Birds and Not A KIlm

More progress on the Birds. This is the center so I have to finish the left and right sides of it.

Not A Kilm rug designed 8-22-2012 started 9-11-2010

This is  roughly based on an antique rug I saw in Kent's Rare Hooked Rugs. I did a lot of modifying and adding elements that weren't in the original rug that I just did a very rough sketch of before it had to go back, This is aproximately 24 x 50 on the other kind of monk's cloth. I have no idea of the original colors as it was a not too focused B&W photo and even the lines are sort of iffy too and it didn't have the whirly things in the corners either--those are my own add ons. I think the original artist was trying to copy a Kilm rug design at least that's my impression of their art so that's why I'm calling it "Not A Kilm".

This about half the rug stretched on a stretcher strip frame I use for hooking, I wanted to try hooking in darker, more antique colors than I normally use. I di a combination of removing color from some wools, then marrying them with other and some overdying. The green on the spears didn't stay as you can see in the next pictures. I stuck with golds, gold tweeds, burgundy, reds, pinkish gray reds, and teals with black

With greens removed and replacing it with teals.

With the inner background filled in. The main background is a black/navy combo. Still trying to decide what the whirly things are going to be. 

Birds

I've been working on the birds all week. I'm going to title it "In-Laws" as that's what it reminds me of when I was first married to my 3rd husband in the mid 70's and had both sets of our parents telling us what to do as they were not happy about our getting married and strongly disliked each other. It did not improve with age or my husband's death in 1988.

Anyway back to the birds. I'm posting pictures of my day by day progress. Keep in mind I'm working with mostly hand cut wide wool strips, though I do have a bunch of leftover strips from my stash to add in. The background is a sort of hit and miss in cremes, ivory, and other light shades. Eventually I want to do another version of this except in blues, maybe pinks and chocolates in bold, throw back to the 60s-70s contemporary colors, and add in some standing wool circles, or stitchery. I've also been thinking of doing a bag or pillow with this design, though I would be making some changes to the tree base and branches.

I started this on Sunday 9-1 so I thinking I'm making okay progress.



Tuesday 9-4





Wednesday 9-5





Thursday 9-6





Friday 9-7

I've decided to start my blog again--wow it's been over a year since I've written anything. At last I wrote I was working on Green Cat. That has been finished since last fall. Here's some shots of the finished rug. Flea Market pics from Barnyard Flea Market Fall '11 to Late Spring '12 Last Fall I spent doing my local flea market with my rugs and other craft items. I did okay--not really that great because of the economy and my local. I've come to the conclusion that South Carolina just isn't into hooked rugs and crafts. They appreciate the effort and the art, but don't want to pay the prices the things are worth. I didn't have any better luck selling on Ebay or Etsy either--lots of lookers but no bids. I'm hoping I can hook up with a shop further north that will be willing to take on my finished rugs and patterns. If anyone would be interested in taking my designs on just email me. I'd even be willing to trade designs on paper or red dot for backing fabrics and undyed wool fabrics. Two bunny seat cushions 15 x 15 round and square wool strips on burlap--experiment with my tribal bunny designs. Flower Power Recycled and redyed sweater bag with needle felted flower. Love Bag Handmade felt bag One of my knitted simple shawls Fiendfyre 36 x 72 all wool. Based on a idea from Harry Potter and mixed with my tribal tattoo designs. Dolphin Rug All cotton yarns 22 x 30 Welcome Fish- All cotton yarns 22 x 30 Circles- All cotton fabrics 22 x 30 Tribal Horse- My Hand spun hand dyed yarns and tribal horse design. 22 x 30 All cotton yarns 8 x 12 part of a larger dinosaur rug that's going to have small pieces tied together by braiding or crochet to a central picture. Survivor Spirit--All cotton fabrics hooked om rug canvas 3 x 5 Colorful Sheep--Cotton fabrics locker hooked, latch hooked, whipped and crocheted on rug canvas 3 x 5 Momma Hide Me From The Madman--All cotton fabrics hooked and locker hooked on rug canvas 24 x 36 Seven Serious Sheep--roughly based on my 7 children --the boys are the rams and the girls or the ewes. I have taken the flowers out and am doing all greens for the background since I took this photo.My hand dyed and hand spun yarns on burlap 4 x 6 Day of the Dead--My experiment with standing and shirred wools. aprox 30 x 40 so far not finished. Some of my crocheted rag rugs made out of recycled sheets, and cotton fabrics some hand dyed by me. Fabric wrapped coil basket. Some of my paintings for the Flea Market--mainly acrylics and pencils on illustration board. Green Man 16 x 20 SOLD Mountain Spinner 20 x 30 Wheel Spinner 20 x 30 White Wolf 12 x 16 SOLD Over the Spring and Summer I've been doing a lot of research into different rug techniques and working with hand spun yarn, cotton fabrics, and yarns, embroidery floss, and different backing materials. I've started doing some standing wool, shirred, locker hooking, latch hooking, and crochet ones. A lot of my rug research has been into old rugs, their designs, materials etc. I've had to borrow all the various books through the inter library loan system and got about half of what I requested over 6 months time. I was very disappointed that I couldn't find any examples of older Southern rugs or mentions of any rug making in my neck of the woods. Even Hooked Rugs of the Deep South had no mention of SC or NC in it. I have decided that I'm going to try and do more 'normal', old style type rugs instead of my weirder fantasy type designs. Maybe those will sell better than what I have been doing. Currently I'm working on a 24 x 40 rug based on some artwork I found in my mom's artwork. I think this was done somewhere in the 50s to 60s. It's all construction paper. Given the problems my parents had with their parents I can see my mom doing this. I'm doing this on the other kind of monk's cloth. It was a piece I had dyed with Rit dye for another project and decided not to do. I've switched back to wool after working with cottons for the last 4 months. I almost did this in cotton but didn't have enough of the right colors to do it with. This is mainly in hand cut wide strips with some varied other sizes that were precut from previous rug projects. I have lost--mislaid both my strip cutters and can't find them. I've torn up the trailer looking for them and so far no luck. The last time I used them was last fall when I was looking on log cabin and lion flowers and my hearts tattoo rugs. I'll keep looking but its very frustrating not finding them. I started hooking this Sunday, and did the tree first, now I'm working on the birds. I'll be working on the upper gold birds today. I'm still debating on the background and whether to stay with the cream in the original or switch to maybe a light green or gray. I didn't have enough orange to do the 3 orange birds like the original so I hope my rusty reds work. I'm using what I've already had dyed or cut up for this project and not getting out the dye pots. Hubby is home and doesn't handle the smell of my dyeing too well. I usually dye when he's out somewhere for a while. Hope you like all the new work if you haven't seen it before on Facebook where I usually post pics of my work.