I Ching

Double strand Persian wool, gold thread, on 12 mesh canvas 14 x 14¼"
Continental stitch in all four directions, plus bargello in the border. Approximately 28,728 stitches. 1975-76

"The design for this pillow was inspired by a traditional layout of the I Ching. The pattern is composed of the sixty-four Kua from this ancient Chinese book of divination -- sometimes called the Book of Changes. Each Kua consists of broken and/or solid lines in sets of six."

Green Pillow

Double strand Persian wool on 12 mesh canvas,
14 x 12¾ & 17" each side, with a 1¼" needlepointed edge.
Continental stitch in all four directions, plus
other stitches on the "green bird" side.
Approximately 69,662 stitches. 1977-78

"This pillow, designed for a Chinese Chippendale Chair, represents a marriage of many cultures. Entirely needlepointed, the pillow took two years to finish. With this piece I began improvising all my designs, depending on karma, serendipity, fate to bring me the right element at the right time."

Kalachakra

Single strand Persian wool, gold thread,
on 18 mesh canvas, 24¾ x 13¼"
Continental stitch in all four directions.
Approximately 107,254 stitches. 1989-91 & '95

"The central design in Kalachakra is an adaptation of the All Powerful Ten Symbol of Tibetan Buddhism which, among other things, relates to "good fortune" and "world peace." It is the first needlepoint I stitched and unstitched repeatedly to make sure the patterns counted across accurately. Ordinarily, I simply justify "mistakes" and go on. But here I needed a certain perfection to convey the impression of "rugs" lying beneath the topmost motif."

Jan Haag's two recent needlepoints are based on the rhythms and melody of North Indian Classical music, which she studied with Ali Akbar Khan and Swapan Chaudhuri from 1993 to 1996.

"As I began to study and practice North Indian Classical music, for which, even though I had great love, I had no musical talent, I soon found I could grasp the music by transposing it into visual patterns."

"Music and needlepoint share not only a mathematical precision, but an infinitely subtle, almost mystical range of variability and improvisation. Music is perhaps the most magical art in the universe, but needlepoint has one advantage -- the stitches stay where they are put, while music dissolves into silence."

Mukhra/Tukra/Chakradar

Single strand Persian wool, double strand Appleton wool,
lace wool, partly Kashmir, silk yarn, rayon yarn, cotton
and viscose yarn, cotton, silver and gold thread
on 18 mesh canvas, 18 x 26½"
Continental stitch in all four directions.
Approximately 154,548 stitches, January 1996 - August 2001

"In Mukhra/Tukra/Chakradar I wanted to explore musical "color" and rhythmical patterns, as well as light, shadow and transparency. With gradations of color and the shimmer of rayon, silk, gold and silver the designed-in "directional light" would, I hoped, give the finished work a certain incandescence - a visual equivalent to the transcendent luminosity one feels hearing a great tabla player in concert."

Glimpse Jan at work on Mukhra/Tukra/Chakradar in its earliest stage in the Mount Olivet Cemetery in San Rafael. "I love to work in the quiet and history of cemeteries." JH

The Ten Thats

Embroidery cotton, lace wool, Appleton wool, string cotton,
gold thread and silver thread on 22 mesh (grey) canvas.
Appromixately 11 x 14¼"
Continental stitch in all four directions.
The TEN THATS contain approximately 75,866 stitches.
Began June 5, 1996 - now completed.

"Though I have taken up The Ten Thats a number of times since 1996, I did not begin to really work on it again until the end of March, 2004. Up to this time, my musical needlepoints had been designed solely around drum bols, i.e. the rhythmical aspect of music. This time I would try capturing, and perhaps analyzing a little, those elusive, exquisite sounding, almost instantly disappearing notes of melody."

See and read about Jan's progress as she created The Ten Thats.