Orrington woman makes rug based on Wyeth painting

Don’t let the tranquility of Stacey Van Dyne’s kitchen and living room fool you. Behind the white picket fence door of the snowman cupboard, in the small drawers of the apothecary chest and in a room down the hall of the house in Orrington lurk the dyes, fabrics, frames and burlap of her riotous passion – hooking rugs.

The wooden handle of one of the hooks she uses for the craft is worn smooth from 30 years of use. “It’s also dog chewed,” she laughed.

Some of the first pieces Van Dyne hooked now serve as a bed for Aurora the tabby cat, who batted around the kitchen floor a Christmas ornament she stole off the tree during the holidays.

But Aurora didn’t get to curl up on one of Van Dyne’s more recent creations – the one she hooked for artist Jamie Wyeth. “It was a fluke, in a way,” she said. “The daughter of a friend who is in my rug hooking group works for him. When he said he’d like to have a hooked rug of one of his paintings, she suggested me.”

The Wyeth painting Van Dyne translated into rug form is “Ravens Monhegan 2000.”

“I never actually saw the painting,” she said. She worked from a photograph in a book, traced the design elements of the painting and had a transparency made at a local office supply store. Using an overhead projector to enlarge the tracing, she drew the design directly onto the foundation fabric of the 4-foot by 5-foot rug. Then she dyed the fabrics that would be cut into strips for hooking the rug.

She had to experiment with the dyes to get the precise shade of brooding black for the ravens and rocks, and the brassy gold and yellow shadings for the sky. “It was fun,” she said, “and he [Wyeth] loved it.” She worked on the rug from November 2003 to April 2004.

Van Dyne’s romance with rug hooking began when she was 16 and a student at Brewer High School. “My mother always said I was born middle-aged,” she said. “When the kids at school found out I was hooking, it was good for a lot of [suggestive] comments.” But she didn’t let peer pressure deter her from taking lessons in 1975 from Helen Lindsey of Brewer, a Pearl McGown-certified teacher.

Pearl McGown, a Massachusetts woman, helped revive the art of rug hooking in the 1920s and ’30s. Later, she and her daughter established a business to teach the craft to those who wished to become certified rug-hooking teachers.

As a teenager Van Dyne tried painting, crochet, embroidery and other crafts. But making rugs really hooked her. “I could make the wool do what I couldn’t get the paint to do,” she said, referring to the color shadings in her rugs. “I could make it come out the way I saw it in my head.” Some of the flowers in her rugs have as many as 10 shades of one color.

Van Dyne, following her first teacher’s example, is currently in the process of becoming a McGown-certified teacher. “It’s a five-year process,” she said. “You have to be observed teaching. You have to have two students and the work they do with you has to pass. Your work has to pass. You have to learn how to dye fabrics, do color planning, work with wide-cut and fine-cut strips and do color shading.” She attends a yearly intensive workshop, and goes to rug camps throughout the year. She haunts yard sales for wool garments, which she over-dyes and cuts into rug hooking strips.

“Find a teacher, take classes from different people and experiment,” she advises those interested in learning the craft. “Rug hooking is more popular that you’ll ever know. A lot of people do it, but you don’t hear about it. It’s the quietest thing.”

To learn more about rug hooking, call Van Dyne at 299-4593, or visit www.mainemade.com and type in Hooked Forever.

Snippets

. A reader is seeking a knitted snowmobile design small enough to use on a Christmas stocking. If you can help, write: Charlotte Young, 2036 Carmel Road North, Newburgh, ME. 04444-4514.

. The Bangor Area Chapter of the American Sewing Guild will offer classes in blazer jacket making at 9:30 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 12 and March 12, at the Hampden Municipal Building. The first class will focus on fitting the pattern, cutting it out and preparing the pieces for sewing. The second class will center on buttonhole, lining and finishing techniques. The cost of the class is $10 for guild members, $15 for others. Participants must bring pattern, fabric and sewing supplies. Call 941-8815 for more information or to register.

Ardeana Hamlin can be reached at 990-8153, or e-mail ahamlin@bangordailynews.net.