Gail Hock (right) works on a pattern based on a Spanish kitchen tile. June Bennett (left) uses a pattern designed by Monika Jones, the club’s local hooking instructor.
Donna Holbeck, Nancy Kyle, and June Bennett (back row) look on as instructor Gene Shepherd demonstrates using color changing wool to outline a fall leaf for Robin White.
Vicki Ray
PebbleCreek’s hooking club held a three-day workshop for members in November with Anaheim, Calif.-based instructor Gene Shepherd.
Gene, a retired pastor, is a renowned teacher who has traveled the world preaching and teaching hooking to students of all ages and nationalities. He made 10 trips to Russia, for example, introducing more than 75 students to this fiber art.
Most students began the workshop with a new pattern and purchased Gene’s vibrant, hand-dyed wool to create their art works. It’s always exciting to begin a new project, plot out an approach, and finally settle on wool colors.
Student projects vary in style and intricacy. New hookers Susie Malone and Robin White worked on their second projects since picking up the art form. Jeri Allen’s undertaking is inspired by a landscape she photographed. Barb Maurer’s very long hall runner is a story rug made up of everything important to her. Quilter and hooker Karen Bogadi drew intricate paisleys on her pattern. She’s using warm-red violets and cool-blue violets in her original design. Gail Hock intended to hook one pattern but purchased another based on a kitchen tile Gene photographed in Spain and later turned into a rug design.
Choosing wool colors and creating a cohesive color story is one reason students enjoy working with an instructor. Prior to arriving in Arizona, Gene used two different dyeing techniques to create variegated wool for Vicki Ray’s Hawaiian hibiscus. June Bennett and Nancy Kyle chose wool in jewel tones for their patterns created and drawn by resident Monika Jones, who teaches beginning hooking for the club.
Students enjoyed Gene’s wool-dyeing demonstration, and many tried the simple technique themselves. After processing the wool, each student chose a piece to add to her personal stash.
As club members complete their hooked projects, you’ll see them in the display cases at the Creative Arts Center. Stop by the Diamondback Room any Monday afternoon to see the projects we’re working on and to learn more about hooking.