Last year I designed a rather larger rug called Birds and Branches. My vision of it was to have fanciful and colorful birds -- as opposed to realistic birds. Barb and I decided to feature birds in our booth at shows this fall, so I the night before Pete and I left for vacation, I drew the pattern out and grabbed a variety of colorful wool from my stash and packed it in the car. I figured the rug would be a good exercise in using what I had at hand, instead of dyeing or buying my wool.
I made a good start while on vacation. I hooked several birds and sets of leaves and I liked them -- individually. Not necessarily together. The more I hook, the less pleased I am. I'm forcing myself to stick with the colors I chose, and they just don't work. I re-hooked the biggest of leaves pictured here yesterday, so they are completely different -- darker. Now I think they are too big as well as being too light. My two favorite birds, the ones think are the most successful, are the two done in pink and green. This morning I am thinking I will rip out all the others and do all the birds pink and green . . . and the blue bird with the pink wing in the lower left hand corner. He's just flat out ugly. I hate ripping stuff out. And I have a deadline. Oy. What do you guys think?
7 comments:
I'm only a beginner hooker so don't know if I'd be much help. I always struggle with color placement. These are my thoughts: Only tear out portions of the birds--The blue bird needs a brighter tail, the other birds needs a little pink and green to balance everything. The leaves around the blue bird are my favorite in color, not liking the big leaf color, but this is only my opinion, as it is your rug.
Oh dear Sarah, you are putting me on the spot. I'll be honest and since I'm a kind of quiet person, I like a less busy pattern. For me it seems too busy because of too many colors and the eye just can't rest... although like you said, they are all beautiful by themselves. I think that Marie might be right to just pullout parts of the bird and replace with the colors you like.
Maybe roughly draw the birds on paper and color in pencils or crayons to see the effect of less colors.
I'm really looking forward to seeing what you decide to do.
Hugs,
JB
Thanks, Julia & Marie, for your thoughtful comments. Newbie rug hooker or quiet rug hooker, I value your thoughts. I am adding them to the stew inside my brain and set the rug aside for a bit and letting the ideas cook. Sarah
I agree with Julia - that you should rip out bits of the birds. For instance the yellow bird with the red wing, I'd rip out the wing. I think it's fun to have multi-colored birds but perhaps they need to relate more. And it's hard to comment on the leaves since there's so little background... Maybe make the big leaf a bit smaller. I hate ripping out but more than that I hate a color that doesn't work! Rug hooking is so different from other fiber crafts I think. I rip out and change my mind way more than in quilting or weaving! ;-D
Sarah,
I love the birds in the bright colors, but would love to see a dark background around them instead of the light sky blue. Perhaps a deep black, maybe navy even. The dark color will make the bright birds pop.
Thank you to Anonymous & Demoynes. I am still floundering. The more I look at it the more I change my mind about what needs to be fixed. I hate ripping stuff out, but I know I have to. I hadn't thought about using a dark background -- I am a literal hooker and just thought sky blue behind birds and branches. I will add that to my thoughts . . . Sarah
Sarah, to confuse you even more, I like the light background... I'm thinking sky, too! I do like the colorful birds, but agree that if you change out a color here and there, and add a more cohesive color, it will come together. But then again, if you kept everything as is, and got the background completely hooked, you might just love it! :)
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