Lapis Rock Rug and Studio Cleaning

Lapis Rock Rug  Lori LaBerge  2012

The latest piece finished is a rug designed for piece of brilliant blue lapis. Lapis is mined in the Colorado and California areas of the United States. It was used in a powdered form to create ultramarine paint in medieval times. Cleopatra was said to use lapis eyeshadow. There are beautiful white streaks through the piece that are created by calcium carbonate in the stone. This particular stone has two flat sides which lends it to being displayed upright as in the above photo or horizontal as in the photo below.

Lapis Rock Rug  Lori Laberge  2012

I have been spending time here and there cleaning out my work area for the Studio Tour June 8-10. Below are some before and after photos. There is still quite a bit of work to be done as I tend to work in organized chaos, but I'm getting there. I used to be the type to clean up after every little bit of work I did until I took a class where the instructor told us to "focus on the work and forget about the mess". 

 Here is the studio are in total chaos.  This is the way I like it.  Everything is out and in reach.

Here it is more organized.  I like visitors to have room to walk around the table, touch the wool, and enjoy themselves.

Even I have to admit the desk area is a mess.  Papers and smaller tools really did need to be organized for easier access.

This is a start.  The desktop is better organized, but maybe I need to work on those books up above.

Here is where I place various color inspirations.  Quite a few of these are from the color class I took at Penland.  The framed piece is a hooking I did years ago based on a visit my husband and I took to Cleve Abbey in England.

Whether you prefer to work in an environment in total chaos or total organization, enjoy the work you create and have a great day.

NEW WORK AND A VISIT FROM RUG HOOKING MAGAZINE

Two new pieces mixing rug hooking with local raw gems were completed this past week. The people over at the local gem shop have been extremely helpful in educating me in identifying various rocks from the area.

Lori LaBerge  2012

This work features a beautiful piece of raw emerald.

As in similar works I have done, the wool used is from leftover strips kept in one of two large plastic bins. One bin is mostly 6-cut strips and the other 3 and 4-cut strips.

I really need to use these up as they are beginning to take up quite a bit of space in the studio.

The second work uses a piece of tourmaline with bits of garnet. I chose the red for it to sit on to pick up on the bits of garnet which are a reddish brown color.

Lori LaBerge  2012

While working on the above pieces, I received a call that the editor of Rug Hooking Magazine, Debra Smith, was in the area visiting a friend and would like to see the studio. The women came over on Tuesday and we had a wonderful time discussing various aspects of rug hooking. We talked about some recent dyeing Debra had done, tools of the trade, the need to preserve the history of the craft, as well as the importance of moving the craft forward with contemporary works.

During the conversation, I was offered the opportunity to write and present an article to the magazine. I'll be taking notes and putting ideas together while also preparing for the Toe River Open Studio Tour in June. Busy is a good thing!

Reading on the deck.  Just happened to be finishing up Chinese take-out with a fortune cookie, actually believed to be introduced by the Japanese and mostly consumed by Americans, so this dessert was perfect with the cover.

Enjoy the opportunities that come your way, thank the people that make them possible and have a great day.

Note:  I apologize for extra spaces left at the bottom of some blogs.  Blogspot simply does not seem to be letting me delete these at present.

DOORS AND WINDOWS AS INSPIRATION

While sorting through photos the other day, I found some great shots of doors and windows. I love finding patterns in both the new and old as my husband and I drive through towns and visit new places.

I love everything about these doors.  The bars at the top, the "x" shape, the slats of wood behind the "x" shape forming stripes, the metal hardware including those great rings.  So much inspiration to draw from one doorway.

This door has a busy, complex pattern.  I love the way the ironwork looks against the striped pattern of the building itself.  The curves remind me of a William Morris pattern with luscious scroll work.  Yummy!

This is a close-up of part of a wonderful old door.  I love the combination of the diagonals with the straight boards across the top and bottom.  The door exudes strength with its geometric lines and clavos (decorative nail heads).  

These are wheel windows.  They have spokes radiating from the center circle outward.  These form a simple shape similar to a child's drawing of a flower.  The term rose windows, which some may call these, is usually reserved for more complex designs.  I love the way the stone surrounds them, giving some depth.

I love going through old buildings.  There is something about the deterioration of the materials that fascinates me.  This window is framed in metal and the rust can be seen where it has dripped down each section.  The paint on the metal has decayed with age.  This window has great character.  I can envision a painting of rectangular sections with burnt umber paint applied and left to drip over the canvas.

This window is in an old deserted waterworks building.  It has certainly taken the brunt of vandalism over the years.  The broken sections have great abstract shapes and leave much to the imagination.  The second window on the top reminds me of a cat's head.  What do you see in these shapes?

Next time you encounter a window or door, look at it in a new way, imagine all the design possibilities and have a great day!

AMETHYST "ROCK RUG"

If there is one thing I have learned through doing studio tours and shows it is to have smaller items available. Right now there are quite a few larger items in my studio ready to hang for the Toe River Studio Tour in June, but there is a need for some smaller items. I like to have something different every year and this year I will be mixing local gems and minerals with rug hooked mats.

