It's A Beaver

To see a beaver according to Ted Andrews,author of Animal Speak is to pay attention to your emotions and keep working at it. Hard work pays off.

And it keeps those yellow teeth we expose dull and unable to do damage to ourselves or others.

Okay I added the last part, but that's plausible isn't it?

There is good busy and bad busy.

Good busy is when you are doing things you said yes to and want.

Bad busy is when you should have said no but you have to do it anyway.

Is anything more onerous?

I think I'll rest awhile and let me yellow teeth grow, all the better to chew with!!

I'm starting back to the Vogue Rug and I also joined an art show as a vendor today.

I'm excited to see what I will make. I always love getting ready for these things and they encourage you to do your craft during the day too. (I hope I'm too busy with sales) It is fun to be around other people who create things.

It is July 17. Lots of time to play! The best kinda busy as I get ready.

My love quote to you:

No matter how busy you are, you must take time to make the other person feel important.
Mary Kay Ash

From my house to yours

I'm picturing you here.
My new boyfriend

A blooming heart

That Albert, what a genius! Really.

"Any fool can know. The point is to understand. "
Albert Einstein

And what a leap that is!

Here is a rug I hooked of circles:

New born hooker of one month

Look at me carefully following the rule of three and trying to be expressive in my colour strip patterns. I didn't dye then and it shows.

Several years later, about 10 you can see how much stronger a statement I can make with the same general idea. I've got my big girl pants almost on! I know how to make things glow, build colour play within my circles while not distracting from them. My background is a whole lot of happiness to look at. There is richness and depth and best of all there is still a lot of things for me to learn... rules of three? Leave them be.

Here is a picture of a cat rug I hooked in my first year for my daughter Vanessa.

I had to turn the cat to face the other way because I couldn't "do" its face. I made a strange illusion where the cat seems to flip which way he faces, how disconcerting. I did get better at making the star insides look like the outsides...

You can see I was in love with the wormy look, I made this rug also in my first year of hooking.
I was getting a bit more sophisticated, you can see my attempts to provide light and shadow, my two part moon effect.
See how I loved Exclamation points even then!!!!

Hard to imagine how the very next cat I did 8 years later turned out like this...


And there are still so many more tricks for me to learn, I can't wait for them to appear.

The moral of this story:
You can know something, I knew the same principles of loop pulling then as I do know.
But what I understand now, that's the ticket.
I understand what to look at. I'm beginning to understand colour and how to control it. I understand how to make what's important stand out and what to let recede. I understand I want to have the illusion of physical depth in what I do. I understand how to do that. I understand it only by doing it. I do it by making mistakes and correcting them. I accumulate understanding by acting on knowledge, discarding what doesn't work and studying what people do in any medium that does work.

Study your rugs this week and see what leaps you've made from knowing to understanding, I think you'll be proud of yourself!

Interviewed by Brenda Beerhorst

As soon as Brenda joined the Welcome Mat her rugs, blog and spirit have inspired and intrigued me. You can imagine my delight when she requested an interview. Go here to read it.

Thank you Brenda!

Good Design- You can do it !

Hydrangeas using spotty, and funky based swatches

Good Design - You can do it!

The WandaWay Studio, Wanda’s online teaching studio, is pleased to announce a new class starting May 24, 2010. (note: this classroom is not on The Welcome Mat, all classes there are free to subscribers and there are lots of them!!)

This class is crafted to help those of you who are interested in designing your rugs or even making sure you know a good design when you see one to buy it. It does include the role a good colour plan plays. This class will save you oodles of trouble and give you confidence to do whatever you dream of.

This class consists of three lessons presented every 2 weeks for a six week span @ $25 each for a total of $75.

The Lines

The Colour

Bringing it to Fruition

There will be plenty of time to complete your homework assignments and there will be a tremendous amount of interaction between you and your teacher as well as between students. Videos, podcasts and slideshows as well as written material and visual aids will be provided to enhance your studying. We would love to have you join us.

If you are interested in this class and wish to sign up press this paypal button in US dollars below for instant payment. If this denomination doesn’t suit you or you are interested but don’t use paypal write inquiry@wandaworks.ca to send a check.

