THE NEW AND THE OLD

"The Rain Will End"  15" X 20 3/4"  Lori LaBerge  2012

New this past week is the completion of the hooking of "The Rain Will End", above.   I still need to finish the whipping, mounting and framing.

This piece includes the last of the Victorian doorknob plates I have. Time to head out and find another architectural salvage store. The piece refers to how we all have times when the rain never seems to end and we are waiting for the sun to shine upon our lives. The photo in the doorknob hole shows water pipes referring to how we each have the ability to turn off the rain in our lives.

The old in this week's news is an older hooked rug I found at the Antique Tobacco Barn in Asheville on last week's trek. If you get the chance, this is a must see. I went back to look at this rug at least five times while walking throughout the building. (The walk is actually more like a long hike as the building is 77,000 square feet.)

What drew me to the rug was the geometric pattern and how bright some of the colors still were. There was no information that came with the rug, so I have no idea how old it is. What is interesting is how worn the center of the rug is. We usually think of the edges of a rug wearing out faster and go the extra mile to protect those edges with whipping, rug tape or other methods. It most likely was used in an entry way to wipe feet.

new and old patches on back of rug

There appear to be both old and new repairs throughout the back of the rug. One, above, appears to have been done fairly recently, perhaps before putting the rug up for sale.

T.C. (Tough Cookie) at work

I'd like to introduce you to my "assistant", above, this week.  He keeps me up on the ins and outs of the business side of the art world like nobody's business.   I don't know what I would do without him. If you have an "assistant" at home, give him or her a big hug and have a great day.