A New Rug Hooking Project: Blue Sweep

It's been awhile since I've done a shaped work with my rug hooking, having been mostly focusing on rectangular pieces, so I thought it would be fun to do something different. I rummaged through pages of thumbnail sketches and did a few more, and came up with this pair of curved shapes, which I illusionistically rounded by value and color changes. It's a bit of a wacky design, with two narrow shapes looking almost like a sky view through a clerestory window; I have no idea if it'll work, but why not give it a try.




In order to dye to wool in graduated tones, I dipped one end of the 12 inch wide, 56 inch long, piece of wool into a pot with the blue dye Cushing's Robin's Egg Blue. Dipping in and out, gradually letting more of the wool accept the dye, the end of the piece got darker as the rest picked up less dye. When the mid-tone was the way I wanted it, I added a darker blue, Copenhagen Blue to the pot and re-dyed the very end, giving it a color change in addition to a darker tone. To get the lighter blues, I dipped the other end of the wool slightly in the Robin's Egg Blue, then added drops of a light gray-yellow, Maize, onto it to warm the color. The photo above shows the single piece of wool, folded to show the variations in color. I will try to use the color changes in hooking the curves so that they appear not just curved along the surface, but also curved in space...3D anyone?