A beautiful card

I love the names of colours on this Christmas card and how they invoke the season.

It would be a great exercise to imagine new names for them for Spring! If you like these types of activities you'll love The Welcome Mat, my live and interactive online magazine for rug hookers and woolworkers. Join the group Playday for creative exercises.

Authenticity

I just got this book and I'm loving it. Every page is a new delight. Very inspirational. I love seeing what people develop and invent, you can see clearly they have a "special " way about them and what they create. Look at one of the artists featured in this book working with wool and silk, Ulrieke Benner for a great example of invention and strength of her authenticity, it shines through whatever she does.

How do we get to the place where we are speaking through our truest self at that moment and not barking through our hat or up a tree or something else?

Let's start with being aware.

Gimmickery is a real phenomenon.

This word, as I use it, is my cross between mockery and gimmick.

Gimmick isn't a very old word. It came about in the 1920s as a result of wide spread advertising. A gimmick is something to draw you in. Like giving you a free pillow with every mattress or altering a building to appear like a log cabin or an Italian villa to attract eaters to restaurants. There is not much to a gimmick, it is about appearances.

Mockery, an absurd imitation, misrepresentation or interpretation of something.

Gimmickery for me - a representation of something that already exists or doesn't exist at all to make someone think an idea is new.

In common usage it means an array of gimmicks.

I'm sure people who have been hooking for 20 years or so know just what I mean.

If you can get your hands on older issues of RHM or News and Views you will see it too.

All it takes is a little research to find what are purported to be innovations are simply imitations of the past.

How to avoid falling into the gimmickery trap?

Look out for things that:

are way more complicated than they need to be

take a lot of talk to convince you

don't strike a bell with your inner authenticity

when used as directed don't improve a thing you do

look exactly the same as something you've seen a million times but you are told it is different

make you feel like you know something but when you need to do it .... whoops, it slips away

If we are talking about inventing stuff and I feel hardly anything has been invented yet on this planet or in rug hooking if you want a smaller view, I want you to know you are as capable as the next hooker to invent something. All you need is your own authentic self. That's is your best tool. And you need to try lots of times, make lots of prototypes as true inventors do. Lots of them will fail... excellent. They will be the stuff upon which something new arises.

More importantly don't be bamboozled by yourself or others.

Inventing is a doing thing not a thinking one, it is something to play at, with tons of what if questions.

“Doubt is the father of invention.”

Galileo Galilei

Don't doubt yourself.... doubt them and that.

Helen's Triumph

Helen and her Aurora Borealis at Woolgathering. Amazing eh?

What Hook-in Looked Like last Thursday

Erin

Barb

Marie

Lorraine

Gwen

Marilyn

Trying to knit my own warmth

It's been so cold here I'm back at knitting with that yarn I fixed awhile ago....

Thank goodness I have 5 skeins , a gift from Denise... because I appear to be knitting a blanket!!! LOL

What The Scot Dragged In

Rock On!

The grand heart is home!

A Search for heart

Here I am last night with the mother of all heart rugs. At Jackson's Cove the shore is a heap of wonderful flat rocks, I love rocks and I collect heart rocks. How I wish this one didn't weight a ton and I would have taken it home. It was all I could do to hold it up.

Never mind the babushka kerchief, if you live here you respect black flies, their season and the skin on your head.

Lots of people I've been talking to lately want more than a search for a heart on the shore.

They are looking for heart in what they see, buy and do, including their own rugs.

Here's a little list on how I think we can include more:

Look for themes recurring that compel you, act on them

Notice details you like, include them in your work

Complete nothing you've lost interest in

Feel your feelings

Make a ton of stuff

Don't let any project last too long

Get encouraging and supportive people around you

SAY NO TO SHOULD

The answer to every thing else is yes

Wake the heck up, you aren't in a dress rehearsal, this be your real thing, right now

Have a mini date every day with yourself for artistic noodling

Don't take yourself too seriously

Set goals and challenges frequently, revise them as needed

Love yourself and everything you do, you are a gift to the rest of us, thank you for sharing!

I'm going back to get my giant rock, I want it!!

