually has to do with rug hooking. Really! In less than a month Cheryl Bollenbach is paying a visit to Albuquerque, specifically to the Adobe Wool Arts guild, to facilitate an open class with us. I know, it’s exciting. It’s open, so we’re choosing our own projects. Cheryl will be informed ahead of time, so that she’ll know what we’re looking to learn and what we need help with, then she can prepare accordingly. Actually, she’s waiting to hear from us, um, me right now. I received her email Friday. Still haven’t responded.
See, between creating hopefully saleable small mats and working on the bed-sheet rug (which presented a not-so-small backing challenge this past week) in order to have enough inventory for the Rail Yards Market come June 5, I haven’t been thinking too much about the class. Sure, now and again – usually at 2:00 a.m. in bed – I’d agonize a little over it and what I wanted to accomplish with Cheryl, but I’d comfort myself with “Hey, it’s not till May. You’ve got plenty of time.” This week I realized that May 4th is RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER!
Deep breath. More thought. One goal I’ve had for 2016 is to hook a sefie. Not something particularly realistic, but one of those whimsical, full-of-color mats I’ve seen some of you put up on Facebook and Pinterest. What fun! I’ll do that. But then I got to thinking, I haven’t done
Tynan. He’s our dog who simply must be immortalized in wool or t-shirt or something. Again, not looking to make him realistic either. Did that with another dog and really didn’t enjoy it. Ripped out a LOT of loops. Hooking’s supposed to be my happy place. And what I want to do in one of these rugs is show that and the joy that Tynan and/or I get from life. That means bright colors, people.
So, I’m looking at pics, and I see my beloved grandmother. And my brother who passed away from cancer at 14. I could hook them! Or pictures my dad took of Nova Scotia during our camping trips! What about the mountains of New Mexico that I’ve fallen in love with? Or my daughter behind a feathered Mardi Gras mask circa 5th grade? Now I’m out of control. Really, I’ve never mined my photographs for ideas given my love of abstract. I guess it’s time.
I know that many of you do use your pics to hook. I’m looking for some advice regarding Photoshop. Looks like it can definitely be a great tool. Thoughts? Ease of use? (I’m Windows based, not Mac.) Happy to hear from everyone. And I’ll let you know sometime soon who’s getting a portrait done.
Sounds like you’re in overload right now. I bet looking at old pictures is taking you way away form coming up with a project idea! It would for me – I just get so wound up in a good/bad way with old pictures… Donna Hrkman did a portrait class with my guild in IL (I didn’t do a portrait because we were moving and I just couldn’t look through old pictures!) and she did a lot of the work for the hookers. And obviously charged for it. She added four people in one piece for a woman who made a “fake” family portrait. People did a lot of animals and one woman did her Kindergarten picture, which was very sweet. I like/dislke people portraits – it really depends on the interpretation. I like the idea of doing something funky. What about using a very formal, old family memeber picture in funky colors? I have a shot of one of my grandmothers who always loooked very fierce in photos and she would look great in something like popart colors… Good luck!
I’m with you regarding “funky,” Deb. Like the idea of using the formal pic, but in a new way, new colors. For now, I think I’m going to do that with the dog. Now, if I can only get to the project. Have to draw it and talk to Cheryl. (And stop looking at old photos.) Thanks for the luck! I’ll need it.
Lovely picture of the dog! I had a dog pattern drawn up by Simone of Red Maple Ruggery, let me know if you would like to see her work!
I’d love to see your finished rug, certainly, Sue. 🙂
I did a fabulous – if I do say so myself – portrait of my poodle Penny. I call it my Technicolor Penny Rug – that’s not a Penny Rug.
I used my phone to take the pic, so take a phone pic of your dog’s photo that you selected, or another real shot, and then I ran it through a camera app that gave temperature values.
I enlarged onto Red Dot and then transferred the image.
Then I went thru my wool and sorted by value, disregarding color. I then hooked by value while looking at both the temperature driven pattern & the actual pic of my pooch. It’s the bomb!
Send me an email if you need more info or want to see the result.
Love this idea, Trish! WIll have to check my camera and see if it does that. Or find one… I did print one out in grey-scale. Have to enlarge it now. And find my red dot. Who knows where I put that during the move out here. Will wordpress let you include a photo in the comments? Probably not. I would LOVE to see your Technicolor Penny Rug.