Narrawilly Rugmakers Celebrate 20 Years 1994-2014

The following report was submitted

by Jacqui Thomson

of the Narrawilly Proggers:

They came from near and far;

43 women devoted to the art of making beautiful but practical rugs and wall hangings from recycled fabric.

They came despite the wind and rain – nothing would prevent them from making this occasion memorable, and it was.

(Maggie Whyte besides the huge tractor we needed to pull a car from the boggy paddock. Many inches fell this day while we were inside the Rug Room having a great time.)

It all began in September 1994 after an advertisement was placed in the local paper. Seven women gathered in Miriam Miller’s home to be shown “how it’s done”, and left very keen to continue on with a meeting on a monthly basis. Who would have thought then, that 20 years later we still meet on the first Friday of the month and only a few years ago included the third Friday. We have never missed holding our rug day since inception. Our meetings are held on the Miller property, in Milton.

When thanking all for coming, Miriam outlined our brief history and where rug making has taken us; from small beginnings to being able to invite International Rug teachers to our shores. Members have been enriched by their visits as they impart new ideas and techniques. Australian rugs have their own individuality and from slow beginnings the enthusiasm for making rugs has spread to every State, with healthy groups in Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria, Queensland, ACT and New South Wales. We can now boast an Australian Rugmakers Guild formed on 11 October, 2008 with Board members from each State, and meetings held using Skype. We had “Show and Tell” following Miriam’s talk and saw some wonderful examples of our members’ expertise.

Miriam Miller, teacher, Emeritus of the Australian Rugmakers Guild., Past President of The International Guild of Handhooking Rugmakers, is a driving force in the promotion of rugmaking in Australia; she is the author of Australia’s first rug book “Proggy and Hooky Rugs”, and has recently brought forward a revised edition.

Her students have traveled from every corner of our country.

Since inception we have diligently kept a record of every meeting and the rugs made by our members. These books were on display for members to look back on and to reminisce – how some of us have changed.

Maxine Keys, who was unable to make the reunion, sent a hand-knitted rug for us to raise funds and the charity we chose was The Gambia School for the Blind in West Africa. This was hugely successful, and the winner was Florence Smart from North Turramurra.

It’s amazing isn’t it; from little things big things grow. Who would have thought that the small advertisement in our local paper 20 years ago led us to where we are today.

Canberra Craft & Quilt Fair

Craft&Quilt_2011

Expertise Events Canberra Fair.

The Australian Rugmakers Guild was represented for the first time at Expertise Events Craft Fair in Canberra last week. Maggie Whyte was responsible for organizing friends and local rugmakers to demonstrate rughooking.

Maggie said it was a great success – they talked and demonstrated to so many, there was hardly time for a coffee.

Rughooking_Canberra_Australia_2014

Maggie said she heard so many times….. “my mother or grand-mother used to do this or they did it as small children”. She’s wondering what happened to the interest in rughooking in the meantime?

Hopefully these demonstrations, follow-up local workshops and national events, like the South Australian Rughooking Expo, will generate more interest in this craft.

Look for a group in your area or an Instructor on this website.

Yarra Valley Rugmakers

Say Hello to Josh

this portrait was hooked by Chris Noorbergen of the Yarra Valley Rugmakers, from a photograph of her grandson.

Chris has hooked portraits of several members of her family, and has the ability to capture their personality in the hooked loops. Chris will be teaching classes in this style of rug hooking (How to hook an A3 sized facial portrait from a photo) at the Strathalbyn Rughooking Expo on 11th & 12th October 2014. For more details on the Strathalbyn Expo click on the Calendar of Events.

Below Chris shares news and images of the Groups April meeting.

Our Yarra Valley rug makers group was small, as we met in one of our members homes in Warrandyte, Vic in April, but the atmosphere was definitely warm. What a wonderful time we had. As usual Anne greeted everyone with a smile and a cup of coffee.

As we don’t see each other from month to month, there was a lot of catching up to do. Leanne knitted, Joy hooked, (on her houses rug) Robyne chatted; and Anne and Chris chatted, tried out various punch needles and hooked all at the same time. Chris had a lesson in punch needle hooking from Jacqui while she was in Milton and she was keen to show off her newly purchase punch needle. Anne then brought out her stash of punch needles and we talked about the pros and cons of each model.

Anne (left) had needles for both embroidery and rug making. What a handy little tool that can be, used in such a variety of ways adding a different dimension to our hooked rugs.

We then had the fun job of dividing up our beautiful, made in the US [that’s what it said on the invoice], wool fabric which had arrived at Anne’s while she was away enjoying the retreat with the Narrawilly Proggers in Milton, NSW. Yards and yards of soft, beautiful wool dyeing to be changed into beautiful works of art.

