ISSN 2207-100X 31st December 2021
Here we are at the end of 2021, still separated across the country and around the world by lockdowns. The forced separation has encouraged many to accept technology as a way of socializing and taking workshops – the personal touch is missed, but surprisingly these Zoom, Facetime, Google Chats etc have broadened friendships for many rug hookers even though the use of technology has been a steep learning curve. That was certainly the case for members of the Newfoundland Board of The International Guild of Handhooking Rugmakers (TIGHR).
They began their 3-year term as host country at the end of 2018 with plans to hold the TIGHR Triennial Conference at the Sheraton Hotel in St. John’s, NL, Canada from October 4-8, 2021.
Expecting to have a diverse group of rug hookers attend with a variety of interests they began looking for instructors who would approach topics in a unique way to stimulate creativity. Workshops were to take place in small break-out rooms in a hotel setting. Due to COVID, the Triennial Conference was cancelled and the workshops and presentations went online once a month, January until December 2021.
In October Jo Franco and Judi Tompkins gave an online presentation discussing
contemporary rug hooking and the history of rug making in Australia at the end of which most of the viewers stayed on for a Q & A session viewers mics were opened allowing for quite a social event.
Read More Presentation for TIGHR 2
The 2018-2021 TIGHR Board must be congratulated for the success of the online Triennial activities. An enormous amount of time and effort must have been spent preparing for not one, but two Triennial Conferences, as well as learning to deal with the technology to take the workshops online and hold the General Meeting as a webinar giving all TIGHR members the chance to attend.
FROM THE EDITOR:
I hope you will enjoy reading the TIGHR Presentation with the history of rug making in Australia and how Australia came to be involved in the International Guild. At this time when we are all so “connected”, it seems hard to believe that in the 1970’s, North American traditional rug hooking was being taught in country South Australia by Pam Whitehead, and on the south-central coast of New South Wales, Miriam Miller was teaching rugmaking using techniques from the UK – and neither knew about the other. Miriam has just published the 72nd monthly issue (uninterrupted) of her newsletter from her Narrawilly Farm Rug Room where the Narrawilly Proggy Rugmakers have been meeting since 1994. Images of all rugs made during that time faithfully documented by Jacqui Thomson. https://www.rughookingaustralia.com.au/connecting-us-miriam-miller-nsw/
By comparison to both the US and Canada, each land mass the approximate size of Australia, the number of rug hookers in Australia is miniscule and those here seem to be allergic to “organization”. In our presentation Judi and I featured some of the groups and their members and have attempted to show how a traditional craft is becoming a contemporary art form. While on the other hand there is a resurgence in reuse/recycle and while doing so creating supportive networks.
While putting the presentation and this blog together I looked back through previous blogs and am amazed at the creativity of the ARG members. At this time of the year looking back seems like the thing to do… you can too, on the left side of the website you will find Recent Posts listed and a search box where you can input the Month & Year for earlier posts. October 2012 – was a busy month! our first blog on the 2nd about a Rug Hooking Demo in Queensland; on the 8th notice of the ARG General Meeting and the 31st featured the Rug Expo/International Tutors – held the weekend after the 2012 Triennial Conference. The Blog was preceded by the Guild newsletter which transitioned from a one page email to multiple pages with coloured images printed and posted to members. Then posted online in a private members section of this website. After a revamp of the website doing away with the private section, the Australian Rugmakers newsletter finally morphed into this Blog.
Now it’s time to look forward… and to welcome new rug hookers through this website, ARG Facebook page and online rug hooking groups and to stay in contact with rug hooking friends in Australia and around the globe.
I wish you all a Happy and Safe New Year in 2022
