Creation and Expansion - A Visual Journal

Are you interested in creating a visual reference book ?
A highly personal one.
I will suggest topics on a bi-weekly basis for you to explore.
There is no deadline. There is no one checking over your shoulder, just you using visual references to
describe my suggestions.

You can use anything you can see and manipulate into a journal to do this.

This is a rich way to find new things to hook. Or bring to the surface ideas you might already be mulling over.

If you wish to share these pages with the other readers that would be most enriching.


The first topic is SPACE.
Let this mean whatever you want it to.
Outer, inner, room, whatever.
Go to it.

Woolgathering Program

At this Fall Woolgathering we are going to bring the first rug we built and talk about how we began hooking. It should be fun to see what we made then and what we are making now. I plan to take lots of pictures with people's kind permission and post them here. If you are coming be sure to bring your very first rug.

I hope to see you there.

The last pictures from the Owen Sound Luncheon Hook in

Some delightful Owen Sound Hookers


Hookers from Wiarton, Owen Sound, voted the laughingest(?) table


On the way home I dragged my hookers out on a tear and took them to the Women's Institute Commemorative Park. Look at that sky , look at the sculpture, look at the way Marge almost got blown off the cliff.

Three sets of Primaries

I'm giving an on line dye class right now. One assignment I handed out was to choose three primaries and make four distinctly different colours from them.
They were:

Red Blue Yellow

Turquoise Magenta Yellow

Orange Purple Green

Inspired by this to spot dye a pan full of nylons in each set I was amazed by the range of colours created from three.
Here is a pair from each pan.



Left to Right Orange Purple Green/ Turquoise Magenta Yellow / Red Blue Yellow

More Scrappy Talk

I recently bought a magazine, La Vie Claire.
It is a beautiful magazine.
It often contains quotes, this one is from Henri Matisse.

" It is not quantity that counts with colours but choice and organization."

Nothing could be truer. For me though I want a good quantity of colours to pick and organize from also.
Someone said creativity is a series of decisions and I feel that way about using scraps.

Honing in on what you have that will work , choosing what will go where, how to expand the parameters of what colour should do. It is all the stuff of wonder and the pleasure you get from using stuff up is an added bonus.

In the last week I've done a ton of dyeing and so much so I couldn't set time apart to write about it.
I frankly can't even remember what I dyed colour wise but do know it was several bolts and boxes and skeins full.


And my shelves look their glorious fat and fulsome selves again.

I have a wonderful Friend

I have many wonderful friends but this particular person is a source of wonderful inspiration to me every time we connect.

When she read of our scrappy workshop she let me know of her travels in the scrap basket.
Thanks for sending it to me dear ! Here is what she said:

Hi Wanda,
This isn't an "inquiry" but I read in your blog how your class were using up their leftovers hooking an oriental. I thought you might like to see a picture of my "Out of the Basket" personal challenge. These pieces are everything I have hooked using only leftover strips put into a huge basket probably for the last ten years. Students were encouraged to take anything they needed but still it grew so last spring I decided to hook a piece using only strips from the basket, and also on a scrap piece of backing. That was the long narrow one. And like the strips in the basket it just grew from there until last week when I finished piece #8 which is self explantory. And the basket is still half full.
I hope your students enjoy and learn from their projects as much as I did.
Marilyn

These are Marilyn's results:

WHAT ? OCT 16TH ? Already ?

I'm surprised to find the month half over. Where did it go ? I would be happy to tell you I was productive but that's a lie.
Now I did many interesting things, but I didn't really make anything myself. I feel a lack from that.
I gave a class today in scrappy orientals, it was wonderful to see this old stand by in rug hooking look so powerfully and wonderfully different.

Last week I had a terrific group of dyers visit from Michigan for my Be Your Own Dyeing Guru workshop and we did many amazing things. I'm always gratified to see the leaps people can make when you show them the cliff is only half a foot high. It only looks scary.

I also just finished my column for Rug Hooking, it was also about scraps of wool and how to make them useful. Although this seems like careful planning on my part it was just happenstance. I know about two years ahead what I'll be writing about. I want to do this so I might have plenty of time to think about all possible angles. I found it hard to focus because Using It Up is a topic that is RICH. I realized I could write a whole new article about using up dyes. Perhaps that will be squeezed onto the list soon. The next article I'll be writing is about greens which I am calling One Man's Poison. I'm going to explore some new green ideas. BTW One part bottle green and one part moss green make a lovely combo.

