Sunday, November 20, 2011

Planting a seed

“Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.”
~Robert Louis Stevenson~


Today, I’m hoping to plant a seed with the hooking artists who

read my little blog.

What would happen if you started treating your rugs like art?

Yes, I know, some rugs are meant and made to go on the floors to add

comfort to our lives, but some are meant to go on the walls to add comfort to

our souls.

If you look closely at the picture below, you can see the turkey rug on the wall,

but you can also catch a glimpse of another rug on the floor, to the left of the chair.

A while back, when I was working out a solution of hanging the

odd shaped garden rugs, HERE, I had the chance to really hash

things out with Dan at Pelican Gallery (framing and archival savant)

about different ways to hang rugs.  He brought up the idea of stitching

the rugs to a gallery wrapped canvas as well as SO MANY other ideas.

This is the result of that conversation.

He measured my rug and then made a custom wrapped canvas for it and we

decided that the rug would really POP, if the canvas was painted black.

He did all of the construction and painting for me and then sent me home with a

blank, black canvas.

Honestly, it stood in my rug hooking room for a month or so before

I had the guts to dive in and stitch the rug to the canvas.

I tried to take pictures of the stitching, but the stitching is hard to see because I used

fishing line to do the stitching.

The best way to describe it, is it is sort of sewn on like a hand-tied quilt.

By attaching it in this manner, there is no one part of the rug that gets

stressed from the tension of the tying.

What I like best about this technique, is that you can have just one nail or hook on the wall

to hang a rather large rug.

I hope this plants a seed with a few of you who are out

there looking for a better way to hang your artful rugs.

We work so hard and put so much time and effort into making our rugs,

I think it’s high time we start hanging them with as much care.

4 comments:

  1. Oh my GAWD!!!!! That is what I'm going to do with my Frost Sheep rug I want to hang. It will hang so much better than doing the sleeve thing.

    Thank you Tammy!!!!! You definitely DID plant a seed in this hooker's head.

    Saundra

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  2. Wow Tammy, you are a credit to your fellow hookers. This is such a great idea and it does really make your art pop. What a difference it makes.

    I have my Grandmother's Trunk Challenge rug to hang and I think that this would be a great way to display it. Thanks so much for sharing this technique.

    You need to write a book Tammy.
    Have a great week. JB

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  3. Tammy, Great idea. It looks amazing.

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  4. This has always been one of my favorite rugs that you hooked. It is awesome and framed on the canvas like that really makes it pop and it looks like beautiful art. Thanks for the inspiration!!

    kiss the kids for me.
    hugs
    cyndi
    xo

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