Postcard Impressions

Skating with My Husband on the New Pond in Central Park, 5" x 7", #3-cut wool on linen. Based on Currier and Ives’s Central Park Winter, The Skating Pond (Charles Parsons, 1862). Hooked by Maddy Fraioli, Roseville, Ohio, 2013.

While I appreciate the challenge of fine shading #3-cut strips to produce the water-colored details of Currier and Ives's master works, recreating the full-sized realistic images can take a long time to hook and are best suited as framed pieces. I wished to practice my #3-cut hooking skills on figure and farmyard, but I wanted to create something more intimate—and with more immediate gratification. I wanted to zoom in on my favorite aspects of selected Currier and Ives pieces, blow them up, and practice my fine-cut hooking and shading techniques on postcard-sized mats.

This article is from the November/December 2013 issue. For more information on our issues, check out our issues page.