Blueberries in March.

A lovely thing happened to me yesterday. One of the students from my “Wide and Wonderful” class at the OHCG School last fall sent me a picture of her finished piece.

This student is Karen Kaiser, who just happens to be an amazing graphic designer as well as a hooker extraordinaire. I first met her at an OCGH Annual in Lindsay a few years ago. She won the prize for the themed (Cottage Life) exhibition and her winning entry clearly demonstrated her talents, as does this one. I had a brief chat with her, sitting on a window ledge outside the rug exhibit. She was as lovely as she is talented. So, I was thrilled and humbled to have her in my class.

I asked if I could feature her rug on my blog and she gave me permission.
This piece is entitled “Blueberry Leaves”. It is a wonderfully textural piece that combines proddy and traditional hooking. The design in this piece is outstanding. The colours, the balance, the texture - everything is pleasing and executed brilliantly. And when you look at her hooking, the directional hooking - curved to follow the leaves at the top - and straight down the sides - creates a combination of motion and stillness that enhance the design. This could just as easily be a painting, or a sculpture or a carving. It would be awesome in any medium. But it’s outstanding as a fiber art piece.

When Karen started working on this in class, she began with the proddy leaves - something that most of the students had not tried, so it was great to see it unfold as she worked away. Hers was one of several unique projects that presented a great learning opportunity for everyone to share - a real advantage to an open class. When everyone is working on something different, you get to share things that aren’t necessarily on the lesson plan.

It’s wonderful to see this piece finished. And I would really love to see all the pieces that were started in our group. Receiving this picture will prod me into following up with all of the class. I’ll get them to check out Karen’s Blueberry leaves and see who else is finished.

Hopefully, I’ll have lots more to share in the next little while. And you will be able to see just how talented the group truly was. And hear me brag, brag, brag.