How I'm going to carry it, that's just a technicality.

Just when you thought you knew it all

I was interested in the "surprising" colour choices in this rug! It is from Dargate Auction Houses archive.

What do you think?

ALSO

My friend Jean posted a great site on her page in The Welcome Mat.

It lead me to another part of it, novelty rugs from 1920 to 1990

Have a look.

I was asked a question

Yesterday I was asked a question about what makes a good teacher and it was a direct question, someone wanted to be doing a great job. I wanted to share here with you what I said:

No real teacher needs a gimmick. You need an idea, a solid thing you want to promote, one thing and one thing only you want them to learn and let all that you do during the day support that. You want to communicate that idea effectively, it's like writing a thesis, you do the same stuff. The magic you bring to class is not in a hat, or a card trick or in a picture show ( though I have to say people love these better than life!!, they like to sit in the dark and be spoon fed visuals, I'm not sure why, restful perhaps?) The magic resides right in you. Any audience can be turned on by you being passionate about what you do, excited to teach them and being loving. That all said people never remember what you teach them but they always remember how you treat them. People do need to have fun. Fun is sometimes in short supply at least in the classroom in my experience. Maybe you could tell a few good jokes about your subject.

Don't take yourself too seriously in class, people loved to be asked their opinion about things and told when they are doing a good job. Relate your struggles to your students. Ask what they might have done differently. Ask them if they have ever hooked an animal or helped someone to. What tips can they offer the class? Ask people by name. Ask everyone. People find this kinda stuff very helpful. No matter your experience older hookers need fresh meat and they know it, even if they are grumbling all the way.

A teacher is one who makes himself progressively unnecessary. ~Thomas Carruthers

Back to The Picture Show

Here is my vogue rug as it lays today, you know its kinda big!

But I'm hooking away on it each day and it is getting done.

I learned something last week , I'm a big babby that whines for visuals and didn't like my blog nor have a desire to blog when I wasn't getting my cones and rods tickled by photography.

"Life can only be understood backward, but it must be lived forward." ~Soren Kierkegaard

Accidentally on Purpose

I used to baby sit a boy who would tell me , oh no Wanda, I accidentally did that on purpose.

It was hard to keep a straight face.

When I saw a fibre arts book with the same title I was curious.

The subject of the book is quilts, specifically African American quilts.

Eli Leon purposes that these quilts, you might be familiar with the quilts of Gee's Bend, and their random geometry harkens back to African textiles.

He speculates with some pretty sound evidence the creators were answering the call of their textile heredity.

It might look to us as though they ran out and than ran on with their projects but there was some other pull to do it their way.

We are quick to make judgements and suppositions. We have sophisticated eyes, we are looking at purposefully designed things every day. As per my prior post we might be looking but are we really seeing?

In this case are we really as well informed as we think we are?

There is a wonderful, wonderful feeling associated with following your own gravitational pull.

Letting it happen can be difficult.

To create accidentally on purpose is a gift each of us have, let's take a peek under the wrapping paper today.

“The free man is he who does not fear to go to the end of his thought.”

Unknown

Knock Three Times ... makes me pay ATTENTION

Our eyes deceive us.

Three times this week my reading and thoughts and interactions with people drew to this subject.

Someone looking for a log cabin center using bars of primitive red and blue and yellow to construct the cabin thought black might be the answer. Not possible, because the blue, so dark, does not allow the black to show against it. it is also too heavy a colour for the yellow.

The choices are light neutral, bright orange, bright brown, yellow green. No green please, don't like neutral, hate brown ( poor maligned brown) that left orange.

Now the key here is to understand an orange that looks good with blue and holds it own with yellow will not show up against red. Someone wanted only to use one piece of wool for the service of these hearth squares. This would not work because the half of the center square where it butts up against red must be even brighter.

To create a square that appears to be one colour it must contain two oranges, one more temperate for the blue and gold side, one from the hot equator on the red side.

This is the only way to have cohesion and unity of weight and not have the square disappear and reappear al over the rug.

This was a tough sell.

Two months ago I got a book The Artist's Eyes.

I just started reading it this week.

