Talavera Tutorial 2

Welcome back. Either you are a procrastinator and would rather read about hooking than getting your frame out, or you are looking for more punishment trying to follow my directions…  :)

So far, we have the face hooked in and the two sides of the pumpkin.  Let’s start into the middle sections.  If we were to number them 1 to 6 from left to right, I mean section 4, the wavy line.

 Hook two rows for the wavy line.  Notice how I turned the loops to make a sharp tip to the wave.

And choose your colors to surround the wave. Hook  a line next to the dark rib  outline to keep the blue line straight then fill in around the wavy line.  I chose the oranges and turquoise to bring the colors of the outside of the pumpkin into the interior of the rug.

  One of the "rules" in color planning is to spread a color around by using it  in at least 3 places on a rug.  So now we have used the oranges in 3 patches in Sections 1, 4, and 6  which is pleasing to the eye. 

Now how about starting that fancy pink stuff in Section 5. I used the three shades of rose.  I wanted a quieter area for the eye to rest. If I were to hook it again I would  use a stronger contrast in values.  The values I had were too close.

Here we go starting with the diamond pattern.  Hook a short strip in the corners of the diamond  to elongate and accent the points. I used the darkest shade.

   Then using the lightest shade, hook the diamond.  Try to keep it symmetric with the same number of loops on all four sides.  As you can see the loops are not tight.  The next step shapes the diamond by hooking around it.  Again, the trick is to hook that first row close to the lighter pink to give it a sharp edge.  Notice how that strip curves to cinch the sides of the diamond. 

.  Notice how that strip curves to cinch the sides of the diamond.  Go ahead and finish all the diamonds and one row around each.  Then fill in the rest of the background. 

 Take care not to try to pack too many loops into the spots left.  The diamonds and even the rib lines will be distorted.  The diamond pattern can easily get a little tight. This is why we hooked the two sections next to this section first.  The hooking around it helps to corral in this section. 

How does it look? The photo shows the contrast in values better than the rug itself.  As, I got farther into the sections around it, that area did not look quiet like I had planned.  It looked flat out dead. The values were too close, so I had to go  back and lightly outlined the diamonds.

  You won’t have to do that if your color choices were better than mine.

That section was a toughie.  Let’s go back to a little easier area and it’s time to introduce a new color, the bright yellow green.  Let’s use that to hook the big curvy line in Section 3.  Hook two rows.  Slip in a few loops of color to suggest little flowers and leaves  in the smaller motifs, outline around them if you like and pick a color for the background. I choose the dark rose because it is the same value as the pumpkin so it does indeed recede into a background and doesn’t fight with the bright line.

Let’s continue to use that yellow green.  Go up to the shoulder patch.  That looks like a good place to put in a patch of light.  The motif in that patch and again in the lower right corner is seen over and over in the pottery, and it is usually in blue.  So, I used the yellow green as background and the brighter blue for the motif.

  Hook what you like in the stripes near the stem, or even better, leave them open to see where you might need a certain color as more of the rug is finished.

Enough for today?  We will tackle that tricky last section and the flowers on the chin next time.

Chin up!

Debra