Tag: up-cycling

February 27, 2019

Notes from the “Big Boucherouite”

“Big Boucherouite” here. Yes, you read that right. I AM the large rug that she’s currerntly hooking. Constantly. At least it feels that way. I hardly ever get alone time. Anyway, as she’s still working on me day and night, I decided to provide a few notes regarding where she’s at in this project.

Tynan the dog on the Big Boucherouite. — See what I mean about the dog? Oh, and that idea of strategic photography?

She’s been watching a LOT of television during the day. I tried to tell her to get some books on tape, but she goes on and on about having to get through a NOVA back-up, that she’s got to free-up space on the DVR. Fine. Her husband, of course, insists on watching them with her, though I’ve noticed that he tends to use them to catch up on his sleep.
NOVA sounds nice and erudite, sure, but that wasn’t on till midnight last night. No, that would be…Ice Castles. Yes, the Robby Benson movie from 1978, when she was 13. Apparently, she even read the book back then. It was on some TV station for lost movies. Some movies should remain lost…
She does take some breaks. It seems to be rather necessary. Hooking so much woven fabric is taking a toll on the joints. As is sitting under me. I’m rather heavy at this point. I tell her to do some yoga. Does she listen to me? Sometimes.
She’s still going on and on about not having enough orange sheets to fill my background, that she had to breakdown and use t-shirts. Who gives a damn? That they’re used textiles being recycled to a higher purpose – me! – it’s fine. That’s the Boucherouite spirit.
Her dog keeps sitting on me determined to earn a snack. Someone needs to tell him that she’s barely taking any photographs of me. I deserve a BIG REVEAL and not until I’m properly hooked and hemmed.
Lastly, regarding actually finishing me in order to enter me into Albuquerque’s Fiber Arts Fiesta by the March 1 deadline, let’s hear it for the idea of STRATEGIC PHOTOGRAPHY. And you all make sure that your submissions are in by sometime Friday too.

Look for my debut on Instagram and Facebook in the near future, and I’ll see you May 30 and 31 and June 1 at Fiber Fiesta!

The Big Boucherouite

February 6, 2018

Hooking and not sharing the plague

How I’ve been spending my days. Damn, I forgot to put a cough drop or twelve in the photo.

So, it’s not the flu, but I’ve been coughing for days. Much like many of you. There’s a virus out there, people, and it ain’t pretty! All I can do to combat it is to mainline coffee and cough drops. Okay, not coffee. I said that because I like how it sounds. I’m a tea girl through and through. Copious quantities of the stuff: green tea, white tea, Sleepy Time Sinus Soother, Sleepy Time Peach, Sleepy Time Echinacae Complete Care. Celestial Seasonings should be paying me, I’m drinking so much of their stuff.

The upside of not feeling well is that you can tell people, No, I’m sorry, but for your own good, I have to stay home. I do not wish to share my personal plague with you, when you really wanted to stay home all along. You people-pleasers out there, you know what I’m talking about. And when you stay home, you can get a fair amount of hooking done on a rug that needs to be completed and photographed for submission by February 25*.

And that’s what I’ve done. Saturday afternoon I hooked and watched a couple of shows that had been taking up space on my DVR. Sunday’s Superbowl helped too even if my Patriots didn’t finish the job this year. I willingly admit that Philly was the better team. Sunday. Only Sunday. And all you green Eagles should enjoy your win. This year. Only this year.

Do you have a favorite brew when the germs come crawling your way? Please share here!

Dog on rug — Tynan presents “What’s on the frame” this week. The mystery rug is coming along. Finally, I can use more color. The drab nature of much of this rug is killing me. I’m starting to dream of a new and more color-full rug. And fibers other than plastic bag.

*Don’t forget, the Albuquerque Fiber Arts Council is calling for entries for its 2018 show Earth, Wind, and Fiber. Submissions due February 25!

January 24, 2018

The mystery rug

By now many of you have caught sight of my “mystery rug.” And some have even figured out that it’s being hooked out of plastic bags. The ultimate in up-cycling! The ultimate, too, in cheap, rug raw materials. Though, the reality is, that by choosing sed materials, I’m limiting myself. See the black lines between the “cells”? I didn’t necessarily want to use black; brown would’ve worked better. But that’s the challenge of restricting myself to a specific material. Even though friends (thank you especially, Mary Ramsey!) provided me with their used plastic bags, and I saved my own, nowhere did I find a really brown plastic bag, never mind the several that I need for this particular application. But when one of the imperatives for your little work of art is that it’s to be made out of plastic bags, typically something we throw away after that trip to Walmart or even Savers, you use “what you got.” So I hooked those borders in black.

