The on-line shop will be closing on January 20th until the end of February. As most of you know, on January 23rd I am returning to teach school and rug hooking in Kenya for a month, followed by a few days of sketching in Amsterdam. I plan to continue blogging and I hope you will follow my travels. In the meantime, there is a sale in the shop beginning at noon today, EST. Just click here or on the on-line store button on the right, under Navigation, to see what is available.
Search Results for: rug hooking
dyeing nylons on an icy day
All night long there was freezing rain and ice covered everything this morning, again. It seemed a perfect time to head to the dye pots. Colour and steam can do wonders to improve one’s outlook. As I mixed the colours and watched the magic happen (nylons are so unpredictable in the way they absorb colour–all the colours in the second pot came from 1/8 tsp Aljo Royal Blue) visions of the Kenyan landscape filled my mind. I was aiming for the colours of the birds and plants as well as the grasslands and sky. By the time I was finished I had dyed 60+ pairs in the brightest hues.
Below are some of the t-shirts which have been donated. I’m not sure if we will be able to combine the cotton and nylon or not. But either way, we will have the beginning materials for the next stage in the Kenyan rug hooking story. Of course, I can never bring enough, so I want to find a source of used material which can form the backbone of the hooking once I leave. I’ll keep you posted.
sketching a favourite house
I was in Toronto recently for the Wearable Art show. It was in a great venue this year on Bathurst and from there I walked to my suppliers for zippers (I never have enough of the right colour or size!) and to my favourite book store. On the way I passed a house I’ve always loved. It’s a little Victorian row house with a great attitude. It was a lovely day and I had time to do a sketch in my new trav.e.logue hand.book. I really like the quality of the paper and the size of the book. I was delighted to find these sketchbooks here in three sizes. I am a bit intimidated by the large size, but may use it in Kenya this January to sketch and tell the story. Yes, I am going back to Kenya, to teach Grade 8 in the mornings and rug hooking at the Community Centre in the afternoons. I’m currently gathering burlap and hooks to take. I’d like to say many thanks to the rug hookers at the Cobourg Hook-in this week who donated their extra hooks. They will be put to very good use.
a day in the city…
I went to the city on Saturday for two main reasons. First I wanted to to see Ancestry and Aristry, the display of Mayan textiles from Guatemala and secondly I knew of a good quality leather remnant sale.
Toronto was in the midst of a deluge, and of course crowded to the hilt with Film Festival goers–Brad Pitt arrived just after I walked along King St–(no I didn’t see him!) But my umbrella and I were able to get to both of my venues with ease. The display at the Textile Museum was wonderful. I especially was interested in the three hooked rugs from the Thirteen Threads Cooperative where Mary Anne Wise has been teaching rug hooking. Jenn Manuell was there this year and posted great photos on her blog. The colours and vitality of all the work, mostly embroidery and weaving, were outstanding–and the women have carried these qualities into their rug hooking. Of course I am interested in how their techniques of using traditional motifs and patterns can apply to hooking in Kenya. And interested too in the fabrics they used which seemed to be pretty much what they could lay their hands on.
I was thrilled to get this 4 kg pile of good quality leather remnants. I find that a small piece spurs my imagination and I come up with new designs which would not occur to me if I had lots of leather. The red piece in particular beckons.
I also got a new punch for hammering out circles, so am thinking about a series of polka dot pouches. Stay tuned…
first day of summer!
I started the day off with this lovely email: I love my new red bag. It’s scrumptious, lovely, beautiful, it smells wonderful and I feel blessed to have it. I took it to book club yesterday and wowed the gals. Everyone appreciates positive feedback and this lovely comment has put a smile on my face this morning. And there is more to smile about–it is a beautiful sunny morning here and it’s day two of an excellent hooking workshop I am attending.You no doubt recognize the work of The Rugged Moose. We are so lucky to be able to spend four days here with Wendie learning about primitive rug hooking. Primitive rug hooking with a definite techno twist! It is already an outstanding course. I will post some of things we are working on soon–but for now here are some of the fabulous rugs that Wendie brought to inspire us.
weaver bird: report from Matangwe
Amos put a comment on my blog yesterday. If you click on the wedding rug in the photoblog section you can read it. Amos is one of the people whom I taught to hook in Matangwe, Kenya. Through some kind of wired magic the residents of this small village on the other side of the world, a village without electricity or clean water, are in touch with me–they send emails, read my blog and are my friends on Face Book. Amos was an eager rug hooking student. His very first piece, below, was beautiful. He designed it himself.
