Gone to the Dogs Again!

Me and dogs.  Love them!  While in Tyler TX at the Star of TX Camp, I met a  hooker who also loves dogs.  Kathy from Fort Worth TX saw some of my patterns at camp, and this led to some new pattern developments.

Kathy loves hooking dogs and her canines are well represented as are her grand-dogs too.  To personalize the patterns for Kathy's family, I converted the Magdalena Menagerie pattern to include German Shepherds.

Magdalena Menagerie with German Shepherds by Kathy Clark
www.briarwoodfolkart.com all rights reserved.  Colors for illustration purposes only

After a couple weeks Kathy contacted me and asked me to make up another pattern of her grand-dog, two Akitas and a black Lab mix.  Here are the two prototype versions I worked up for Kathy to choose from.

Akitas and Lab mix with a Magdalena flair by Kathy Clark
www.briarwoodfolkart.com all rights reserved.

Another version is this one and its the one she selected as the final pattern:

Akitas and Lab mix in a simpler background so the dog dominate the pattern by Kathy Clark
www.briarwoodfolkart.com all rights reserved.

I think Kathy is going to have a busy summer hooking all her dogs, but she'll have fun doing so.  Thank you Kathy for sponsoring my business and love of making dog patterns.

If you wish to pin pictures for Pinterest, please respectfully credit The Grinning Sheep Blog for the photos.  All rights reserved on original artwork in the patterns shown.

Another Magdalena Menagerie

My friend Martha has been busy lately.  It's probably because she knows she will see me at the Star of Texas rug camp in Tyler in less than two weeks.  Perhaps this reunion is sparking a deadline for her hooking on the Magdalena Menagerie pattern.

A prolific hooker, Martha is very tuned in to the hooking of Texas.  Texas, as you know, is a big state and there is a lot of hooking that goes on there.  If there is a hooking event in Texas, you can count on Martha knowing about it and probably being there.

I had the pleasure to visit Martha last August.  As a humble gift of appreciation for her hospitality, I customized the MM pattern and took her one which includes her two dogs Rose and Abbey.

We got a bit of a start on the pattern while together in Dallas last August, and now Martha is working on the pattern again. Here's her progress last week:

Abbey

Rose

The girls with one crow completed so far.

Cute huh?  I just love seeing this pattern hooked up with various dogs.  It is so much fun.

Martha also clarified for me, Abby is a Chiwennie and Rose is a Jack Russel/ Rat Terrier.

If you'd like your dogs included in this pattern, feel free to email me for details:  briarwoodfolkart@surewest.net

Mr. Wes Meets Magdalena

I'm preparing to teach in Tyler next month and spending lots of time in the dye pots and working up patterns for students.

For her class project, Barbara originally ordered my Lil' Scrappy Dog pattern because it reminds her of her grand-dog Mr. Wes.

Lil' Scrappy Dog Pattern

Barbara asked if I could make a few alterations to Lil' Scrappy Dog and she indicated she likes the Magdalena style of other dog patterns I've designed.  My original reaction was to revise Lil' Scrappy Dog and Magda-ize him.  Here's where that idea went:

Lil' Scrappy Dog Magda-ized.

Then Barbara sent me some pictures of the real Mr. Wes.

Once I received the picture of Mr. Wes I decided it was best to do a total redesign and make a pattern that represents a true Pom (primitive style of course) rather than substituting Lil' Scrappy Dog.

So I played on the computer last night and worked up these Mr. Wes meets Magdalena prototypes:
Version one:

Pom version 1 Magda-ized.

Version two:

Pom version 2 Magda-ized.

I'm favoring version two, but it's up to Barbara.  Either way, I think hooking Mr. Wes Magdalena style is going to be a lot more fun than hooking the original Lil' Scrappy Dog.  I guess Lil' Scrappy Dog will have to be on my frame soon so I can Magda-ize him.

Post Script:  whoops, he went through another change; version 1 dog with version 2 background, so here's the FINAL version of Mr. Wes:

If you wish to have your dog Magda-ized in a rug hooking pattern, feel free to contact me about the project.

If you copy pictures from my blog for Pinterest, please kindly give credit to my blog site for the pictures.  

