Old School Vogue

This here is a progress report, I'm thrilled to say.

I'm really getting excited about almost being done my Vogue rug.

Now I'm down to brass tacks of getting colours on smaller elements settled. If you are looking for straight and even I suggest you look elsewhere, 'cos that's not the way this rug rolls.

The After

The way I built this rug, a new part every day, (go to my archives September 2009 to see how) made it hard to know how to hook because I was drawing and hooking right to the last day of September. Now I can look at the WHOLE rug and form my ideas about placement and correct the areas I think need to be redressed and balanced. Do they need to be quieter for the best overall effect? Or should they shout more to hold their own?

The Before

In this case I needed the frill to relate to the center part of the rug which was a yellow green.

When we hook a rug we need to take into consideration the accumulation of the small things on the effect of the whole. This can be very hard to do.

I find it is for two main reasons.

The person is totally romantically involved with their rug and they cannot see how this colour they love or hate or the part they left out is affecting the whole rug. They are deeply and wholly in love, who can disabuse them of anything? He gambles, he drinks, he robs banks, he is a home wrecker... they just can't see it.

OR

The hooker knows it isn't right but they have no idea why nor how to set about satisfying themselves. So they just finish up and go on to the next project.

I find no problem with either of these. I just don't have a supply of either. My blindness and disastifaction comes out in other areas of my life. So I stumble around, apply my group of adages and carry on until I feel feel good. Just watching me do this makes people uncomfortable. I feel great getting things improved. Here is what I think about to do it.

Colour Trouble Shooting

Why don’t my colours look good together?

You might not have taken care to pick the colour that will cover the greatest area first, if you do this you can play colours off that first pick and proceed knowing they work together and with the leading lady.

Stick to a theme, if your colours are Caribbean, stick with that, if they are Victorian always choose from the theme's colour palette. Don’t throw something crazy in, that includes poison... be mindful of poison, don’t use the same poison in your Victorian palette as the Caribbean one. Feel free to be artful and whimsical just not ugly. The answer you seek is probably staring at you from part of the rug already hooked. Remember your leading lady is the most important, beware of the domino effect, change too many things and you may lose your original colour theme.

My rug looks BLAH

Did you pay attention to colour temperature ? It is important to balance this. A rug with all cool colours lacks heart and passion, one that’s all hot will burn your eyes up ! You need the sweet relief of a cool colour.

Do you have a balance of light, dark and medium? Do you actually recognize these when you see them? THere are free lessons as part of The Welcome Mat membership to help you discover this.

This is all important !!! Don’t be afraid to use extremes.

I know its wrong but I can’t fix it!!

Here are the things I do.

Look carefully at the rug, determine if it is a value problem ( light/ dark, contrast is so important to create a beautiful rug,) a saturation problem ( how bright or dull colours are ) or a temperature ( do you need a cool or warm yellow , red, blue, green brown orange etc. ) problem. There are only those three categories for criteria.

CHOICES

All colours have special friends who make them look amazing. There are billions of choices, be sure not to settle when you are planning with colours. There is always a good- better- best scenario.

I spend a lot of time working with colour. Get yourself some coloured pencils, markers, paints , crayons, whatever you feel comfortable with to use. No one need see these experiments. Also I like paint chips, to mix and match and explore with. Look at layouts in expensive magazines, fabric, web sites to see effective and non effective colour interplay. Figure out what colours you like, then look at the different variations in that colour family for inspiration. Look around you. Be a student of nature , the best and most balanced use of colour is outside!!I cannot stress enough to PLAY PLAY PLAY with colour everyday to gain confidence and inspiration.