What would you like to learn about rug hooking? I am asking...
Good Morning,
This week I had a hike in Economy. We drove down a long dirt road through fields and woods until we turned right onto a narrow gravel road. We were far away from the community and I as continued I felt a little lonely, perhaps a little vulnerable. When we got out of the car and started into the woods, Katherine, my friend asked if the bears were out of hibernation yet. I just smiled to myself and said "Yes, I think they are."
We were on a small flat trail that wound around the narrow cove like a strand of wool. As we left the red cliffs on the waters edge we followed a carpet of green moss through the woods. We were alone in those woods, just us and whatever creatures were hiding away in the trees. That little fairy land of moss with the light shining through the trees made you feel like you were in Lord of the Rings. This fantastical landscape was there waiting for us just off the beaten path.
It took a little time to get there. An hours drive from home just to go for walk. At first we both thought perhaps we should just hike a trail nearer home. But we knew that perhaps it might be worth the effort so off we went.
We went to be by the sea. To walk along this rugged eroding coast of red rock and sand. We went to see, to watch those Bay of Fundy swells and feel the hard wind on our faces.
That's what it's like. You have to put in a little extra effort sometimes to experience something new. You have to drive an hour, go a little further, push yourself a bit. This is true in your rugs too. It's certainly true in mine. I have to add a new colour to the water, one I rarely use, just to see it. I have to create new movement in the sky so I can find a new way of seeing it.
When I was heading down that dirt road in the back of beyond I got this feeling that I just wanted to turn back. That's normal to get those little twinges of uncertainty when you push yourself a bit. It's part of the process of learning, of discovery, of finding the new.
Feelings come and feelings go. Remembering this always makes me feel good when I am having a feeling that I don't like. I know for a fact that feelings pass. Sometimes you have to hold them in your heart and carry them with you for a bit. Sometimes you have to push through them, past them. But they come and go.
Remember this when you are making your rugs. Sometimes it will feel like what you are doing is not working but you cannot always trust that. Sometimes you have to push through and see where it takes you.
It took me to a new land of green. One I had never seen before.
I hope you have a good week, that you discover something new. Thank you for reading,
Deanne
PS. We now have Cheticamp frames in stock and we have gears back in stock too if you want to make your own.
- Angela Davis
- Tags: colour planning in Hooked Rugs colours design details hooked rug hooking
Sunday Letter: You have this well inside of you, keep digging.
Good Morning,
I will get straight at it this morning. We were all born creative. We all have this well of creativity inside of us. We have this secret space inside of us that is made for making.
Some creative wells are pretty deep and they got that way because someone has been digging in them. You are creative. I am creative. This morning I am going to tell you a bit about my creative well.
Like you, probably, I drew as a child freely and easily. We never seemed to have any paper in our house so I would take the blank end pages of my father's paper back books and tear them out and draw on them. I would look through the old school text books in the house and see my older sister's drawings of women that they rendered while bored in class. I'd try to copy those drawings. And I would draw my own. I passed no judgement I just drew until I was about seven or eight and I started noticing others drew better.
Suddenly, it seemed the end papers of books became score tallies for card games. Fifty cents a game and a nickel in the hole, that was family time when I was growing up.
I left drawing behind as a young child.
I still made things. I made Barbie clothes, and crocheted granny squares. I played with copper wire and buttons to make really awful earrings. I wrote letters. Lots of letters. But I never thought of those things as creative. I never saw myself as creative. The only thing I ever drew was a vine with leaves, it was my go to scribble, my doodle. It never occurred to me I could draw.
Creativity was something I left behind as I grew up and even as I went through university. I never even thought about the word. And the word is a bit daunting. It just never came up.
In my third year of university I started visiting the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia just to look at the pictures. I had just discovered the difference between original art and department store art. I was twenty. I was doing a political science degree. I read books on Russia and the Middle East. I had no artistic inclinations other than I was curious. The idea that I could be an artist was not even an inkling in the back of my mind. I think it would have seemed a ridiculous idea.
But inside of all that, even though I did not know it, I was still the little girl who drew on the end papers of books.
Inside of each of us is that tiny artist. That little hand that brought what was around us to life so freely and easily with out judgement or despair, or foolishness is inside us.
That little hand is inside the hand you have now. Just look at your hands, really look at them and remember. Remember the time when they were not afraid to pick up the pencil, to mark things up with crayons, and hold them up their work for the world to see.
