Class Description:
Pack your hook and frame making sure to bring along a little wool for a virtual tour around the globe as we travel to several locales for inspiration in designing one to three rugs.
Starting in the land down under, you will have the opportunity to design an Aboriginal X-Ray rug. How about a koala or kangaroo? Perhaps a platypus is more to your liking. Linda will have enlarged stencils of these animals and more to choose from. The easy designing start by tracing your selected animal, draw a “backbone” and “internal organs”. Finish off your design with echo lines around the animal. Don’t worry. You don’t need to be a medical illustrator to draw the backbone and organs as they are very simple shapes. To further enhance your travel experience, we will look at some actual Aboriginal art for inspiration.
Hold on to your hats as we whiz across the ocean landing on the main island of Japan. Here we will learn about Kinstugi, also known as golden joining, and how to design a Kinstugi rug. So what is it, you ask? It is the art of embracing the flawed, imperfect or broken. Rather than hiding flaws in a broken piece of pottery, Kinstugi uses gold dust combined with lacquer to rejoin the broken pieces into something new and beautiful celebrating those flaws and brokenness. We will start with a rug size piece of paper first crunching it up and then flattening it out. Next, we will use a Sharpie marker drawing on top of the wrinkles in the paper. In turn, this will be transferred to linen. Metallic gold fabric will be available for purchase. Spot dyed wool will also be available for purchase or bring your own. This is also a great way to use up your gizzards if you prefer.
The last stop on our virtual journey takes us to the San Blas Islands off the coast of Panama. It is here that the Kuna Indians reside. From a young age, the ladies learn to make the beautiful Molas, which is a part of their everyday clothing. Mola literally means shirt or blouse and each Kuna woman wears one in the front and one on the back of her blouse. These Molas are hand stitched using both appliqué and reverse appliqué along with some embroidered embellishments. Originally body art, both traditional and modern motifs are sources of their inspiration. Starting with some traditional stencil motifs, you will trace the one you select on some tracing paper. Then you will draw several echo lines around the picture and add some internal details. Finally, the signature slits will be added to fill in the negative space. This will be nothing more than drawing out narrow rectangles around the central motif. Traditional background colors are black or dark red, but you can use the color of your choice.
Again, you can choose to design just one rug or all three. It’s up to you. Depending on how much time is taken in designing, it is possible that you will be able to start hooking at least one rug. Linda will assist with color planning.