Making Maquettes

Hosta Series 1, Hosta 1, 26" x 72", #10-cut wool on loose weave natural linen.  Designed and hooked by Michelle Sirois-Silver, Vancouver, Canada, 2011.

According to Encyclopedia Britannica Online, a maquette is a small-scale, three-dimensional sketch that gives an idea of the nature of the finished work. I decided to use maquettes when the reference materials I’d gathered for a series of hand-hooked rugs became just short of overwhelming. Three-dimensional sketches became hand-hooked samples to help me in my design phase. 

I started work on my Hosta series in 2008. From a series of photographs of hostas from my garden, I selected images based on line and dynamic value ranges. I needed to know how these images would translate into large-scale finished works (26" x 72") so I wouldn’t be faced with problem solving while I was hooking the finished works. What a daunting and frustrating task that would be!

This article is from the March/April/May 2012 issue. For more information on our issues, check out our issues page.