Talavera Tutorial 3

Say the title three times fast.....A little tongue twithter.

Welcome back!

What do you want to do first?  Start easy or get the harder part over first?  If you said the harder part follow me, if you want to start a little slower today, scroll down to the chin flowers…

The scallops, or shingles, or whatever you’d like to call them.... This motif is seen on the pottery often, but monochromatic. That’s just a tidbit that you can use as you choose your colors. I obviously didn’t keep it traditional.

Look at the section for a second. The area under the eye is a fairly regular pattern, but the scallops drawn on the curve of the top of the pumpkin make you think. Don’t overthink it, I’ll tell you why in a minute. Start at the top by the stem. Hook the small patch, being sure to hook up to but not on the line. Now use the 4-cut to outline the bottom of the patch. Then hook the patches under your outline, and again, outline them. In the same way, work down to complete the area over the eye. Fill in around your patches with the outline, you might need a few extra loops here and there to fill them in like cobblestones.

So why did I say, don’t overthink it? The viewer’s eye will take over and see the same scallops in this area as the area we are about to hook more carefully. Really. Now that you know that secret, it’s not fair to go back and look at my hooked piece because you know what you are looking for. But I bet when you looked at it the first time you never thought, ”What sloppy hooking in that top area!”

Working below the eye we are going to start at the bottom of the section and we are going to hook scallops. Start on the bottom row of complete scallops, not the bits and pieces just above the lip. Hook a nice round bottom and straight sides, turning your hand or your work to keep the loops turned the way you want them. And be sure to hook in a loop or two ends into a point at the top of the scallop between the two scallops above it. After that line of scallops is done, you can go back in and fill the little pieces under it.

Finish your scallops working your way up. By going up, the top row of scallops will be a little more prominent that the row below it and the points won’t stick up. At least that is the theory. I still haven’t said anything about outlining and here is here you can really tweak your work. With the 4 cut, you can really get your scallop edges in line and fill in little spots that need it. Tweak a little and you are done.

Not so much? OK, if all else fails I’ll give you a way out. No one is going to measure the with of your loops to be sure they are all exactly 8-cut, that is 8/32 of an inch. If you are having a hard time and just can’t get the perfection you are aiming for, trim a little off the width and you will have more flexibility to get the loops where you want them to go. But don’t tell anyone I said that.

Chin flowers- ready to end on an easy spot.   Outline and fill. I used the lighter and darker shades of turquoise and rose with the one yellow green flower in the middle. That gives me the requisite 3 areas using the yellow green on the pumpkin.

There are 5 flowers but notice that 4 of the five are right next to each other so it isn’t as easy as just hooking every other flower a different color. Of course, you can make them all the same color.

  I filled in the patch on the right with pumpkin orange again. The curved stripes can be left until you see where you need to add color or go ahead and hook them in.

Done. Your pumpkin is done! Have you named him /her? Drop a comment to tell us how it’s going. We can learn from each other.

Keep on hookin’

Debra