These hands are ours. They still hold this memory in them. And this memory is powerful because once we stir it up we realize that our well is there ready to be dug again. Ready to make.
I became interested in drawing again when I learned how to hook rugs. I was twenty four.
And it isn't all about drawing, that's just what happened to me. I still can only draw what I can draw. I know that the more I draw the better I get because I start to see again. Some where along the way I accepted that the way I drew was the way I drew. I could not draw everything but what I did draw had some feeling. The things I cannot draw I get some help with or I use a template or a pattern, and that's okay.
I don't limit myself by my own abilities. I learn from others. I study. I read. I teach myself. I ask for help. That way my abilities grow. That is the thing I love about creativity. It can be collaborative. It grows and builds upon itself and upon the creativity of others. As much as it is a well, it is also this big teetering tower that has grown because we have helped each other.
And if you keep using it, it gets better as you age. You have more sources, more knowledge, more history that you can draw upon. The well does not dry up. That's a myth. You keep digging, it will keep flowing.
Over the last year I put a lot of my creative energy into making DFS Colour School. I hope you will join me and learn this creative approach to colour for hooking rugs.
Enjoy your Sunday, and I 'll write next week,
and remember ...
You are creative!
Deanne
PS. If you sign up for colour school before April 3 you will save $50 on the registration.
- Angela Davis
- Tags: design hooking Inspiration original design perspective in rug hooking rug hooking
Sunday Letter: Dreams take Trust and Patience.
Good Morning,
This week I had a long time dream turn into a reality. I always wanted to make a one time beautiful magazine about the studio and the kind of rug hooking we do here at my studio. I have carried that idea around for years and years.
Last April when I was packing parcels alone in the studio I wished I had a gift to put in every package. I was just so appreciative of the orders that you made. I wanted a little thank you to add in those packages. Something that would be good for both beginners and experienced rug hookers. It was during that time that I revisited this idea of creating a one time magazine that we could share with anyone who wanted. One that would be free, a gift.
Angela who works with me had made magazines before and she was enthusiastic. We said, Let's do it, and we did.
Creating this gift for you guys got me to thinking about dreams. I have had a lot of dreams in my life. I remember being seventeen and imagining myself educated, with a good job, a second hand Volvo, and really nice scarves. I still see that woman I imagined myself to be, and really I am pretty much what I dreamed up except the car. Cause really what I was dreaming about was independence. I just wanted two be able to look after myself.
I know you have dreams too. Things you want to do. Things you imagine for yourself. I know you are working towards them.
Dreams are interesting. They are what we wish for ourselves. We are told to follow our dreams. That dreams do come true.
What is often left out is that dreams are turned into reality one small action at a time. That dreams coming true have a lot to do with the time being right. That every tiny step forward is a movement in the dream becoming a reality. They come true because we set out with intention and we act on it.
But dreams are not all about the person doing the dreaming.
There is timing.
There is spirit.
There is community.
There is love.
There is passion.
There is fortune.
There is trust.
There is faith.
There is patience.
These all play a part in our dreams. We don't always get what we want exactly when we want it . There are so many factors at play. Yet we carry ideas in our hearts for years and years, not giving up on them, nurturing them, even coddling them. Sometimes ideas have to be carried around a long while and that's ok. It might even be for the best.
Our dreams don't just come true because of us, but because of what and who is around us.
They come true because of the inspiration of others and how they share their ideas and dreams. We don't get to do much alone, on our own. We are dependent on a community, as much as we are upon ourselves and our own actions.
That's something I could not see as a seventeen year old when I was dreaming about my life to come. It was just me that I saw standing there. I did not know how beautiful it would be to be part of a community. I had no idea how important the community would be even for the most independent of souls, the community I work with, the community I live in, the online community who support my work.
Now I know and I am grateful and I want to pack these magazines in parcels and send them out to you to inspire people to create beauty everyday. When we make beauty and creativity part of our lives something opens up for us. I know this is true. It happened to me. Most likely , if you are reading this, it has happened to you too.
Thanks for reading, and for helping make dreams come true,
Deanne
PS.We will pack the new magazine in every order placed in the studio www.hookingrugs.com or you can drop by the studio and pick one up. It's free.
PP.S Be sure to listen to the podcast while you hook. We have put a tab on the website with the podcast . If you listen to it and like it please be sure to review it on iTunes or wherever you listen. I would appreciate that.
- Angela Davis
- Tags: design details gratitude hooked rug hooking rug hooking
- Angela Davis
- Tags: design details finishing hooked rugs hooked rug hooking
