The Ruggery has been making animal potraits for many years

 This article gives you a quick view of the process The Ruggery uses to hand hook a heirloom quality rug from a  photograph of a  Black Labrador.

The Lab we are working with is black. For us the word black in the the dog takes on a different meaning where we

need to have depth and details to give the dog a three dimensional quality.

There are six base colors we use for the dog, from a light grey down to a jet black. When we see a black dog in real life

our eye makes sense of the color variations and we see the shine off the coat of the dog  and our mind interprets the color changes

but we acknowledge the dog is all black.

Artisans at The Ruggery have to use there creative eye to bring the dog to life with the use of color and shades.

Wool hand dyed for the black lab portrait

We start with a photograph of the Lab. A water color sketch is then draw by hand to show the client our interpretation of the finished rug.

This also give us a guide line for how and where the colors should be hooked giving the desired effect.

Photo of the Black Lab and the sketch for reference

We then draw a pattern of the rug on cotton monks cloth that we can hook through.

The pattern is stretched tightly on a frame and the hooking begins.

We work from the back of the rug so the pattern is drawn in reverse.

  Pattern complete for the lab portrait and the hooked starts

The elements of the rug are hooked first, the dog is first to get hooked. As you can see there is more then just black

being used.

Work continuing on the lab rug

Next to be hooked are the grasses and the water.

Start of the background

The border and background behind the grasses are the last part of the rug to get hooked.

This method of punch rug hooking has been around for over 100 years.

The Ruggery hopes to keep the tradition alive and help bring it into the 21 century with new ideas

and innovative thoughts behind our rugs.

Black lab portrait rug finished

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