Polo Play

Dimensions: 20" x 29"
Materials: #6–8-cut wool on linen
Designed and hooked by Abby Vakay, Alexandria, Virginia, 2003.
Featured in: Celebration XIV

Abby Vakay finds that fiber art allows her to pursue design and gives her a sense of satisfaction in completing a solid composition. But as she created her lively and active piece, Polo Play, she discovered that it allowed memories to resurface of sitting and enjoying this fascinating equine sport and of her time spent with horses while living in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and on Long Island, New York. This piece made of hand-dyed cut wool on linen backing had her reliving and savoring those glorious remembrances.

Abby started hooking Polo Play in the month of August, the height of the polo season on Long Island, and worked through the holidays to complete the project in January. She began by hooking around the piece blending colors. Abby dyed all her own materials for the rug and had a general idea of what types of tones she wanted to bring out certain design aspects. She didn't preplan her palette but instead thrived on the fact that her color picks changed as she hooked. "My color plan was to work in very saturated hues," Abby explains, "with transcolored wools to show intense, hot highlights, and very shadowy cool lowlights, especially on the polo ponies."
- Abby Vakay, Celebration Hall of Fame 2018
(Note: This rug description was taken as an excerpt from the published Celebration entry.)