Dyeing to Hook a Palette of Wool

Palette Constellation Rug, 90" x 58", #9-cut wool on linen.  Designed, dyed, and hooked by April D. DeConick, Houston, Texas, 2012.

I began rug hooking in 1995 while I was living in Michigan. One day while attending a pioneer festival on the lawn of Waterloo Historical Farm, I became enthralled with a group of rug hookers who were demonstrating their craft. One of the hookers was creating an exquisite peacock with a full tail of turquoise and green. 

I couldn’t believe it. Were my eyes deceiving me? Here was a textile art that had no limit. I no longer had to be tied to the warp of the loom and its patterns, nor the stitches of the knitting needle and its rows, nor the foot of the sewing machine and its tension. The rug medium was a textile art form as free as paint on a canvas. With a simple linen-burlap foundation and thin cut strips of wool dyed any color, I could create in wool any image I could imagine and draw.

This article is from the March/April/May 2013 issue. For more information on our issues, check out our issues page.