About a month ago I attended a delightful hook-in in Owen Sound where they served us a perfect lunch. As many desserts and entrees !
Here are a few photos of what I saw. More to come.

Hook In Happenings

It has been so busy at hook in I haven't had a chance to even take pictures. I'll try to do better this coming week.
Everyone is coming along wonderfully with their projects.

We have decided to have a class to use up stripettes of wool we have laying around. It is called the Scrappy Oriental.
Because the class is only few weeks long we decided to focus on the colour aspect of using our scraps and not drawing a pattern we decided to get either of two Kilim pillows from Rittermere Hurst Field.
Everyone is looking forward to this. If you want to join us drop me a line for the specs. Class starts the first Thursday after Thanksgiving. ( Canadian )

Some very beautiful wool

I could not believe my eyes when this came out of the pot !

An answer to a letter

Yesterday I got a sweet letter inquiring about formula books and swatchettes for Majic Carpet Dyes.

Here was my reply

I'm happy to hear of someone who is newly excited about dyeing.
I have found through the experiences of others, the purchase of recipe books and swatchettes to be a grand exercise in frustration.
Things rarely turn out as you wish or expect.

I find an experiential method much more beneficial to actual learning. It is more interesting and freeing as well because you can make up what ever colour you wish, whenever you wish, even those not dreamed up by the formula makers but only by you.

First dye a sample of all your dye colours , 1/32 tsp over 1/32 yd of wool.
This way you know what colours you are dealing with.

Then over 1/16 yd try combining equal proportions of two colours, for example: 1/32 tsp reddish brown + 1/32 tsp. turquoise
Do this with all your colours.... or buy this already done by Dorothy Bray ( on the OHCG teaching list ) http://www.ohcg.org/findteacher.htm.

This visual aid along with learning how to create values by the amount of wool used with the amount of dye..... 1/32 tsp over 1/32 yd. creates and medium dark colour. 1/32 of dye over 1 yd creates a pastel...... will set upi on a path of wonderment.
What if I combine these three or those four ?

You will know all you need to to create wonderful unique colours all your own.
Also most dye books create formulas all in the same value range and the cannot be used together effectively as motifs won't have contrast.

If this doesn't help you I'm sure RHF can direct you to what you want www.letshookrugs.com

Thanks for writing

The Great Burlington Magical Dye Tour

Heather is preparing something yummy in her aluminum pan. It is important to take the time to arrange theings for good results.


I have to apologize to Pat because I tried to turn her photo the right way at least 10 times to no avail, I thought it was more important to see how she well she did creating her wonderful rich darks. Well done Pat.


Here are the results of my demo of shibori except the one on the top left .... it a watercolour


Here is what Irene made during her week's dyeing , well done my friend.



Often when we dye it comes as great surprise as to what happened ! Barb looks as though she just pulled excalibur from the rock. Maybe she did.

Yes there is more to see

We tried our hand at frying pan spot dyes, here is Fran's delicious results.


During the week we washed and dried things as we went along twice a day. Sometimes they were not quite dry and we used a drying rack to finish the job.


Each day , twice a day it represented a great record of what had just happened.


When we were ready to use the rack for the next shift we threw the stuff on the ground to be collected by it's owner.


Rosemarie and her gorgeous wandering, well done, it is very difficult not to stir but look what happens if you don't and you are using a big enough pot for the wool to be swimming freely.

The Burlington Bonanza Continues

Here is Margaret's Use Three Dyes Challenge and I don't know exactly whether they were crockpot circus or chelseas method but I do know she used the light mixing colours red, blue, yellow as opposed to red violet ( aka magenta ) turquoise ( aka cyan) and the yellow we usually rely on. She arranged these in formulas from dye solutions of each colour. They are beautiful indeed.

Here is someones, either Heather or Cheryl's Great Big Stew Pot.


Here is Gerry's great big stew pot !


What to do with your strips that are leftover ? OVER DYE THEM !!


Look at what strips over dyed yellow produces.... WOW ! I think Barb did this.

More From Burlington

Here is Ruby and here wonderful crockpot circus,what a great job !
For a less riotous circus she could over dye with a touch of black, for you primitive girls, use a brown .... this is over 1/2 yd. so maybe 1/32 tsp brown, though why would you ?????
LOL



Here is a close up:


Here is Elva and her Burlington Bull's eye! What a beauty! It is a Wowee arranged another way !


Irene aka Acid Queen with her Wowee. What a difference rearranging wool in another configuration can make.


