Description Of The Rug

The Doughnut Rug began as a piece for a workshop I was attending at the Gibsons Fibre Arts Festival in British Columbia. My workshop instructor Tanya Graham was teaching a rug hooking workshop based on the theme "Expression Rugs". The inspiration for this rug came from a fortune cookie.

There are four main design elements in this rug:

1. The doughnut - the doughnut glaze is hooked higher than the pastry creating a three dimensional effect making the doughnuts float off the rug.
2. The doughnut background - is hooked in a light value creating high contrast between the foreground and background. The background is hooked with a spot dye, in multi-directional swirls creating motion.
3. The border - is hooked in a similar value to the doughnut background. The intension of the border is that it does not constrict the backgrounds and they flow into one another. The border is also hooked with a spot-dye in multi-directional swirls.
4. The text - The text was hooked using 3 different fabrics. Two spots dyes, one light value, the other dark. The third fabric was a solid mauve.

The colour plan and dyed wool using Majic Carpet Dyes.

1. The doughnuts - each doughnut is unique. The glazes are a variety of silk, cotton, and synthetic fabrics cut in ½ to 1 inch widths. The pastry is a variety of wools. The pastry strips are #8 cut. The colour plans for the doughnuts were based on complementary colour pairs.
2. The doughnut background - this background was an experiment. I wanted to see what would happen when the background was not encased by its border. I over-dyed the background in the same value as the border. The wool fabric was spot dyed and cut into #8 wide strips.
3. The border - the border runs around the outer edge of the rug and around each of the nine squares. The wool fabric was also spot-dyed and cut into #8 wide strips.
4. The text - the text was drawn onto the linen backing using red dot transfer. I wanted to create three dimensional definition. I did this by using two spot dyes. One a lighter value, the second a darker value. I also used a third fabric which was mauve and complemented the yellow in the border. The mauve was used as 'hits' of colours. The text was hooked using a #4 cut.