Fraktur Blessings

Dimensions: 20" x 36"
Materials: #5- and #8-cut hand-dyed, recycled, and as-is textures on linen
Designed and hooked by Laura Pierce, Petaluma, California, 2015.
Featured in: Celebration 27

"I grew up with my mother’s rugs and she always used recycled materials. As a teacher, I decided to offer my students new quality wool from Dorr Mills. I see value in both, recycled and new wool, and like to use them in my own projects. I planned to ‘Outline & Fill’ this project, one of my favourite rug hooking techniques, and started off with a recycled plaid outlining. Monika Jones works with textured wools that she throws a little dye on, to give it an aged patina. I chose some of Monika’s wool to experience her influence.

I love blue and gold; when autumn leaves turn yellow and the sky is blue with big puffy clouds, it makes my heart sing! Letting that be my starting place, I bought some grey textured wool, a rich burnt orange red plaid, and 3 gold textured wools from Monika’s offerings. I brought some of my own recycled wool along with some of my own favourite blue spot-dyed wool. It often happens that I find my colour palette consisting of the 3 primary colours, yellow, blue, and red. The grey was a perfect background as a cool neutral. When I went back to get more of Monika’s grey textured wool, it was sold out. I like to keep light grey spots on hand for my students and customers, so I combined 3 of my own light grey spots with Monika’s grey plaid for a mottled background."
- Laura Pierce, Celebration Hall of Fame 2018