Encompassing Designs
  • Home
  • Shop
    • Kits
    • Patterns >
      • Christine Little >
        • Signature Designs
        • New Designs
        • Seasonal Designs
      • Deborah Sweet
      • Susan Leslie
      • Patricia Perry
      • William Morris
    • Supplies >
      • Backings
      • Frames
      • Hooks
      • Books
      • Extra
    • Wool >
      • Abrashed
      • Custom Dyeing
      • Dyed Bundles
      • Dyed Curly Mohair
      • Dyed Spots
      • Dyed Values
      • Dyed Yarn
      • Jacquard Dice Dyes
      • Natural & Colours
      • Plaids & Textures
      • Dye Books & Swatches
  • Ordering
  • Blog
  • Workshops
  • Our Story
  • Contact Us

Giving it the old 3D!

12/15/2015

3 Comments

 
Picture
This past Saturday was a wonderful day at the shop. Christmas tunes played softly in the background, the shop glows with red for the season, beautiful sunny weather and mild temperatures kept the town buzzing with visitors, there were stacks of new wool to process and eye candy walking through the door!   Pinch me peeps….is this a dream job or what?

Jean Wentzell is always a welcome sight at Encompassing Designs.  Seeing her means she’s in for show and tell and she always puts on a fabulous cabaret of colour and talent!  Jean has hooked a lot of my patterns over the years, usually ones that I’ve custom designed for her and she always does them justice.   
Recently we’ve been working on seasonal pieces of a specific size for her to hang in a special spot in her home.  She likes to change the scene to match the season and always has a rug hanging to admire.  So far she’s done Patches for the autumn, a medley of fall colours, with pumpkins and a delightful scarecrow. 

Winter Games came next for winter and I can’t say enough about this standing ovation.  Bravo!  This beautiful creation just might be my favourite rug for the entire 2015, both for the whimsical composition, (I’m slapping myself on the back for this one), and of course Jean’s hooking! 
  
Now Jean has completed her spring and I couldn’t be more pleased with the finished product.  Looking through the screen door to the garden beyond, Spring Has Sprung, tells a true tale of the season.  The majestic robin is always the first sign of this new season and the grass sheds its dull winter coat to don a rich mossy green.  The buds on the bushes and trees blossom into canopies of green, each one unfolding in slow motion wonder.   How wonderful to hook a rug depicting the season of new life and rebirth and bring a bit of that magic inside. We change our clothing for the period, some even switch up bedspreads and throws and pillows in the living room so why not coordinate rugs for the four seasons of this magnificent planet?

Not only is this piece lovely, there are teaching tools to be shared.  I love making things look three dimensional and passed on these simple tips to create a big look in the fence and screen door.  My Moonstruck Wanda rug was the first time I shaded a fence and it brought added dimension to a very low contrasting scene.  The fence pops when viewed from a distance.  The area was dark to work in but with the proper execution of shading to show a light source, you can really make a motif pop with proper manipulation of colour. 

It’s really all about the light source.  Pick where you want your imagined sun to be, or if doing something inside where is the lighting?  Once that is established the shadows are easy.  If the sun is on the top left, all of the darker shadows will go to the right of the object, and the lightest will go to the left as if the sun is shining directly on the surface.  The middle will be just that, a middle value.  Yes, it is as simple as that!  Stay true to the plan, as not to confuse the eye and in the end you will have a rug that really pops to tease the viewer into thinking its lifting off the page.   The horizontal braces that show between the fence boards would be treated in the same fashion.  The top part is where the sun would hit so they are done with the lightest value, the middle value for the center and the darkest value on the bottom where the sun wouldn’t reach and the shadow would be.   

Jean told me she wanted a yellow fence and together we zeroed in on our formula for Goldenrod, one of our Majic Carpet formulas from the book, Antique Colours & Spots, Shane dyed the three values over natural needed for the shading to give the fence prominence.   We decided the light source would be coming from the top, right hand and after that it was a repeated hooked plan of the darkest value on the left, followed by the middle value for the center of the fence posts and then followed up by the lightest value for the right side.  It turned out beautifully and the goldenrod was the perfect colour way for the rest of the rug.   It picked up the tones from the flowers and the golden bits in the leaves in the hanging branches overhead, creating that needed triangle for balance. 
 