I am showing you the reverse side for two reasons. First, so you can see the quality of Amos’ hooking, but also so you will notice the label. I’ve had these on the blog before–they are a collaborative design between Alice, one of the Matangwe students, and my friend and great designer, Melanie. This is just the beginning of what we hope will be a sustainable project for the men and women of Matangwe.
Amos has certainly been doing his part to further the craft of rug hooking in the Matangwe area. Below is a photo he sent of some of his students. You can see him in the front row. These women are using hooks and burlap which were donated by rug hookers in Belleville and Kingston Ontario. We are hoping to find a source for burlap in Africa but in the meantime, we will need more hooks and burlap for my visit next January. I am hoping to have some donated at the area hook-ins in the fall which I will be attending. This is just a small way that we can set the people of Kenya on the path to self-suffiency. More on this later! In the meantime, congratulations to Amos and the rug hookers of Matangwe.
red shoe update
I haven’t had much time to work at this, but here is the progress so far. I am going to our rug hooking group today, so I hope you see a difference tomorrow. I’ll also explain what I am thinking about with the value changes. This is a working piece, a prototype, an experiment–and I am just seeing where it takes me.
holding my breath
These are the lively and crowded streets of Bondo, Kenya. This town is 7km from Matangwe where I taught school and rug hooking for a month and over 60 km from Kisumu, the third largest city in Kenya. I loved visiting Bondo — the market was full of activity with vendors selling produce and other goods. In the last post I shared pictures of the booths which lined the street with women (and a few men) sewing on treadle machines. The food market had any locally grown produce you could wish for — if you could afford it.
However, it only took a second for the bustling, lively shoppers to become a huge crowd blocking all traffic on the highway when a string of trucks and vans pulled into town with one of the ODM candidates. The candidate had a loud speaker system and he brought the crowd to cheers and jeers within minutes. It felt like it wouldn’t take much for this huge crowd to become a mob.
And now as it comes closer to March 4, election day, reports in the press of potential violence are becoming more frequent. No one wants a repeat of the violence of 2007. But I am holding my breath, worried about my friends as they face this event. The schools are closed for a week for the election. Let us all hope that the children and teachers can return to school next week unharmed by the corruption and violence that characterized the last election.
hook-in
Yesterday I was at a hooking gathering with some wonderful people who are organizing next year’s OHCG Annual in Kingston. There was lots of talk about the workshops being offered at the Annual–and they sound great. There is even one for new hookers!
And this was the view outside the window! With such beauty outside and such warmth inside, I managed to get lots of whipping done–whipping interspersed with eating and great conversation of course. And I came away with a bag of burlap and hooks to take to Kenya for my rug hooking project there. Thank you everyone for your generosity and inspiration.
the power of art and love
These days I am completing a few orders which I will photograph and post soon. And also working on the wedding rug which is so close to completion–fingers crossed it will be ready for 12/12/12! In the meantime here are some links that will inspire you.
The first is the promotional video for Danny Gregory’s new book, A Kiss Before You Go. Danny’s first book, The Creative Licence, gave me the inspiration to start sketching and, like many others, I have followed his drawings and writing over the years, absorbing the lessons. His new book is a beautiful testament to the power of love and art. I read it in one sitting.
My friend Nora sent me this video about children in Paraguay making music: http://vimeo.com/52711779. It reminded my of the Kinshasa Symphony which I saw at the local doc fest last year. Both of these films are powerful documentaries, again about the power of love and art, and both have particular resonance for me. I am returning to rural Kenya in January. Right now I am working with local school children and rug hookers to gather art and hooking supplies to take with me. I will be teaching school again and working with adults in the community centre–hooking rugs! I met Heather Ritchie last year. Heather has been teaching rug hooking in Gambia for some time–and she inspired me to teach hooking in Matangwe, the small village I will be staying in for a month. We will begin with the women making rugs for themselves, but I hope we can turn our efforts into a small enterprise.
So this morning, as I make my way to my studio, I am thinking about the power of love and art–and the importance of sharing it. I hope that you have caught a little of the power too.