I Do

“I Do” was a wedding gift for my son and his wife. They requested a landscape of the place where they had one of their first dates and where they later got engaged. It depicts San Francisco Bay as viewed from the Berkeley Hills at sunset. It was my first landscape pictorial and I had to learn to dye and dye-paint in order to make the evening sky. I learned many things in the process. It was a true labor of love.

Things I Learned Making This Rug:
A Timeline

On your tablet or phone: swipe right or left to move through the slides.

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I offered to make a hooked rug as a wedding gift and enquired about what style they would like—a landscape of the place where they had a first date and were later engaged. So, my daughter-in-law-to-be (DIL) sent me a photo of the view of their engagement site in the Berkeley Hills overlooking San Francisco Bay at sunset.

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I rendered the image with pastels and then tweaked it based on their feedback.

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Not knowing how to dye wool, but being a student of color theory, I was eager to create the sunset sky. Stephanie Kraus of GM Hooked Rugs sold me packets of Cushings dye in Turkey Red, Gold, Blue and Dark Gray and gave me the single best advice: “Practice first”. After making samples of each dye in three concentrations, and then combining dyes to create an array of possible hues, I made two sample sunsets (one too dark; one too light).

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These I showed to my friend Jen Lavoie who advised me to adjust the citric acid before dye-painting the 15”x 13’ long piece of wool flannel for the sky

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I used a similar process for the water and sun’s reflection on the bay, which turned out too dark so I removed some of the intense blues by dipping that piece in Tide afterward. That created a softer-colored, more realistic water color.

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I then laid out my own dyed, purchased, and “as is” wools to review my color scheme. It worked.

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MY HOOKING BEGAN with the horizon line which included the SF Bay Bridge through which the setting sun and water reflection would be seen. There is one strip of water behind the bridge since the true horizon is there. When I began hooking the bay, I started each row at the reflected sun and hooked right and left from there, alternating the strips slightly to create the effect of waves. My irregular loops helped to activate the water.

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The distant cityscape was a light gray plaid, some of which I overdyed with a light grayish-purple and then spot-dyed with shades of grayish-purple splotches to suggest buildings in the distance.

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The pink and gray stucco UC Berkeley campus buildings and campanile (a Cal landmark which my DIL requested) are a secondary focal point because they were my DIL’s alma mater and a special place to her.

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THE FOLIAGE was my next challenge. I wanted the foliage to be dark as a visual anchor for the rug, so I laid out my wools again for another color review.

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I studied hooked foliage in my “Hooked Rugs Today” book and dozens of photos of rugs online. I happily went back to the dye pot to create more shades of green.

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The large pine tree on the right was rehooked several times until I finally learned how to graduate the colors of each branch of needles from bright to medium to dark to create a realistic and dramatic tree.

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The foreground trees and shrubs are more impressionistic.

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I departed a little from my dark anchoring palette by changing to colors I found cheerful and harmonious, but adding detail in order to give the sense that the viewer is in the picture.

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I added two messages to the rug, hidden in the shrubs. In the lower right, “JG + AC”...

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and in the lower left, “I Do 3-4-2017” which I hooked, initially, in dark green before rehooking later in red).

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THE SKY. With the rest of the rug complete, it was finally time to hook the sky. My challenge was to hook it exactly as it was dye-painted and to align it with the sun shining through the bridge. The logistics of this were great fun. I began cutting the lower, pink edge, of the sky. I started cutting the first few strips and then paused to label each strip sequentially with a Tyvek label indicating the R side and row number and then pinning it to the top right side of the strip (figs. 18, 19). I cut only six to nine strips at a time in order to keep track of them.

18

As with the water, I began hooking with the sun, but made sure that my strips, when hooked, would be long enough to complete the full width of the rug. I assumed (wrongly) that my hooking ratio was exactly 1:4, so for a 36”-wide rug I would need a 144”-wide sky (plus a little extra). After the first 7 rows of sky that were interrupted by mountains , the remaining rows would be continuous. To ensure that my rows were evenly spaced across their width, I drew vertical lines on my linen associated with specific points on the horizon line and then made corresponding lines on the back of my sky

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These were spaced at 4x the distance between the linen lines to account for my 1:4 ratio which I was forced to maintain.

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Then I cut the strips, placing pins in each strip where it was marked with a line so that I could make sure the strip lines matched up with the linen backing lines, with additional pins to help with spacing over long horizontal stretches between lines.

(This was not as hard as it may seem.)

21

This also allowed me to hook an entire strip from end to end, without regard for the sun location. It was a pleasure to hook long horizontal rows after the intricate curves and decisions about adjacent colors in the lower part of the rug.

22

I had one more visit with Jen Lavoie as I was hooking the sky. She pointed out that I could stop at any row of the sky, the choice being the degree to which the sky was part of my rug’s message. An interesting thought to ponder. Since the sky represented the future in my rug, I hooked most of the sky I had dye-painted, but I stopped when it felt just right - shown here in a view of back of the rug.

23

Jen could not see my hidden messages and explained about the use of a complementary color (red) instead—advice I am glad I took. And finally, since this was meant to be a commemorative rug that I hoped would become a family heirloom, she suggested printing the rug’s story on photo transfer fabric and sewing it to the back

I am grateful for all the good advice I received and for the lessons I learned from seeing how other rug hooking artists have depicted similar subjects.

ONE FINAL LESSON I learned after I completed the rug was from Wanda Kerr’s writing. She explained that the reflection of light on water should be brighter than the sun itself. Next time, I’ll do that.

About the Artist

I have been hooking for about 8 years though I make only one rug per year. I learned from two classes taught by Diane Burgess at the local high school. I love functional art and craft and like the idea of making something which will last for generations. This is my first landscape pictorial. It was also my introduction to dyeing wool–I love it! I look forward to making a rug that I can put on the floor.

Things I Learned Making This Rug:
A Timeline

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gmrhg

Green Mountain Rug Hooking Guild
online at gmrhg.org

I Do

Things I Learned Making This Rug:A Timeline

gmrhg

Green Mountain Rug Hooking Guildonline at gmrhg.org

Things I Learned Making This Rug:
A Timeline

Green Mountain Rug Hooking Guild
online at gmrhg.org