Shadows on Snow

Dimensions: 19" x 26"
Materials: #3- and #4-cut wool and acrylic/wool yarn on linen
Designed and hooked by Bernice Howell, Beltsville, Maryland, 2000.
Featured in: Celebration XI

Bernice Howell and her husband awoke one morning to find that it had snowed. Awestruck by the back yard's beauty, Bernice wanted to preserve the scene as only a hooker can. She planned to re-create it in full color, the pure white of the fresh snow against the azure-blue sky. But the photos she took for her design reminded Bernice of an Ansel Adams print. She decided the perfect way to hook the snow, shed, and trees would be in stark, simple black and white.Bernice says she learned an important technique about hooking snow "Do white last!" she says. If the brightest whites are hooked first, they pick up so much lint from the other colors that they become dull. "I had to rehook fresh snow on the lower tree branches because the snow had picked up a lot of gray lint, dulling the contrast between it and the lighter sky near the horizon."

Bernice says she learned an important technique about hooking snow: "Do white last!" she says. If the brightest whites are hooked first, they pick up so much lint from the other colors that they become dull. "I had to rehook fresh snow on the lower [tree] branches because the snow had picked up a lot of gray lint, dulling the contrast [between it and] the lighter sky near the horizon."
- Bernice Howell, Celebration Hall of Fame 2018
(Note: This rug description was taken as an excerpt from the published Celebration entry.)