Magdalena Meets Andy Warhol

If you follow my blog regularly, you will know that I've been involved with a group that meets on Tuesdays that I call the Maggie's Girls.  We began as a group focusing on Magdalena's work and while this general theme continues, we are sort of moving on to other designs now, as more time goes by.  But lest we forget Magdalena, I want to share one of the latest Magdalena style rugs to come out of this rug hooking group.  I must give you a bit of background on this rug:

My friend Daniella is a very fine hooker and she tends to go back and forth between hooking either primitive or fine cut rugs.  After completing several fine cut pieces and watching me hook away with my larger cuts of wool, she decided she wanted to go prim again.  She has been telling me that she wants to hook a very, very old looking rug and so I encouraged her to hook a Magda rug along with me.  And so a tale of two lollipop bouquets was born:  Daniella and I started our lollipop bouquet rugs on the same day in the same room, sitting right next to each other.  But that is where similarity ends.

We decided we'd use up all our spare bits of wool and each of us brought lots of baggies full of wool to use in our rugs and to cross share.  After the first day of hooking Daniella went home and proceeded to hook all 70 or so of the lollipop circles in the next 24 hours.  She loved those little circles while I drag my feet on hooking them.  It took me few weeks to hook all of them!  By the next week Daniella returned and all the circles were hooked in luscious colors of wool.  They were not hooked in Magda colors of wool, but in Daniella colors of wool.  And they are drop dead gorgeous.  Daniella kept asking me if the colors were OK or not, since my rug was so different in comparison.  I encouraged her to follow her own spirit and not my lead of using drab, dirtly, old looking wool influence what came from her heart.  And follow her heart she did.

Whaaa-la!!!!  Can you believe this rug?  It is Magdalena on steroids and it is so beautiful.  Daniella took an old design and brought it into the 21st century.  Does this knock your socks off or what?  Don't you just love it?!  I love the spirit of it, the beauty of the colors and it is so fascinating to look at with all the beautiful colors and diversity of wool strips.

Seeing this rug is certainly enough to make me question my use of drab wool!!  I may be changing my tune soon enough!

Magdalena lollipop bouquet with tree stump vs. vase and primarily pastel and brighter colors by Daniella Brooks.

The beautiful artist who made a beautiful rug!

This is the first rug Daniella has bound on her own.  The yarn is very pretty with the rug.

Betty coaches Daniella on binding.

 Here are the three lollipop bouquet rugs together that have been produced by Betty (top), Daniella (middle) and me (bottom).

This just goes to show you can teach an old dog new tricks!  Might we all want to reconsider using primitive colors and just go bright?!

Achieving "Old as Dirt"

My Magdalena lollipop bouquet is coming along and is close to being finished.  I have hooked quite a bit since last Tuesday's Maggie's Girls meeting.  Even though I'm retired, it is hard for me to find lots of free time for hooking, but I did spend some concentrated time on this rug through the weekend.

I have had some mixed feelings about the rug, but I am increasingly feeling better about it and am most happy with my efforts to get an "old as dirt' look.  I think I've said this before, but sometimes I don't like my rug until the final 5 minutes of hooking it.  Or sometimes I don't like a rug until it's bound.  Funny huh?!

As I've mentioned in prior posts, I'm incorporating some alternatives to wool into this rug.  So far my dyeing efforts on plain cotton have failed miserably and I do appreciate several comments I've received on how to improve the dyeing efforts.  But in the end, I'm not sure it's worth the effort to try to dye my own cottons, so store bought quilting fabric seems to be the best alternative. 

Above, I have added some Sari Silk to the rug in a few areas.  It doesn't shine when you see the rug on the whole.  I selected a color that is muted in tone more than bright, as Sari's can be.  

Above, in keeping with olden times when materials on hand were used, I have incorporated a mish-mash of wool selections into the background around the circles.  The wool is all of similar value, so it blends together well.  I believe this type of hooking adds to an old and aged look.  The yellow appears a little brighter in this photo, but it actually blends in well when you see it in person.

