Rug of the Month: October 2021

After a few busy month’s off, preparing for teaching, we’re back with a new Rug of the Month post! This month’s post is focused on a project entitled a “Study in White.” The rug is 4″ x 4″, and mounted on stretcher bars. It was completed with #3-5 strips of wool.

Take a look below to see completed images of the project, and to read about how Ania approached hooking it:

What inspired this project?

The base of this rug was the same type of canvas that served as the base for my triptych project. These small canvases are great for studies of ideas that you think might be interesting as a bigger piece.

I had a canvas, and I wanted to try out using natural wool and everything devoid of “added color.” The idea was to use materials and techniques from rug hooking and teaching, and also materials from my jewelry design business. Rug hookers will often venture into different materials, like yarn or silk, and I was specifically interested in different textures and how light can be absorbed and reflected by different soft and hard materials. That’s why I chose to use white fresh water pearls, silver lined clear glass seed beads, and natural undyed wool.

The better you understand how light is absorbed and reflected by different materials the better you can use that knowledge to add depth to your art. The way water absorbs and reflects light is very different than fabric. And the way different fabrics absorb and reflect light is going to be very different as well – cotton as compared to silk as compared to wool and so on.

How did you approach hooking this rug, to create interest despite the achromatic color planning approach?

I used different sizes of pearls, as well as pearls that had been drilled in different directions, to emphasize the different shapes of the beads. There are round, potato, and rice pearls. I’ve also used stick pearls before, in my water lily rug. It almost felt like embroidering a wedding gown.

I made the central motif with the pearls, and then did directional hooking with my wool to draw further attention to that motif.

What were your observations and take aways from this study?

I love the luminescence of pearls! And how I could create that as a focal point using directional hooking around the central motif of the pearls. The more you observe it, the more you start to see subtle differences in color. The impact of the shadows is also really noticeable with this project, and that was a takeaway I started to pay more attention to with other projects. Attention to that type of detail helps you create more realistic images and allows you to be very intentional with your art.

With future works I’d like to incorporate my jewelry design into more of my rug hooking.

Feel free to comment below with any questions or comments for Ania! 🙂