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Issue: July-August 2008

Welcome . . .

to the June issue (albeit a little late. )

Before going further, I'd just like to extend my concern and express my dismay for all those affected by all the horrible weather conditions around our country. Tornadoes, flooding, and wildfires have devastated too many lives this year. To all those who have lost loved ones, experienced personal losses, and are battling to rebuild or sustain their properties and possessions, my heart and prayers go out to you. Please pray for all those affected, and help if you can.

There are so many things going on here, it's a little crazy! I am sure most of you can relate. Weddings, graduations, kids coming home from college, vacations plans being made, flowers being planted (or in my case a new lawn), and the list goes on and on. How on earth do we keep up and not go crazy?

My days are very hectic, so I really have to set aside a little time each evening to do something creative and relaxing -- it's my sanity saver. And, it can be really difficult to do sometimes, because there is always something that needs to be, or should be, done instead. My rationale is two-fold: 1) if I go crazy, who will do the needs and shoulds? 2) if I don't take some time for myself to unwind and enjoy life, I will go crazy (see #1.) Besides, creativity is renewable! Maya Angelou said, “You can’t use up creativity.  The more you use, the more you have.” See? It's better than time itself!

This issue does not have a single focus. It is rather free-flowing and I hope it sparks something of interest and helps jump-start your creativity. Since I am feeling rather scattered, I guess this is just the kind of issue I need to offer.

Thanks for reading along  . . .

Giving Gifts

I've found myself giving quite a few gifts over the last few weeks. Between graduations, weddings, and family birthdays, my creativity has been stretched. I love to give personally created gifts when I can, so I've hooked rugs with wedding themes, mats with family names, and several needle punched pins and small personal gifts to give. I find that the recipients really love to get one-of-a-kind gifts that are somehow personal to them and that reflect elements of their lives. And it's very satisfying for me to see them respond in such a positive way to something I've created with only them in mind.

Summer brings many opportunities to create special gifts for those you love. Rather than making the trip to the local mall and using up precious gas, why not put more of yourself into the gifts you give. Create something special for a loved one or for that  special occasion. Even if you use a commercial pattern, add a special date, name, or other personal element to make it truly special for the recipient. Those are the gifts that we keep forever!

quick links

Quick Links are links to other websites that I think you will find useful and interesting. Places that are fun to explore, articles that are interesting to read, and people I just love!

Rug Hooking magazine - yesterday's news

I happened upon this 1994 article online while searching for something else (you all know how that goes.) I found it historically interesting, and I thought you might, as well.

Jule Marie Smith

If you are not acquainted with this prolific rug hooker and her body of work, what are you waiting for? Jule Marie Smith is my hooking heroine! She is the queen of the border, master of the dye pot, and diva of design. I absolutely love everything she does. I recognize her work the instant I see it. No one else produces the quality of design and color that Jule does. Click her name above to find examples of her work at the Green Mountain Rug Hooking Guild's web site (while you're there, look around for tons of inspiration and information.) Notice how Jule's borders stand out and at the same time, meld into the rug - amazing!

'Coast to Coast in Punch Needle' - revisited

If you haven't visited my home page lately, you might not know about the new punch needle book that I worked on with Landauer Publishing. It contains a design for each state of the union! I did mention it in the last newsletter, but since this project was such a labor of love, I felt it bears repeating.

You can order your copy now . I will personally sign  your copy.

Subscribers: Do you have a favorite website or shop you'd like to share with everyone? Send me the link in an email and I will share related information in a future Quick Links column.

Business owners: Want to advertise here? Just  email and ask how.