And what a difference dye choices make in a wowee. Not sure whose this is, Maybe Pat's or Rosemarie's ?
Pipe up if it is yours......

WHEW

I have some serious catching up to do.
Mostly in cleaning various parts of the house, the way stations for accumulated detritus, and posting to the Welcome Mat and this blog.

When we last met I was posting stuff about Burlington Rug School and I still have some pictures to post I took on the last few days.
I asked students which was the favorite thing they did and I also took some random photos.
The most edifying and invigorating thing was visitor day when I would overhear my fellow dyeing divas proudly showing off the wonderful things they dyed and telling just how they did them.


Barb And Cheryl Discuss Marbleising and Cheryl has a Steamer on Her Knee


Fran's Wandering In Progress



The Notes , THe NOTES



Heather Matches Her Spot Dye ( we all did this over and over )




Eleanor wonders if the water will ever clear...
FYI for using crock pot effectively to dye , we must leave lid on, also if we dye over already dyed wool from factories there will be dirty water especially if we are dyeing over plaids and textures or bleeders.
Throw in a piece of natural to clear water and get great light colours maybe for flesh..


A morning's work


More Later my friends...

Correction for John Cage Attribution

This was sent in to Robert's site ..... be sure to attribute it accurately if you are using it in any way.

As far as I know these "Rules" were the work of Corita Kent , (1918-1986), serigrapher and teacher extraordinare, in which she included a quote from John Cage. The calligrapher David Mekelburg produced them in hand-carved stamped lettering and they were published in Learning by Heart: Teachings to Free the Creative Spirit , a book begun by Corita with her former student Jan Steward and finished by Steward after Corita's death. (Bantam 1992).

(RG note) Thanks, Trish. We stand corrected and I definitely want to give the correct attribution. It seems Rule 10 is Cage's.

Home Again But oh so tired and booked with appointments

As I threw in a cord of wood this morning I was thinking it must be my mandate to make something every day.
It makes all the difference to me and the things I make for work don't really count.
It is hard to make the demarcation, so much of what I love doing turns to work sooner or later.
Here's to a rededication to my Make Something Everyday philosophy. It need only be gratifying, even if it is ugly.
PS Trouble doesn't count.


I have many things to share with you from class last week and from happenings here at home.

Only missing the factor of time.

Start wet finish wet

There is an old saying .... raining at 7 (AM) over by 11.
I hope it holds true as it is a rainy old morning.
I had to unload my things for class in the rain and hope one baptism is enough.
Last night Denise, yes of the Brown town article fame, took me on a whirlwind tour of some lovely places. She is an exceptionally, thoughtful, wonderful person. She really made my work week here into a delightful holiday.
We went to Spun, a yarn store and a sewing shop , Sewing Machine Etcetera ,( whose thrust is education ) located side by side.
Then we were off to Indigo which I enjoyed as a refreshing change from the Chapters mode though I know they are owned by the same umbrella.
I now have great fodder for my long winter to keep ecited and stimulated as that's half my problem, not enough to think about.

Getting out of bed now to get going !
Sad to be going home BUT can't wait ! I especially miss the hairy ones.

Today's Class Wind Up Thoughts via John Cage via Robert

John Cage's "Rules for Students and Teachers."

1 Find a place you trust, and then try trusting it for awhile.
2 General duties of a student--pull everything out of your teacher; pull everything out of your fellow students.
3 General duties of a teacher--pull everything out of your students.
4 Consider everything an experiment.
5 Be self-disciplined--this means finding someone wise or smart and choosing to follow them. To be disciplined is to follow in a good way. To be self-disciplined is to follow in a better way.
6 Nothing is a mistake. There's no win and no fail, there's only make.
7 The only rule is work. If you work it will lead to something. It's the people who do all of the work all of the time who eventually catch on to things.
8 Don't try to create and analyze at the same time. They're different processes.
9 Be happy whenever you can manage it. Enjoy yourself. It's lighter than you think.
10 Break rules. Even your own rules. Leave plenty of room for X quantities.

Dye Class Catch Up

We are having a great time.
I noticed and commented to my class today how proud I was of them because when I assign them their tasks there are no longer questions of , what dye did you use, how much, where and how long.... they were acting like full grown creative wonder, they are ready to be kicked from the nest !

Here are the promised pictures from yesterday and today.

Heather's preparing



Bracing themselves for the day


The Shibori




Wonderful wool



Barb and Cheryl ohhhh and ahhhh



Piles of dyed lovelys just lying in heaps.


Fran's Wandering


I'll post more later , got to get some rest ...