TIP OF THE MONTH
APRIL
Linda Powell shared some of her favorite rug hooking books and reasons why they are special to her. Pictured above, Linda is holding up the book "Painting Weathered Buildings in pen, ink and watercolor"
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​There was a picture of old barn siding with a rusty hinge titled "Barnwood" in this book that intrigued her so much she reached out to the publishing company to get permission to replicate his painting into a hooked rug. Linda's rug was in Celebrations 26 and was given the permission to use any photo from this book to hook other rugs of her choice.
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Since gaining recognition for her "Close Up" rug, Linda has been asked to teach classes using this technique of hooking items up close.
These two pictorial rug books are Linda's all time favorites. When she comes across an interesting technique or finds inspiration in the articles, Linda tends to highlight or make notes within the books for future reference. See pictures below.
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Linda suggested to look at various art books to learn about the color wheel, line, texture, contour shading, how to use 1 point and 2 point perspective to create dimension or making a flat object look 3D is known as linear perspective, how to add a light source and cast shadows for depth. So many excellent lessons can be found in such art books to enhance your artistic ability.
In the "Autumn Harvest" rug, Linda didn't use a gray or black to represent shadows but instead used complementary colors to create this effect. If you look at the pumpkins they have a blue colored shadow since orange and blue are complementary colors on the color wheel. The red apples have a green cast shadow and if there were any yellow apples in the mix, they'd have a purple/violet shadow.​​​​​​​
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Another valuable resource in Linda's library is by Wendy Miller. This book is out of print, but you can find it on Thrift Books website and on Amazon.
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Some interesting articles include:
* How to use contrast, balance and repetition of color
* How to hook crisp corners and separation lines
* Hooking block letters and wide cut serif letters
* Hooking backgrounds with plaid wool and mixed woolens
* Echo, meandering, lineal, block and blotch techniques to add interest
to your backgrounds
​​A fun fact Linda shared with the guild was that "wide" refers to a cut size and "primitive" deals with a style of hooking. For instance, a 3 and 4 cut is considered small and enables one to create more details and depth in their rug. If you use a 5, 6 or 7 cut they are considered a medium cut (not too large nor too small) and anything over an 8 is a wide cut and can be used for a variety of pattern styles including primitive style rugs.
Last but not least, "The Rug Hooker's Bible". A fabulous resource for beginning rug hookers as well as seasoned ones.
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Some interesting chapters include:
​* Examples of our hooking tools
* Hooking 101 that covers the basic techniques and guidelines
* A large variety of instruction and diagrams for several motifs such as flowers, fruit, birds, water, skies, scrolls, and more!
* Several finishing techniques
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