The day went much too quickly, and after a lovely lunch we packed up our tools and left for home.

Cheers from the Yarra Valley Rug Makers, until next month, Saturday 17th May in Lilydale,

http://www.victorianrugmakers.blogspot.com.au/

Rug Beat

NEWS FLASH!!!

Just in from Rug Hooking Magazine –

Candi Derr, Editor of “Rug Beat” is offering, as a taster, the first issue of Rug Beat

FREE!!!

Rug Beat is an online publication for rughookers covering different rughooking techniques and featuring rug hooking personalities and events.

It’s easy to subscribe to Rug Beat and you can page through it like a book or click links to jump to articles and to different Issues.

To view this first issue, click the following link, then click the links listed below Candi’s introduction http://www.rughookingmagazine.com/rug-beat/rug-beat-1

Common Threads Wearable Art Showcase

Rughooking meets Wearable Art

Ebb & Flow, photographer Michael Kelly, Star Creations

Western Australia:

“Drift” – the theme for “Common Threads” the City of Mandurahs 2014 Wearable Art Event, open to local, national and international entrants. Finalists to Showcase at the Mandurah Performing Art Centre on 4^th May 2014.

Wanneroo Rugmakers entry, “Ebb & Flow” has been chosen as a finalist in the Eco Category.

Ebb & Flow hooked by the Wanneroo Rugmakers

Turquoise waters and white sand beaches of the local coastline inspired the swirling pattern on the group’s creation, representing the incoming tide drifting onto the shore.

The challenge for the Rugmakers: How to create a garment using a rughooking technique for making floor mats that was —

a) not too heavy to wear and

b) created an appearance of floating or drifting water, and

c) could be made by a team who “drift in” as an informal group to create items for the community using rug hooking techniques and recycled materials. This group brings community members together, teaching them rughooking techniques in a revival of the traditional art/craft form.

Colour planning design of Ebb & Flow dress back panels — Colour planing dress pieces to be hooked

An old net curtain was chosen as the backing (foundation cloth) and a Vogue dress pattern with multiple panels in the bodice and skirt, for the base garment. Pattern pieces and the design were drawn onto sections of the curtain. Colour planning entailed tying pieces of fabric in the appropriate areas. This meant when the design pieces were shared around to be hooked, everyone would know what colour/fabric to use and the design would match up when it came to attaching to the dress form.

During “construction” many ideas were tossed around by the group – from a mermaid costume with beaded train – to encrusting the creation with shells and driftwood and other found objects.

To hold the extra weight of the hooking, the undergarment was made up with the wide straps shown on the dress pattern. After much discussion as the garment was taking shape, it was decided that less was more when it came to representing the drifting swirling theme.

Kath Smith assembling the rug hooked entry.

It turned out weight wasn’t a problem. The backing and fabric used was so light – plus the dress was constructed per the instructions using boning in the bodice, which molded it to the figure. Straps seemed unnecessary so were eliminated creating a more ephemeral look.

Jo Franco & Kath Smith hooking sections of Ebb & Flow

The group didn’t have a model, so work progressed on a mannequin making sure pattern pieces came together to create a seamless effect. What a thrill the morning of the judging to have a lovely young model step into the finished creation, pull up the zip and have it fit her like a glove.

Wanneroo Rugmakers Saturday morning meeting

More Glorious Colour!

More Glorious Colour!

On the evening of February 25^th2014, after having just arrived in Perth and coming straight from the airport, Brandon Mably introduced Kaffe Fassett, who gave a presentation about his love of colour. The audience sat enthralled as Kaffe talked about his new book Dreaming in Colour which follows his growing up years in California and journey into colour. It is full of fabulous colour images of creations by himself and Brandon, and documents their travels to exotic places which inspire their textile designs.

The Western Australian Fibre Textile Assn Inc. (WAFTA) hosted this event at Modern School in Perth city. The stage of the auditorium was a blaze of colour with Kaffe and Brandon’s quilts and knitted creations. There were also colourful quilts created by WAFTA members and a fabulous silk “sail” flowing from the choir stalls above, down to the stage. This silk creation is 26m x 2m. It is comprised of 144 individual pieces made by WAFTA members. Twelve ladies took 10 hours to compile, French seam and iron the sail.

Jo Franco with Kaffe Fassett signing book Photographer Josh Wells. Image courtesy of WAFTA — Jo Franco with Kaffe Fassett signing book
Photographer Josh Wells. Image courtesy of WAFTA

Modern School’s auditorium built in the 1920’s with raked seating, stained glass windows and aboriginal art exhibited on its paneled walls is impressive. Reference to the art work was made by Kaffe who said, looking up from the stage the colours of the audience resembled a “dot” painting on the wall. All 300 seats were full. Tickets went on sale at the beginning of December and were sold out before Christmas.