Above, here is a closeup of one of the cotton fabrics I've hand torn and hooked into the rug.  I like the tattered look but the strips of cotton are a bugger to hook compared to wool strips.  The antique rugs I own have lots of homespun and cotton fabric in them.  Remember, whatever was on hand was used.  Our fore-mothers were good at being utilitarian in purpose.

Above, another few rows of cotton fabrics hooked among the wool fabrics.

Above, the pinkish tone is the flour sack dish towel I tried to dye rust color.  The cotton only took up a bit of the color, but it has blended nicely with my other background wool selections.  Actually hooking with the dish towel fabric has been my favorite of all the alternatives to wool.

So, now you know most of my secrets!  Are you going to try them too?

If it's Tuesday it Must be Magdalena Day!

The Maggie's girls met yesterday and nearly the whole group was present.  We've been a little fragmented lately with various schedules and this will continue for a few more weeks at least, but we're trudging onward to finish up round one of the Magdalena style rugs.

Betty is finishing her lollipop bouquet with whip stitching and cording.  Denise is still working on her background but she has made significant progress.  Sandy is working on a non-Magda rug since she finished up several weeks ago and I'm working on my Magdalena Meow Mix Cats with Leaf.  Here are the pic's from yesterday's meeting.

Denise's rug.  The background is fascinating on this rug!

This picture will show you more of the background.

My Magdalena Meow Mix Cats with Leaf.  I've made a few changes since the last post.

At the last guild meeting we shared Betty's rug and the group was shocked that she hooked it.  Betty the fine cut hooker swayed by Magdalena's lollipop bouquet.  We asked the group whose rug it was and preliminary guesses were that it was mine.  But once we told the gang whose it is, there were a few shocked faces!

Hope you enjoy these!

How About a Little Magdalena Meow Mix?

As you know, I've been preoccupied with moving my mother to a new assisted living facility.  The move is officially completed today!  I'm exhausted and I tried to take a nap, but I couldn't relax enough to drop off into sleep.  So I tried a little eBay and Etsy retail therapy.  This woke me up enough to feel like blogging so here's a little chat with you.

First, thank you for all your well wishes and comments of late, in support of my caregiver role.  I appreciate the support.

I missed the Magdalena Tuesday group today due to the move and I've been betwixt and between on a little Mag style rug in the animal cut-out style.  I'm not wild about this rug, so progress is slow.  Here's a little peek at progress so far.

Magdalena style animal reverie in progress.  Design is evolving as I hook.  

I couldn't quite bring myself to do the lollipop bouquet again, yet, but I do want to hook it again some day.  All the little circles in the bouquet drive me crazy and are tedious, so I made the lollipop into a rainbow in this design.  It's my favorite part of the design.  It's fun for something different, huh?  As I said, I'm not wild about this pattern and at the rate I'm going I don't know if it will get finished because:  I have a couple new Magdalena style designs I want to do instead!!!

I have been overly devoted to dogs for a long time but I do love cats equally even though I don't own a cat right now.   So over the weekend I decided it's time to give cats a fair shake at Magdalena hooking.

Here's my progress on what I call "Magdalena Meow Mix" and I like both designs very much.  I can't wait to start one!    The colors in these photos are for sprucing up the pictures from pure black and white and are not intended as a suggested color plan for these patterns.

Cats with the famous Magdalena leaf.

Cats with the famous Magdalena lollipop bouquet.

I would love to have some company hooking these designs.  Are any of you interested in joining me?  We could do a rug challenge if you are willing.  If you would like to consider this opportunity, please email me at grinningsheep@gmail.com and chat with me about it.  I'm still turning it over in my mind as to how to take on a rug challenge, but if you like the patterns please let me know.  It might need to be deferred until after I return from Cambria (mid-June) but we could hook together to make up these fun cats!

Respect for our Ancestors!

Today I must work on transferring designs onto primitive linen for pattern orders.  Two of the patterns are the Magdalena Menagerie with Pugs and the Corgis.  I am delighted to make this pattern available in different dog styles.  It is fun to hook and it will be even more fun with other dogs in it, I am sure. 

