Carving Between Colors When Tufting?

Question: Hey experienced Tufters I have a question, I have made a fair amount of rugs now and always save the carving for after I have the backing cloth on and finished and spend hours color separating the colors by hand with tweezers before doing any cutting. So is there any merit to carving in between each color? I know it would take longer to get it off the frame meaning longer time in between starting the next project. But does it cut back on fighting the colors later?

1#Advice: Just do whatever makes you feel comfortable. Good lines just don’t have to do w carving.

2#Advice: I will say that I am still new, but carving between colors was night and day for me. I would spend hours carving a relatively small piece, struggling with depth and shape. The density of all the colors and fiber packed in made it hard to get a feel for angle. It also caused some unintentional cuts and trims, cutting lower on my piece than I wanted. Not only was it faster, but also cleaner and helped increase the feel for my ability. Highly recommend doing as much as you can on the frame as possible. Carving, applying backing, all of it. Only word of warning to is be mindful of your proximity to your cloth as you cut or you WILL rip a hole in it. Good luck!

3#Advice:  Carve between colours while it’s on the frame, even just giving edges a trim with scissors makes it so much easier to carve post glueing imo. As well as leaving a small gap between colours while tufting, trimming on the frame means that the colours are already separated and I’m rarely picking out single treads.

4#Advice: I trim between colors while still on the frame. I mean yeah, longer to get the next project on the frame, I guess, but it also takes time to carve, and that’s also time you’re not spending tufting on the frame. 6 in one/half dozen the other.

Hope this blog can help you, and welcome share your idea by comment !

#Tufting #Rug making #Hand tufted rug