I suppose you’re wondering what exactly it is that I’m hooking, what the mystery rug is all about. Not telling! It’s enough right now that you know what it’s being hooked from. I’m still working the design, hoping desperately that it’ll be a fair representation of what’s going on inside my head. And that it’ll fit the requirements of a couple of shows that I aim to enter. More on them later.

This is new to me, sharing as I go something that I’m not sure of. But so many of you are brave enough to do just that on Facebook and in your blogs, that I decided to let you in on this project.

plastic bag hooked rug — Constance Old’s rug “Sea of Blue: Plastic Floats Forever”: 2010; mixed paper and plastic on linen; 52″x42″. This rug is still so very timely with it’s obvious **message regarding plastic pollution**.

I’ve worked in “limited” plastic bag before. Liking how the strips pulled and in the interests of recycling and trying something new-ish (back in 2014 I saw one of Constance Old‘s plastic bag rug in an exhibit in Connecticut), I decided to hook a mat comprised of nothing but plastic bag. I will advise you that, if you choose to do one yourself, do NOT do it in winter. The static electricity will kill you! Very annoying. There are now (and perhaps forever?) little pieces of plastic bag all over my living room-hallway-kitchen. They even make their way into the bedroom! Static Guard is the only answer.

As High on Hooking, I’ve made a “career” out of using alternative and less-than-traditional materials to hook my rugs. Have you gone out of your comfort zone to try something other than wool strips? Buffalo or wolf yarn? (Yes, they sell that out here in New Mexico.) T-shirts? Silk saris? Sari yarn is probably my favorite to hook with. Something really weird? Come one, tell us. Here at High on Hooking we do NOT judge. It’s only in stretching that the art of rug hooking will grow.

March 30, 2016

Experimenting

Experimenting. I’ve got plenty to do this week, still I find myself trying something new. Last

Rug hooking with old sheets. MY new Anderson frame came in handy as the backing is so stiff. — Rug hooking with old sheets. My new Anderson frame came in handy as the backing is so stiff.

Thursday, I started a new rug. One on latch hook backing. Made out of old sheets. This re-cycling – or the more virtuous sounding “up-cycling” – thing has really grabbed me. I’m hoping it’ll grab buyers too when I start selling at the Rail Yard Market in June. Rag rugs are in vogue these days, you know.

Experimenting with old bed sheets. The loops pull smoothly and give a "fluffy" look. — Experimenting with old bed sheets. The loops pull smoothly and give a “fluffy” look.

I’ve included a couple of pics to show how it’s going. The design is simple, paisley-like, as I needed to see how the sheets would hook up before I went crazy. The strips are about a half-inch wide. No need for real precision here. Savers (a used goods store that I frequent) provided the sheets. I’m hoping to find brighter colors next time, though these are fairly desert-esque. That’s fitting for here in Albuquerque.

The desert colors will work nicely in a bedroom or bath.

I’ve sleeved and handed over “Ribbons Over Albuquerque” to the “Colors of the Southwest” fiber arts exhibit. It runs this weekend at the Garden Center (in itself a very cool place to visit) here in town. I’m looking forward to the show’s opening Friday evening along with the artists’ reception. Saturday, I’ve been tasked with demonstrating. That means that I need to get on the stick and finish prepping my next piece. (I figured I’d show them rug hooking in its more traditional form, so I’m leaving the sheets at home. And using t-shirts. 😉 ) Because I sew my binding on before I hook, there’s a needle and some thread in my immediate future.

Before I head back to that mat, though, I need a favor. Yesterday I created a Facebook page for my Adobe Wool Arts guild here in Albuquerque. It’ll let us share what’s going on in the guild as well as communicate with all the hookers out there in cyberspace. If you’d be so kind as to give us a looksie at https://www.facebook.com/AdobeWoolArts/, we’d be ever so grateful. Feel free to comment, share, educate, whatever. And then LIKE us. We love meeting new friends.

How much experimenting do you do when you hook?

The official rug of the Adobe Wool Arts guild here in Albuquerque. Wish I'd gotten here in time to help hook it. — The official rug of the Adobe Wool Arts guild here in Albuquerque. Our Facebook page only shows a tiny part of it. Wish I’d gotten here in time to help hook it.