It is very scientific and contains very small print but it is all about this very subject, how our eyes deceive us, what needs to be done with colour to make things appear as it should, as we desire it to. There is so much to absorb and I'm exceedingly keen on this subject but I can only take this info in with small doses. For instance red lines laying on a half white, half black back ground, you would think the red would shine up on the white like nobody's business, instead it appears dull and even pink. I love all this scientific proof of things I've been trying to tell people for ages. In rug talk: a light coloured background steals vibrancy and power from colours, it diminishes them. A dark one empowers them.

It gonna take me a year to read this but I'm relishing it.

Just this morning I chanced to see this great talk by Beau Lotto.

Once again it reiterated what has been buzzing in the studio.

He has a website with activities if you want to study further on this topic of colour.

I cannot say often enough no colour can be judged on its own. You can make an assessment, yes you see red, it is dull, it is dark. BUT it will change it's behaviour radically depending on who it hangs out with. Sometimes unbelievably so.

I guess I'll chew on this some more.

I'm going to try to not have any visual input here until next Tuesday, tell me how you like/despise it.

Looking or Listening

There will be NO visual content in this blog today because I'm worried about us turning into crack babies who are always wahhhhing for our next visual fix.

I've derived most of my inspiration since becoming a hooker through visual stimulation.

Lately though, no matter what I have to look at it and just so you know it is VAST because I collect things to look at and in my day to day life I notice EVERYTHING and I want you all to know how exhausting that is... as well as how exhausting these run on forever sentences are....LOL! and now back to the point..... what I'm seeing is not thrilling me like it once did.

If you've been reading this blog for any length of time you'll know about the jaded old hooker syndrome. I'm ever on the watch for that. I want to look at things and experience like a beginner, but a wise old crone of a beginner.

So how to be all juicy and sweet with possibilities then ?

I've turned to listening to people speaking about what vivifies them. Not all the speakers are gifted and I do enjoy those more whose talents also include public speaking.

But it is wonderful to hear people being passionate and excited and connecting dots on their topic of life study whatever that is.

For your own self driven, look for the areas that interest YOU, passionate speakers go to TED

for Ideas Worth Spreading.

And in that vein of championing audio stimulation I'll be starting and I hope NEVER finishing a group of interviews with hookers about their work and passions. These will be on The Welcome Mat under music as that's the only way to plant them in there.

Try talking to somebody today to find out what makes them all alive and ardent about why they are here.

You are what your deep driving desire is; As your deep driving desire is, so is your will; As your will is so is your deed; As your deed is so is your destiny.
The Upanishads

That is happiness: to be dissolved into something complete and great.
Willa Cather

Let's take a look at this

This message is brought to you in greatest of lazy fashion, I'm still in bed.

It's cool in the house and I'm a teeny bit tired.

But not too tired to take a look at this:

The whole general thrust of this work by Emily Carr, titled: Tree Trunk 1931, is upward.

Somehow though we are not tired of this powerful singular focus. How did she do that?

There is a slight curve to the main line of the tree and it tapers. This creates relief. Then there is the skilful use of colour to bring some areas into high focus through light values and diminish other via darks on the trunk.

Look at the curved lines in the base, they sweep along the horizontal plane creating a wonderful thick drape, as well as depth.

You will also see my favourite... glow, you will see it in all parts of the painting, in foreground, mid ground and back ground. It is good enough to eat.

Look how high yellow is used to shed sunlight., how its compliment violet is used on the opposite side of the trunk, the wonderful call and response of opposites we see in nature. The warm and cool play with each other to unify the whole. Could she have picked a more desirable green to use? The brights behind, the dulls ahead... the amazing rich neutrals.

I love how the trunk has a beginning like us, all but has no end to how high it can reach.

We can learn a ton from this trunk!

“You always feel when you look it straight in the eye that you could have put more into it, could have let yourself go and dug harder.”

Emily Carr quote

Creativity and Our Abilities- An order

Creativity in place with this rug using an unusual grid background!

Please watch this great talk, by Ken Robinson.

Examine your experience, are you bound by the expectations of what or how things are done? Are you balancing your own creativity on the fulcrum of what you needed to fit into? Tip the scale!