Small Businesses - Plugging Along

We are all feeling it at the gas pumps, in the grocery stores, and everywhere. As a small business owner, I am feeling it in the checkbook. My niche is not where most of you are putting your pennies these days (and that's understandable.) Most small business owners are experiencing the same crisis. To cope, we are all finding our own way. I have decided to go back to work at the antiques shop in my town, which I opened with my best friend back in 1992. I left the business a few years after we opened to pursue my art and build my web site business. Now, I am working during shop hours at The Mermaid's Tale, and keeping up with my own website orders and design projects in the evenings. The shop is located only 4 blocks from my home, so I am conserving gas in the process.

To all you website businesses and shop owners: I feel your pain. Hang in there, things have to get better! To all my readers: when you can, please support small businesses (online and locally.) Owning a small business is a lot of very hard work, little pay, and usually involves a real love of what one does. You might pay a bit more at a small establishment, but you are truly helping your community by supporting small, local businesses. Our tax dollars help sustain local governments, schools, and add to a more vibrant and economically stable business environment for the community.

Favorite Things

One of my favorite things to do, from time to time, is to use up as many left-over wool strips in one hooked rug as I can. I am working on just such a rug right now. I poured through the giant plastic bag filled with wool strips from projects completed over the last two years or so. For me, that is a lot of left-over strips! I sorted them by color family into separate cardboard boxes and realized I had about the same volume of strips from each color family. Based on that observation, I decided a geometric rug design would serve me best. (If I had found more greens than reds, for example, I might have decided to hook a landscape with rolling hills and trees.) I started out thinking I would just hook until I had used up all the strips. But my artistic sensibilities just would not let me go there - sometimes I wish I had a more free-wheeling style. Nevertheless, after giving it some thought, I sketched a bit, and then decided I'd do a hit and miss design in squares using the various colorways I saw sorted before me. I drew the design on linen and began to hook. Somehow, my brain took another turn and instead of a hit and miss, I ended that first square with more of a log cabin design, with lights on one side and darks on the other. So the design had emerged all by itself, as sometimes happens to me when I start out with a less than clear idea of what I want to hook. The useful light-dark color selections  ran out as I finished a square, so I thought, that's it -- I'm done. But the rug I saw hooked into the linen was not as large as I had hoped it would become. A border! If I added a wide border, I could extend the size and use up the rest of the strips in the meandering way I initially envisioned. I still had a ton of strips to use, but they were all colors, sizes, and widths. I thought, "That could work." This entire project was starting to be 'hit and miss!'

Still undecided, I walked away from the rug at that point and just looked at it every now and again as I walked through the studio, trying to see it with a hit and miss, squiggly border. After a few days of blankly staring at it, I changed my mind (again.) I thought a border like that would distract and compete with the lovely, and somewhat imperfect, log cabin motif that would become the central design. My next thought -- "If not that border, then what? Thinking for a few more days might help." It didn't. In the end, the left-over strips would not be used up. I went to the wool cupboard and pulled yardage in a neutral, a mottled black-red and a deep red. The wide border is now divided by a free-style curved line through its center and around the rug. The inner portion of the divided border I hooked with the neutral, and the outer portion with the deep red. The line itself is of black-red and that color also surrounds the outside of the rug and separates the log cabin portion from the border. I'm finishing the border this week, and will bind it in red and black wool yarn, I think (uh-oh, here I go again!)

It was a compromise of simplicity and a design choice that works. What do you think?

click to enlarge

The moral of this design story is be flexible, creative, and go with your instincts. Your first choice is not always the best choice, and if one thing doesn't work, try something totally different. When you see it and like it, you'll know that's the best choice. If you aren't sure where to go with it, wait a while and it will eventually reveal itself. Reverse hooking can be a blessing in disguise -- take it out -- it's not permanent. Try another color, another shape, a texture, or whatever. Every single change you make, offers an opportunity to learn something. You know the saying . . . "no such thing as  failures, only opportunities!"

That's it for now . . . thanks for reading . Go forth and be creative!!

Sally

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Sally Van Nuys          Amherst Folk Art & Rug Hooking      141 Woodhill Drive     Amherst, OH 44001         440-984-3486 Home Studio

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