Some Old-Time Rugs Page 4

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Another and similar example is found in the hooked rug. This is. made by filling up a foundation of burlap with loops of cloth a quarter of an inch in width. These strips may be either of cotton or wool but in either case they represent a very coarse thread and with coarse thread, a design with a great deal of de-tail cannot be carried. The most appropriate design for a hooked rug is one with large spaces of different colors in the same degree of tone value. To illustrate: there could be a color scheme in three colors, blue, green and gray. These colors must be present in approximately equal amounts and in the same degree of tone. The blue and green should be used for the figures of the pattern while the gray should come in as the background. An outline of black and one of white may be added to relieve any monotony. These outlines surround all the figures and separate them from the background. To attempt a more detailed treatment in a hooked rug, would not be successful. The arrangement of large flat color masses, appropriate for the hooked rug, differs very radically from the designs of the Oriental rug-makers. Their rugs are woven of a fine woolen thread in which medium small space arrangements may be carried out, and brilliant colors differing widely in tone value may be used. It would be manifestly impractical to weave these fine designs with the coarse thread of the hooked rug.

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We might analyze the method by which each of our old-time rugs is made and find that each has some .special technical feature which if emphasized in its plan, would make its appearance distinctive and interesting. The needle-woven rug deserves special mention here because in some respects it differs radically from the other rugs. It originated before Colonial times through the skillful craftsmanship of native American Indian tribes, the Navajos. These Indians still practice their craft and are making rugs to-day, some of which are as good as the older examples. The technique is quite as good but the color in these rugs has suffered from hasty methods of dyeing the wool. For commercial reasons the beautiful and permanent colors produced from the old dye recipes and handed down, no doubt, from their ancestors for hundreds of years, have been supplanted by the cheap and fugitive coal-tar product. Those which are as good as the antique Navajos are made in black, gray, and in the natural cream-color of the un-dyed wool.

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The Craft Of Handmade Rugs - View The Rest Of The Book

Introduction - A Word About Dyes - The Braided Rug  - The Scalloped Doormat Or Tongue Rug
The Knitted Rug - The Crocheted Rug - The Hooked Rug In Cotton And Wool - The Needle-Woven Rug
The Colonial Rag Rug - Some Applications - Newer Methods Of Stencil Making - The Tufted Counterpane
Old Time Lights - The Batik Or Wax Resist Process