Whenever I transfer a pattern, my mind wanders (as it often does) to an imaginative era about our rug hooking ancestors.  The women who pioneered rug hooking 100+ years ago had little to no modern conveniences to work with as they designed their rugs.  They probably had few drawing materials for adding a design onto rough burlap but they had nothing compared to the permanent markers we use.  They had no way to enlarge or resize their patterns through technology and photocopying.  So my first question is "How did these women do it?!" and my second question is "Aren't you happy you live in this modern era rather than the past?!"

I have a hard enough time transferring a pattern with the modern conveniences, and still I find it to be a challenge.  Getting border lines straight, proportions on borders, scale of design to border size, it all makes me a little crazy. 

Rendition of antique rug with
dog carrying a basket in mouth.

I like to think of our ancestors when I hook, especially when I hook an antique rendition.  It provides a great mental escape and it is another creative venue along with the hooking.  I often wonder about the creator's motivation:  why she decided on a particular motif, why animals are doing silly things (like the momma dog holding a basket in her mouth) or why is the size of the animals or other motifs larger or smaller in scale to other parts of the rug design?  I find the naive folk art of our ancestors  enchanting. 

Original Antique Rug of Hens at the Hen House

Several rugs ago, I used the hooking opportunity to create an entire alter ego for my rug by imagining the original hooker as I replicated an antique rug.  It's the rug I call Henny Penny, and you've probably seen the original antique version or a hooked replica of it.  It's been a popular rug to replicate by many hookers.

As I worked on this whimsical rug, my imagination took off  on why the hens became a focal point for this rug.  By the time I finished the rug,  I concocted an entire story about the woman who originally created the rug. I had a lot of fun with the story.  I know it sounds sort of crazy to do this, but I enjoyed imagining her, her lifestyle and her motivation for the rug.  

My Rug:  Henny Penny

Please understand, I am not delusional or hearing voices when I get on one of these creative benders.  I am merely having fun through imagination.  After all, we use imagination and creativity as we hook, so why not go the extra loop and think about the woman who originally created the rug in the first place?  After all, don't we owe it to our ancestors to have a little respect and appreciation for them since they defined the art of hooking?! 

So next time you are happily hooking away, give a little imagination to our ancestors and maybe a fine spirited hooker will join you in pulling a few loops and telling you her life story! 

Please note:  research I've conducted indicates antique rugs created before 1923 are no longer subject to copyright law and this is why these rug patterns are offered for sale by commercial rug hooking vendors.  Before replicating any antique rug pattern, please attempt to determine the date of the rug's origination to be consistent with copyright.

Yes! We can do Pugs Too!

Lauren from Rugs and Pugs asked about a MM rug in Pug style.  Of course we can do Pugs!  Here they are!  And Lauren, I like your Magdalena style rug you are featuring on your blog, but don't forget those crazy lines all over the place to go "all out Magdalena!"

Dog Day Blues

I wanted to post a blog yesterday and tried to come up with something clever to post, but was rambling about the house, accomplishing nothing, and especially nothing creative in nature.  In truth, I was mildly depressed and couldn't exactly put my finger on why..... I just was.

Sunday was my mother's 91st birthday and she gave celebrating a valiant effort.  She is struggling since her health took a turn 4 weeks ago.  Her abilities are fading away more and more and it is evident the light in her soul is beginning to dim.  I think this reality was hanging over me all day. 

I would describe yesterday as a day when I had "the dog day blues" which is my spin-off from the saying "the dog days of summer"  which I always feel in late August when the heat has grown old, the days are long and boring and I'm ready for a change of season.

I thought about hooking, but didn't feel creative; I thought about putting together a new rug hooking pattern to perk myself up, but I have two rugs to finish before I can indulge in starting another!  I still have the huge border to do on the MM rug and my Karen Kahle rug from my class in AZ last month.  I want to finish those projects before I escape into another project, so I let the emptiness of the day stay with me, without fighting it.
 
As evening approached, I was resigned to the doldrums, and settled in to watch TV with a corgi on my lap.  As a form of entertainment, I started searching for antique rugs on the internet, via my iPad.  It did help perk me up:  the hunt for pictures, the fascination of old rugs ..... and then I found it!!!! 

