Cindi Gay Rug Hooking

Hooking light and dark areas

My project to teach this year at Teachers’ Workshop is a wide cut female face.  I have it hooked but I cannot share it with you until after the workshop.  In the meantime, I decided to see if I could also hook black skin using just textures.

I’ve always been told by teachers that you should hook the eyes of animals or people first.  I’m not always good about doing what I’ve been told.  I need to get a feel for the project by hooking somewhere else first.  I began by hooking some of the light and dark areas.

Added the eyes

I hook the eyes by hooking a dark line for the upper lash.  Next hook the iris or colored part of the eye.  This is usually just a partial circle.  Fill in the dark pupil.  Next hook some of the flesh color for the lower lash line.  Do not use a dark here unless you are going for a heavy makeup look.  Then fill in the whites of the eyes.  Even the white wool is a texture.

Hooked in some of the highlights

I hooked some of the lighter areas.  Since I already hooked many of the darks, all that remains is to fill in with medium.

More of the face is filled in

This is when I can evaluate my progress.  I do not stop and fuss with the loops until I get to this stage.  I think her left cheek needs a small rework, but otherwise I will move on to other parts of the rug.  I am really pleased with the three textures I chose.  They are blending well now but once background and the rest of her body are hooked, I think they will blend even better.

Baby's hand begins to take shape

You see a lot of holes from pulled out hooking in this area.  I am reusing a piece of backing.  I was able to choose different sections from the lightest wool to hook the fingers, adding a bit of the dark in between.  I was careful to keep the fingers short because I wanted his fingers curled into a fist.  This is the first time I thought about the sex of the baby.  Guess it’s a boy!

I hook the baby’s eyes using the same method I used for mom.  Hook the upper lash line with dark, hook the iris, hook the pupil, then hook the lower lid with skin color.  Fill the whites of the eyes and then add the highlight to give life to the face.

The baby's arm and face begin to take shape

Arrived home from several days in West Virginia covered in bug bites, tired, but with most of the whipping done on this rug. We cannot make the family reunion this year, so we took the grandkids down to see their Great Grandpa. We had perfect weather but on the ride home, I began to notice the bug bites. Right now they are driving me crazy — the bug bites, not the kids.

About 8" of whipping left to do on lower edge

I quickly hooked the border around the rug before we left so I could do the whipping in the car. There is nothing else to do, it travels well and the task passes the time. A bit more to do, a final steaming and sew on the label and it will be ready for Sauder Village in just a few weeks.

Now I need to finish the “Jackson as Puppy” piece and figure out what I am going to hook for Sauder.