Pomegrande

Dimensions: 36 1/2" x 24 1/4"
Materials: #8-cut hand-dyed wool with hand-dyed wool yarn for whipping on bleached primitive linen
Designed and hooked by Gene Shepherd, Anaheim, California, 2018.
Featured in: Celebration 29

"One day, after realizing that I had never hooked a piece of fruit, I designed this pattern to give myself a new challenge. Given the fact that I wanted the fruit to really stand out, I kept the design simple, adding only three spots of leaves to the two pomegranates and edged the design with a small geometric border. As I often do, all the wool used for this project was found in the scraps in my personal stash. While I have since worked out formulas and dye techniques to expedite the hooking of this design, all of that came after the tone of the piece had been determined by my scraps. The biggest challenge for me centered on my approach to the background. Although it would have been far simpler to just pick a mottled green and fill in the space, that seemed very boring. Consequently, I went to my scraps and found a 16-piece color progression of solids, spots, textures and marbleized wool that I swirled together to make a background with, what I hoped would be, movement and more panache. Although I started this project about 6 years ago, after working out the colors and approach for the fruit, big leaves, part of the background and border, the rug became a UFO until the fall of 2018 when I determined to get it done, at the request of my wife, which I did on November 29, 2018!"
- Gene Shepherd, Celebration Hall of Fame 2018