Freshly Cut Flowers

Flowers are a popular motif in the rug hooking community, and it's always good to have some extra tricks to use when hooking them; whether it be from a pattern or designing your own floral rug. 

Start with looking to the natural world for inspiration, this is an important aspect when hooking any object, but especially useful with flowers. You can take note of the different shades and texture of natural flowers, but don't feel like you have to replicate that into your design. A flower can be wonky and unrealistic and still be beautiful art. 

It's important to treat each flower like it's own little piece of art, making it as beautiful as you can. They don't need to be the same or use the same colour, and the amount of shades utilized can vary between each. You want them to contrast especially where they lay up against each other in your rug, it can be a subtle contrast but it should still be noticeable. Every blossom should be outlined because it gives its petals structure and helps give them shape. You can double up on your outline in some places to give a more realistic effect. 

When hooking your flowers centres make sure to use some interesting texture. You can get really creative with the centres and be as detailed as you like. Hooking beautiful centres gives depth and interest to your mat, you can use as many different colours in them as you like. Each one should be hooked like a tiny little mosaic.