Have you seen this Magdalena rug, circa 1870?  I have never seen this rug and it isn't pictured in the wonderful book Rug Hooking Traditions with Magdalena Briner Eby, so I was shocked to find it.  It is huge at 45" by 115" or nearly 4 feet by 10 feet! Finding this picture was like finding a lost treasure.  Isn't it amazing?!   

I cannot get over Magdalena's enthusiasm for hooking and if I found my roots are tied to her in genealogy, it would make sense to me why we are such kindred spirits:  her prolific hooking, her love of folksy representations of animals.  I cannot get over her repetition of animals with exact similarity between each of the animal rugs.  The dogs are all the same obscure shape; the horses the same fun hit-n-miss hooking, the cats are little blobs and the birds are the same shape.  The scale of the animals is always fun to observe in Magdalena's rugs.  Isn't she amazing? 

Whenever I think of an artist whose work was only discovered in popularity after their death, I do so hope that they somehow know how much it is cheering people on earth, how much it is valued and how much it has influence others!  Thank you Magdalena, and please say hello to all the other fine artists behind the pearly gates too! 

POSTSCRIPT:  two people have left me messages via comments that The Woolley Fox will be making this pattern available, so I guess it has been in the rug hooking world's awareness for awhile.  This is great!  Have fun hooking it! 

A New Year and a New Rug to Hook

I hosted a hook-in here at the house on New Year’s Day with my Wednesday night hooking group, a lovely group of ladies.  With a new year, I decided to start a new rug! 

My new 2012 design is an antique adaption influenced by the amazing rugs of Magdalena Briner Eby. 

If you are not familiar with Magdalena's rugs, she is probably one the most famous hookers in history.  Magdalena's rugs have been identified in numerous books on antique hooked rugs.  The recent book Rug Hooking Traditions with Magdalena Briner Eby authored by Evelyn Lawrence and Kathy Wright has brought all of Magdalena's rugs together in wonderful pictures and historical narrative to share Magdalena’s extensive hooking history.  Magdalena was a hooker extraordinaire - both prolific in hooking and definitely free in spirit and expression! 



My pattern drafted onto primitive linen.

Here are some pictures of my Magdalena Briner style rug in progress; I will add more pictures as the weeks go by.

In drafting this pattern, I added the features I like best about Magdalena’s rugs – animals, crows, large leaves and the lollipop tree/bush - but I used my own version of dogs.  Magdalena’s dogs are generally very prim and obscure, so these dogs have somewhat defined features, yet they are still very primitive. 


First day hooking the lolli-pop bush.

The lollipop tree in this pattern has about 60 circles in it.  Oh, I just love doing those circles, ha, ha…. Not really.  They are a pain.  Fortunately I have a rotating rug hooking frame for the circles, but the pattern is so large, it is hard to turn on my frame.  I am tackling the circles first (and naturally from the center of the rug) to get them out of the way.  I can’t wait to hook other parts of the rug, but I am buckling down to get those darn circles finished and saving the rest of the rug as a reward to myself!  The final size of this rug will be roughly 56” x 30” when finished, and probably my largest rug to date.  I’ve wanted to hook a Magdalena style rug for several years. 


When I am contemplating the effort to hook a really old looking antique rendition, I ruminate (don’t you love that word?!) on it for months in advance.  Then, suddenly, I draw out the pattern and go into my very messy wool room, and start pulling some of my purposely dyed “old as dirt” wool for the project.  A rug like this may have as many as 60 different wools in it.  Many people ask me how I get such an old look to my rugs.  It is a combination of selecting old and worn looking wool from off-the-bolt, combined with dyeing wool to look old.  Truthfully, it is something I do by intuition.  I don’t know if I could compile the same mixture of wools a second time, for the same rug pattern, because it is such an "in the moment" intuitive process.  Once I'm ready to pull wool, I practically go into a bit of an altered-state in my mind, picking out wools that look old.  I am enchanted by antique and primitive rugs and it comes naturally for me to gravitate to wool that looks  old as dirt. 

 

Please note:  research I've conducted indicates antique rugs created before 1923 are no longer subject to copyright law and this is why these rug patterns are offered for sale by commercial rug hooking vendors.  Before replicating any antique rug pattern, please attempt to determine the date of the rug's origination to be consistent with copyright.