Monday, October 20, 2014

Sharing New Skills Monday + 3 Wandering Formulas and Method

Each week on the Welcome Mat we have a lesson called New Skills Monday.
Here is this week's, we love sharing on The Mat.

We'd love for you to join us, it is the best bang for your buck out there. Only .08 cents a day for the best inspiration for rug hooking artists online.

People ask me to write a book frequently and this truly is the book they want.
But better because I'm present and fairly live. It is the best kind of book, interactive.
I've been working my whole career with one goal, to help you realize your dreams and potential by helping you to look at things differently. Here is just one miniscule example.

New Skills Monday - Contrast and Background - A Simple Rug Study.

Recently we've talked about contrast and backgrounds.
They've been on my mind because of our last lesson in the poppy class.
And while I posted the lesson I forgot to talk about the background in this rug.
We are going to share with you.
Let's look at my rug And The Day Came, sorry if you are tired of seeing it, I use it for my ads.
Here is a close up, we are looking at the background, see the variety of colours and the directions?
Some kinda stems, some kinda buds but in the background colours. You can see areas of lighter and darker action.
For the whole rug, it is 5'6" long I used about 5 different yard pieces of green that were similar in value. Some were just mottled with lighter and darker patches of the same colour.
Others were spot dyes of my 7 Greens Salad where I just take seven straight out of the bottle or mix green and dye up a yard of wool. Some were blue green, some true green and some yellowish green.
Can you see where the spot dyes are?
Let's look at it from a distance to get the whole impact of what happened with all these greens.
I also make sure if I come across a dark patch or a light patch in a strip that doesn't belong where I'm hooking. I reserve them ( cut them off ) and group them together where I need that kind of dimness or glow.
These greens make a "ghostly garden" and the sideways directions and the angled patches create subtle movement. Rather than do the usual with these 5 yards like cut them up and pull them randomly for a wormy background or pave it up and down in straight rows I let the greens paint patches. As you know I'm big on creating shapes in my wool painting whether it be face, flower or background.
The background of my letterings are three wanderings used either or. This means use one or two strips of one colour and then switch to the other colour to blend them.  If you are interested in these formulas they are at the bottom of this discussion.
Contrast
I won a prize for this rug and it was published on a black and white page. I had played a great trick in this rug which isn't all that apparent.
I only used temperature and saturation to create contrast.
Look at it in black and white, what a terrible thing to publish, I bet people were shaking their heads. Barely any value contrast between flowers and background!
I hope you enjoyed this please add what you like. What kind of contrast do you like to create?
What do you think of this background?
Got questions?
Please ask.
I used Majic Carpet Dyes to create these formulas moons ago.
The Method
Fill a 12 or 14 quart kettle 3/4 full with water.
Heat it.
Add a very generous handful of pickling salt. I use 1/2 cup.
Measure dye from formula line #1 into a measure cup and dissolve with boiling water then top up to one cup with cool water. ( this is making a dye solution) 
Pour this solution into the pot.
Place into the pot a 1/2 yard of wool that has been pre-soaked in wetting agent (drop of plain shampoo or jet dry without bleach or synthropol. 
Stir with a spoon or ruler for a few seconds. Let some wool be above the water.
Leave for 10 minutes . 
Stir in 1/2 tsp. citric acid crystals.
Poke wool down with a spoon ( I use a wooden ruler) until it is submerged. Only do this once.
Wait for colour to be absorbed.
Pour solution from line #2 over the wool.
Give one swift whip of a spoon, do not stir further.
Only add acid once.
Leave for 10 minutes.
Pour solution from line #3 over wool.
Use the same stirring routine as mentioned before.
Continue repeatedly adding the dyes from each line in this way until you reach the end of the formula.



Rinse wool well and dry. 

In my dirt in this rug I used Clay Baker and Oceanic

Clay Baker
3/32 tsp. yellow
1/32 tsp. red violet
1/32 tsp. bottle green
4/32 tsp. chocolate brown
2/32 tsp. turquoise

Oceanic
2/32 tsp. blue
1/32 tsp. moss green
1/32 tsp. seal brown
And a little Brazil Nut at the top of the "dirt".

Brazil Nut
4/32 tsp. blue
1/32 tsp. blue violet
2/32 tsp. yellow
1/32 tsp. blue + 1/32  tsp. black
1/32 tsp. red violet  + 1/32  tsp. black
5/32 tsp. yellow


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