For fun, click for a sampling of Newfoundland jigs while you read this blog. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5QYhGKHdhE
I’ve had this design idea dating back to the beginning of the studio, somewhere in the vicinity of sixteen to seventeen years. This design concept moved in and out of focus over the years but I never seemed to have the time to lay down the drawing that swam around in my head. I remember discussing it several times with Susan Leslie, she was always a lover of anything in, on or around the sea and she thought it would make a fun pattern. She even offered to hook it for me as she often did with my designs, but for some reason it never came to fruition.
Recently I unearthed a preliminary sketch, discovered at the bottom of a box of design ideas, rough outlines of sea creatures playing musical instruments scratched across the back of a torn envelope. When I say rough I mean rough as you can see, I usually quick sketch an idea as it flows between my ears or risk losing it to the nether regions of my brain. Once an idea is cemented on paper, no matter how crude, then it's always there rattling around until I pull it out of the strange and wonderful filing system of my mind. You wouldn't believe how many bits and pieces I've collected since I hung out my shop sign, all I can say is don't light a match!
This particular design is a pure bit of whimsy. Called Cod Jig, a double entendre for both fishing cod with a jig hook and an underwater Newfoundland jig being performed by a cast of sea characters. It doesn’t get more fanciful than this. Be prepared for a bit of #3 cut for some of the smaller detail but overall a #5 and #6 will cover it, maybe even #7 for a lot of the ocean background and sand bottom. Alas, it's too late for Susan to hook it for me, she would have loved it, so I hope someone else out there in hookland will do the honours and pull the loops needed to conduct this sea orchestra from the beginning note to a standing ovation.
There’s a shark sawing on a fiddle, an animated lobster pumping an accordion, a crab playing the spoons, an octopus hitting the makeshift turtle shell drums and shaking the hullabaloo out of a tambourine, a squid banging on the symbols, all on an underwater landscape richly adorned with sunken treasure, delightful red coral, an old ships anchor and a derelict, rotting boat hull. There are starfish dancing and a dolphin moving in to get a better view and two cod looking at the giant worm wondering how in heck they will eat it.
Recently I unearthed a preliminary sketch, discovered at the bottom of a box of design ideas, rough outlines of sea creatures playing musical instruments scratched across the back of a torn envelope. When I say rough I mean rough as you can see, I usually quick sketch an idea as it flows between my ears or risk losing it to the nether regions of my brain. Once an idea is cemented on paper, no matter how crude, then it's always there rattling around until I pull it out of the strange and wonderful filing system of my mind. You wouldn't believe how many bits and pieces I've collected since I hung out my shop sign, all I can say is don't light a match!
This particular design is a pure bit of whimsy. Called Cod Jig, a double entendre for both fishing cod with a jig hook and an underwater Newfoundland jig being performed by a cast of sea characters. It doesn’t get more fanciful than this. Be prepared for a bit of #3 cut for some of the smaller detail but overall a #5 and #6 will cover it, maybe even #7 for a lot of the ocean background and sand bottom. Alas, it's too late for Susan to hook it for me, she would have loved it, so I hope someone else out there in hookland will do the honours and pull the loops needed to conduct this sea orchestra from the beginning note to a standing ovation.
There’s a shark sawing on a fiddle, an animated lobster pumping an accordion, a crab playing the spoons, an octopus hitting the makeshift turtle shell drums and shaking the hullabaloo out of a tambourine, a squid banging on the symbols, all on an underwater landscape richly adorned with sunken treasure, delightful red coral, an old ships anchor and a derelict, rotting boat hull. There are starfish dancing and a dolphin moving in to get a better view and two cod looking at the giant worm wondering how in heck they will eat it.
COD JIG 26" x 38"
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