A group of rug hookers from the northern suburb of Wanneroo and southwest town of Donnybrook, enjoying the colourful images showing on the big screen were surprized to see this rag rug appear

Rag Rug by Kaffe Fassett, Image courtesy of the Kaffe Fassett Studio

and to hear Kaffe talk about his use of recycled fabrics and original designs when creating rugs. In Dreaming in Colour there is an image of a glorious rag rug by the fireplace in Kaffe’s dining room – nothing traditional about it!

A question/answer time followed and the evening finished with Kaffe signing copies of his books.

Photography of the event by Josh Wells. Images courtesy of WAFTA.

The Challenge of Colour

What a great way to start the New Year – an impromptu visit to Victoria to view Isabel Foster’s – The Challenge of Colour Exhibition – at Burrinja Gallery in Upwey, VIC.

Isabel Foster Retrospect, Burrinja Gallery

and to meet up with members of the Yarra Valley Rugmakers who are also members of the Australian Rugmakers Guild.

Isabel’s exhibition was mentioned in a recent Yarra Valley blog with links to a YouTube video of the opening. Seeing the gorgeous colours and textures of Isabel amazing collection of work completed over 50 years, we just had to make the trip. So there we were, myself from WA and a group of Australian Rugmakers Guild members from the Strath Matters in SA. Judy Stephens, Noreen Wendleborn, Ann Johnston and Marion Nefiodovas.

With no formal training in textiles (Isabel was taught embroidery by a ‘perfectionist’ grandmother) over the years her curiosity with colour and texture became her passion. Works in the Exhibit represent her creative interests of spinning and weaving, tapestry, applique, crazy patchwork and rugs made with wool and rag and hand spun and hand dyed thread. The colour and textures of the woven, embroidered, knitted, and crocheted surfaces of Isabel’s creations are amazing.

Arriving early at the gallery our group was delighted to meet Isabel, who was chatting with her daughter and some friends. Isabel was quite surprized to learn that we had come from so far away to view her work and delighted in showing us around describing her creations and then joined us as we gathered in the gallery café to spend the rest of the day getting to know each other and discuss the different rug making techniques.

Isabel Foster (centre) at Burrinja Exhibition — Isabel (centre) at Burrinja Exhibition

This chance meeting with Isabel was very special for Robyne Melia from the Yarra Valley Group who, as a student at Melbourne College of Textiles in 1974, had glimpsed some of Isabel’s work, in particular a garment woven in one piece in an abstract design both wild and colourful, to be worn in Gown of the Year 1974. It was this garment that opened a new way of thinking in fashion to this young student and there she was all these years later talking with its creator.

This Exhibition is open until 16 March 2014, don’t miss it!

For more information click on Burrinja Gallery

2013 ATHA Biennial, Long Beach, CA – USA by Jo Franco

Judith Stephens and I are at the 2013 Biennial of the Assn of Traditional Hooking Artists (ATHA), being held in Long Beach, California with members attending from across the United States and Canada with the addition of two Aussies and one member from Japan.

Yesterday we gave a “tote bag” workshop, the design incorporating the circles or coils used in many of Judith’s hooked creations. The pattern is designed to be hooked with wool yarn rather than fabric strips. For most in the class this was the first time they had hooked using wool yarn. Here are just a few of the 15 participants –

By lunchtime everyone had completed a circle and was ready to have the bag pattern transferred to their backing – then the fun began, attaching the circle and starting to hook.

Jo & Judith with the Aussie Tote Bag Class participants

Many members of ATHA are also members of

TIGHR (The International Guild of Handhooking Rugmakers).

Last evening there was to be a reunion of those TIGHR members who had attended the 2012 Triennial in Strathalbyn South Australia. The group swelled in number as there were many TIGHR members here who had planned to visit OZ but for one reason or another were unable to attend. All the conversation between the travelling rug hookers created much interest and I noticed TIGHR membership applications were being passed around. The next venue – Victoria, BC, Canada will make the event accessible to more US members.

Rughooking on Exhibition in Western Victoria

Judi Tompkins of QLD recently submitted her hooked creation “Caught”

for exhibition, until 25^th August, 2013, at the Red Rock Gallery in Victoria,

Judi’s piece is now up on their website! If you’d like to see it “hung”, and learn more about their upcoming exhibitions and view previous exhibitions go to: http://www.redrockarts.com.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=9&Itemid=13

Perth Craft & Quilt Fair 2013

Tues 21st May, 2013

The Guild stand is all set up

ready for visitors.

Come and say G’day

by Jacqui Thomson

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Expertise Events Canberra Fair.

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Rughooking meets Wearable Art

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