Amethyst "rock rug"  Lori Laberge  2012

I really enjoy working on these pieces. They give me a chance to search through my stash of strips leftover from other projects and use them to create something new. The purple of the amethyst led to a double compliment color sheme with purple, yellow, turquoise and red-orange. White was added in as a neutral to give a contrasting space for the amethyst rock to be placed on. The piece would have been too busy and distracted from the rock if I had brought too much color into the center area.

Close-up of whipped edge

The photo above gives a good look at the whipped edges. The piece goes from lighter values in the middle to darker values on the edge. I chose turquoise and purple in darker values for the whipping and used some leftover Paternayan yarn to go with the outer edge of the hooking.

This photo gives an idea of how the rug mat looks in situ.

One person saw these pieces and said "Every rock needs a rug." I love this, it reminds me of when I was a kid and we all had pet rocks. 

Enjoy the little things in art and life and have a great day.

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.

BEST OF SHOW AND ASHEVILLE'S RIVER ARTS DISTRICT

I had, unfortunately, missed the opening of "The Cutting Edge" show at Desert Moon Designs Gallery in Asheville due to finishing up a class at Penland. The good news was a phone call received letting me know my work, above left in the photo, had won Best of Show.  It was well displayed against the beautiful orange and yellows in the wearable art and handbag pieces.  As I am taking a new direction in my work, mixing metal and other media with rug hooking, this was great news. It is always exciting to see rug hooking receive recognition as an art form.

A wonderful display of fiber art.

Great texture seen in a wearable art piece by Karen Donde.  Amazing use of fabric manipulation.

Fiber jewelry pieces by Paisley Holloway.  I love the way the metal was stranded through the fiber in the piece on the left. 

This is a close-up of a weaving by Jean McGrew.  The random threads brought through add great texture.

After visiting Desert Moon, my husband and I spent the afternoon browsing around the rest of the River Arts District of Asheville. What a wonderful place! I love old industrial buildings, and to see them turned into artist studios is even better. The artists we spoke to were warm and welcoming. We stopped by award-winning photographer David Simchock's studio where we viewed a variety of amazing photographs and David was kind enough to explain some of his photography methods.

Our next stop was for lunch at The Junction, where we had a great brunch of arugula salad, open face short rib sandwich and pale ale with lemon-lime soda. Relaxing and extremely friendly service.

After lunch we headed to The Cotton Mill, above, to visit two textile studios. Cloth Fiber Workshop is run by Barbara Zaretsky. She uses natural dyes and had some phenomenal colors in her sophisticated designs. There were scarves, wall hangings and pillows. A plus was being able to see her work tables and dye kitchen, all open to the public. Also in the building was weaver Karen Donde's Sutherland Handweaving studio. The looms are all on view along with a wall of scarves and baskets of hand-spun and hand-dyed yarns. Here is a photo of some yarn I could just not resist. I have plans to use it in a hooked piece soon alongside my own hand-dyed wool.

We had a wonderful day out and I would encourage anyone visiting the Asheville area to take the time to visit the River Arts District. The talent is amazing and we will have to make another trip soon as we only caught a small glimpse of the more than 150 artists that have studios in this area. Enjoy your own explorations and have a great day.

A WEEK AT PENLAND

Penland! Wow! Part of me is exhausted and part of me is full of color and design ideas waiting to be created. "Chromalicious: Color Liberation" was the class and instructor Alicia Keshishian infected all of us with her love of color. By mid- week I could not even go through the lunch buffet without noticing how the tomatoes, pineapples and beets created a delicious analogous color scheme. Here is a photo tour of the week:

A totally inspiring view which compliments the many inspiring people at Penland.

Here is the home away from home for the week. Alicia had strands of color chips hanging in the doorway to greet us on the first day of class.

Everyday the work table was covered with something new for the class to work on. Here are color chips which we used to show our favorite and least favorite colors. We also spent hours placing all the colors in order according to hue and value. A real eye-opener in how individuals view various colors.

Breaks were taken to visit other studios and Alicia was creative in using this time for us to search for various colors throughout the campus. This photo shows glass artist Martin Janecky forming a face out of glass. Absolutely mesmerizing.

A daily trip to the coffee shop is a must. I can recommend the hot spicy cocoa introduced to me by classmate and friend, Lucy.

A wonderful display of "artist plates" was showing in the Penland gallery. The gallery is open to the public, so please stop by to view some amazing work if you are in the area.

We had a great time with colors, creating names such as Flander's Field Poppy and Punch Bowl. This helps you see how you view color. 

Work table in action.

Kara's study of the interaction of color.

A great example of a glass created in class by artist Laurey and the color study which inspired it. Laurey also runs an Asheville restaurant. Click here to find out more about it.

A joyful group of scarves created by members of Janet Taylor's dye class greeted us on the last day of classes.  Right after this photo a breeze caught the scarves as if they were waving goodbye to us.

The week went by way too fast. Tears fell as we all said our goodbyes. It is amazing how close people can become in one week and how our interest in art and color brought us together. To all of you reading this who were in class, I love you all. You are wonderful artists and wonderful people. Keep the creativity and color in your lives shining.

If you ever have the chance, I would encourage you to take a class at this wonderful school. It is an unforgettable experience that will stay with you forever. Have a great day.