A Painted View

We are extremely fortunate that Diane Stoffel makes The Rug Hooking Store one of her yearly teaching stops.  Last year when she was here, I hooked my "GHOST HORSE" rug.  It will be going off to Sauder Village in a week or so to be displayed with the Celebration rug finalists.  I promise to blog about it, before I send it away.   This is the rug I did in this March's class.  This is Hairy, my favorite boy. His registered name is Rollin in Dough, but because as a baby he could find every mud puddle in the pasture, his breeders nick named him Dirty Hairy and the name has stuck.  Carl and I went to Oklahoma last January to purchase Hairy and it was a trip well spent.   I love Hairy and he is the perfect horse for me to ride here at home and go for my lessons at Ponca Hills Farm.

So, for the Diane Stoffel class this year, I just had to do a portrait of Hairy.  I drew the horse, with no problem.  He is a black and white paint, with one brown eye on the left and a blue eye on the right.  There is old Indian legend that blue eyed horses have magical qualities, so I wanted to make sure to hook Hairy from his most magical side.  Diane helped me with the shading, which proved to be very interesting to hook.  From Diane, I have learned that shading is all about value.  You must think about your colors as light, medium and dark.  The black and white for the dark and light was easy.  The shading colors were what made the fun in this rug.  His mane has some cream colors to help it stand away from his body.  To define his muscles, we used greys, blues and taupes.

The horse was looking good and frankly looks so much like the real Hairy that it is sort of startling.  But what to do for the background.  I wanted to stay with the black and white theme, so Diane suggested ZENTANGLE.  I had no idea what that is, but with a little research, I learned a lot.  It is doodling in a zen-like state.  Diane encouraged me to draw the grids, draw a doodle pattern and repeat it every 4 blocks or so.  This would have been such a good idea.  However,  late that evening after all the sane people had gone to bed......Elsie Ulland, Jan Goos and I found ourselves still up, hooking.  The later it got, the more profound ( yet ridiculous) our ideas got.  Before the clock struck 1am, we had decided that the background should be a topographical map of my world. It includes my house and barn, the neighbors, the Platte and Elkhorn Rivers, train tracks, the theatre.....my neighborhood and beyond.  We wondered how we would get such a view and decided that Lyn Goos, Jan's pilot husband would in our imaginary world, taking a picture from his plane.   Look at the very top, in the center, there is Lyn Goos' plane.  The sky includes all the weather we experience here in Nebraska too, tornados, sleet, lightning, and a rainbow.

This was about as much fun as you could have with a background.  The whole rug was challenging and thoughtful and shared with good friends.   It tells a story, which is my favorite kind of rug. The rug was named "A Painted View", by our good friend and neighbor Mark Vencil.  A perfect name, indeed.

I have no idea what project I will tackle when Diane comes next year.  I am thrilled to announce that she will be coming to teach 2 workshops here at the store in 2014.  One will be in March, one in July.  You can check my website www.janicelee.biz for details.  At this point, both are full, but you can contact me to get on the waiting list for either class, or put your name on a list for 2015.  She is worth the wait.

More tomorrow,
Janice