Color Class a Success

WAYNE KALAL came last Saturday to teach us a class on color and it was a terrific success.  Wayne is an Omaha artist, working in oils and pastels, but has a broad background in many art forms.  He was at my store before Christmas and we had a fascinating conversation about color and placement and balance that was really helpful with a rug I was hooking. I thought……others would enjoy this and the class was in the works.

Wayne talked about color theory for the first part of the 4 hour class, then we got out our rugs and patterns for help with color planning.  I encouraged everyone to bring rugs they were having problems with or completed rugs that had not turned out how they expected.  It was really interesting to hear Wayne's suggestions about possible color changes.  We spent a great deal of time just throwing wool around, talking about VALUE, HUE and CHROMA.  We learned about greyed value markers and how he prepares to paint a piece, by first doing a values sketch of it.  All these tips about painting, we found valuable for rug hooking as well.

It reminded us that we are indeed artists!  Many of the problems that face painters, designers and other artists, are remarkably similar to the challenges we rug hookers experience.

Wayne enjoyed learning more about rug hooking and meeting the textile artists.  We are planning another class with Wayne, later this spring.  I will let you know the date when it is set.  This is a class that I think every rug hooker could learn from.
Thanks Wayne!

Pictured on top was our 'Color' class.   There were 6 of us and it was a perfect size.  We will keep class size to 6-8 for the next class, as well.  Below, is Wayne looking at an unfinished rug, dispensing advice.  Look in the middle, who made it to class too.  Yes, Blue was there.  Although at 26 lbs he is getting a little heavy to carry around for long.  Blue enjoyed the class and the activity as well.  A great day all round.

Next time…..
Janice