The screen door was executed in the same manner.  Jean had her mind on purple and purple it is.  The left side of the spools and framing were done in the darker purple, a Jacquard formula that Shane cooked up in the pot.  The majority surface of the wood is the middle value and the lighter gave it all a highlight on the right.  It is more subtle in the darker woodwork but the eye detects a separation giving it depth and interest.  Hooking it entirely in the one shade of purple would have made it appear flat, with zero interest or character.  This way the eye is guided into the center of the design where the focal lies, not distracted by a wall of flat purple.


To view patterns click this link to my design pages:  http://www.encompassingdesigns.com/signature-designs.html
Picture
Light source is from the right.  The fence, darkest to lightest from left to right.  You can see the light dancing off the top of the supporting cross brace on the back of the fence posts. 
Picture
Patches
Picture
Winter Games
Picture
Spring Has Sprung
Picture
Fall, Winter and Spring.....Summer to follow! 

Picture
The moon is on the left so the fence is shaded with the lightest value on the left as if the light source is illuminating the top and side of the fence post.  The middle is the bulk of the fence post and was done in a medium heather grey and the right top and edge is in a charcoal as that is shaded from the light source. The horizontal bracing was done in the same pattern, lightest on top to reflect the light source and the darkest on the bottom to show shadow.  The fence pops off the page!
Picture
















Moonstruck Wanda 28" Dia.   Hooked as an exercise in low contrasting colours.
 
The actual rug is much darker than the photograph. 

Pattern can be viewed on my Seasonal Designs Page by clicking the link:  http://www.encompassingdesigns.com/seasonal-designs.html


3 Comments
Jeannette
12/15/2015 09:02:58 am

A great explanation! Now I won't be so intimidated by shading.

Reply
Sofia
12/15/2015 09:15:30 am

Super!!!

Reply
Della
12/15/2015 09:44:24 am

They are all fabulous!

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Christine Little has been ranked #5​ out of the 60 top rug hooking bloggers by Rug Hooking Magazine!

    Picture
    Picture
    Max Anderson, Australia, recipient of my Nova Scotia Treasures rug.  An award of excellence for promoting Canada through his writing.  
    Picture
    Picture

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    January 2023
    July 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    November 2021
    October 2021
    July 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012

    Picture
    Picture
    Gift Certificates are available for that special rug hooker in your life!  Any denomination, no expiry date! 

    Picture

    Categories
    (Click on the categories for past blogs)

    All
    Announcements
    Beginner Class
    Christmas
    Colour Planning
    Contests
    Copyright
    Coupon
    Customer Rugs
    Cutter Servicing
    Dyeing
    Equipment
    Featured Hooker
    Giveaway Draw
    Guest Blogger
    Guest Blogger
    Health & Fitness
    Home & Heart
    Hooked Rugs
    Hooking Groups
    Hook In Talk
    Initially Yours
    Jibber Jabber
    Just A Bit Of Fun!
    Life's Experiences
    Life's Experiences
    New Design
    New Ideas
    Pattern Of The Week
    Patterns Hooked
    Pets
    Rants
    Recipes
    Rememberingfbe7326ff7
    Rug Schools
    Show & Tell
    Show-tell
    The Rant
    Tips Technique
    Tips Techniquef0cd117ab4
    Visitors
    Workshops

    Picture
    Picture
    Picture





















    Picture
    We have a pot to "Fiz" in!

Shop Hours:
Monday - Friday 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM 
Saturdays 12:00 PM - 4:00 PM
We are closed during ice and snow storms
​so please call ahead.  If school is cancelled we probably are as well.  

Toll Free: 1-855-624-0370
Local: 1-902-624-0370​
encompassingdesigns@gmail.com

498 Main Street
P.O. Box 437
Mahone Bay, N.S.
Canada B0J 2E0

​Follow us and keep up to date
on our specials, new products
​and events!
Picture
Picture
Picture


Home
Shop
Ordering
Blog
Our Story
Workshops

Contact Us




​​​© Copyright 2023 Encompassing Designs. Website by SKYSAIL