ISSN 2007-001X 3rd September 2018
Rug Hooking Week in Sauder Village, Archbold, Ohio, was the place to meet rug hooking friends old and new from across USA and Canada and a chance to put faces to contacts made on Social Media.
Speaking with Sharon Felton from Ohio, our first visitor to the “Re-imagined” Exhibit booth, I discovered we had a mutual friend …… Miriam Miller, Pres. Emeritus of the Australian Rugmakers Guild. When Sharon visited with her daughter who was living in Australia, she took a workshop from Miriam. On her return to the US they kept in touch and Miriam and Jacqui visited with Sharon on their way to a TIGHR Conference. Pictures of Sharon’s finished rugs have shown in Miriam’s newsletter – no wonder her name sounded familiar. Sharon is currently working on a design which she described as ……..
“started out as one of Sharon Smith’s patterns…then she went to the market ….. my little country bunny in progress I am having so much fun with all the dimension, she just keeps on growing …. lol”
Coincidently, Sharon Smith, of Off the Hook Wool Rugs with helper, Nada Ferris, had the booth next to our “Re-imagined” space. Hanging on the wall of Sharon Smith’s rug booth was a colourful image of a flower which I’d shared on the Guild’s Facebook page – it was good to meet these online contacts. Also, to know there’s a rug hooking group in the Bay Area East of San Francisco.
As we talked, Sharon Felton was joined by her friend Joyce Krueger from Wisconsin’s Cream City Rug Hooking Guild who I met at my first McGown Teachers Workshop in Eugene, Oregon. Joyce’s rug “King” is in Celebrations 28`It was an interesting start to the day!
Barbara Lukas who visited Australia for the TIGHR 2012 Conference had a booth at Rug Hooking Week, her business, Art in Textile focusses on translating Canadian art into textile forms, which lend themselves to passing on the beauty created by one generation to the next.
These forms include traditional rug hooking, punch needle hooking, embroidery, wool appliqué, quilting and felting. Maud Lewis is one artist and there will be more artists in the future.
Barbara owns several original Christmas Cards painted by Maud Lewis, a well-known Canadian folk artist from Nova Scotia. Copyright is owned by the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia and Barbara has been given license to produce and sell patterns of the Christmas card images.
About the Exhibit, Barbara said ………..
“Kathy Wright was the curator of the exhibit at Sauder. She put out a call on Facebook for finished rugs which could be featured in the exhibit. There were many rugs in the show besides mine and Doug Rankin’s. Kathy also led a session to describe Maud’s life to a pre-registered group, and invited Doug Rankin and me to be vendors. Art In Textile has different patterns than Highland Heart Hookery. Doug has quite a few and I have twelve. My license also extends to other textile forms, as spelled out above.”
Anne Neely Boissinot – another long-time TIGHR friend and one of the Judges for Celebrations 28, stopped by with Janine Broscious, whose
Dragonfly rug was featured on the “Re-imagined” Facebook page as a good example of embellished rug hooking.
On Facebook, we’re currently following Janine’s new rug design taken from a photo of her and husband Matt on a rocky shore in front of a lighthouse. The faces in the design with only a small amount of detail portray strong emotions. The sky shows realistic movement. It is interesting to follow her progress online and to see the growth of this hooked piece as she tackles the water, shoes and rocks. Janine and husband Matt were at this event in their motor home – here’s a picture of one of their rug hooking neighbours.
TIGHR members mentioned here are known to many members of the Australian Guild, but Aussie members are not as familiar with members of the Pearl K McGown Guild, even so, I will continue to “drop names”. What a surprize to see Charlotte Price walking towards me. In 2002 Charlotte was my sponsor to the McGown Teachers workshop in Eugene, Oregon. Over the five years I attended the annual workshops to complete my accreditation I met many rug hooking instructors from the USA and Canada.
Liz Marino of South Egremont, Massachusetts is the McGown webmaster, we had only connected online so I was pleased to meet face to face. Liz designed and hooked her 2018 Celebration’s piece (14.5 x 18inches) adapted from a painting by Giovanni Battista Salvia da Sassoferrato. 
Green Mountain Rugs – I sat in on a presentation by 3 members (2 generations) of women representing 5 generations of a rug hooking family. Mariah Krauss the youngest, her mother Stephanie Allen-Krauss and her aunt, Pam Kirk.
There’s more information on the family (time line) here
and some additional info about each of them,
At the presentation, they spoke of the family history – Mariah’s great-great-grandmother who at the tender age of 19 started a rug hooking business in an era when women were not involved in business.
What making rugs meant to each of them personally as well as building a working relationship with each other within a family business
and “that damn rug”, a 5ft x 23ft rug which Mariah’s grandmother, the matriarch of Green Mountain Hooked Rugs, was commissioned to hook. When design delays by the purchaser left only 6 months to complete, newspaper advertisements were placed to find additional rughookers so it could be finished within the time allowed.
This rug has been in place on Green Mountain’s studio floor for 10 years. Follow this link to read how that “Damn rug” came home.
We were introduced to Sibyl Osicka at the TIGHR Conference in Kentucky, USA in 2009. Sibyl has been a long-time officer of ATHA and has had many of her rugs published in Rug Hooking Magazine’s Celebrations.
Nadine Cloutier is another Facebook contact. Nadine’s rug (below) was featured in progress on the Aussie Rugmakers Guild Facebook as an interesting technique to be used. Nadine says “This rug is a study about creating a new design layer on top of a previously designed pattern.”
“Re-imagined” a Challenge with a Difference becomes
“Re-imagined” a virtual Exhibition
Have you wondered why and how we created the virtual Exhibition? To answer the many questions during the Challenge we decided to make a video explanation – here it is
“Textile Tessera“ – created as an example of embellished rug work by Jo Franco, Judi Tompkins and Peta Korb, exhibited at the “Re-imagined” booth – has now dispersed ;
No. 1 “Kimberly Colour” by Jo Franco – to Florida with Pam Kirk
No. 2 “Bungle Bungles” by Jo Franco – to Queensland
No. 3 “Lorikeet flock meets Road train – Flattened Fauna” by Judi Tompkins to Nova Scotia, with Meryl Cook
No. 4 “Tropicana” by Jo Franco – staying in Ohio, with June Reynolds
No. 5 “Fibre Oasis” by Judi Tompkins – going home with Jo to West Australia
No. 6 “Interactive Wearable Art” – by Judi Tompkins – went to Cami Smith in Seattle, Washington State
No. 7 “State of Mind:The Unbearable Lightness of Being” – by Judi Tompkins is also in Washington state; south of Seattle in Auburn with Judy Taylor
No. 8 “Citadel: The Political Divide” by Judi Tompkins – went home to West Virginia with Susan Feller
No. 9 “Assemblage: Recollections of Another Time” by Judi Tompkins – has gone to Walunt Creek, California, with Sharon Smith
No. 10 “Big timber to the sea” by Jo Franco – to Vermont with Kris McDermet
No. 11 “Apple Isle” by Jo Franco is now in Pennsylvania with Tracy
No. 12 “Coral – Beyond a pinkish shade of Orange” by Jo Franco went to Florida, with Pam Kirk.
Rug Hooking Magazine’s “Celebration 28” Exhibition
While there were many amazing rugs on exhibit – here are some of my favourites
Across from our booth “Glacier National Park” an original design hooked by Ken Hamlin of Adrian Michigan – was of special interest to me as my husband was born in this mountainous area of the United States.
On the same wall was “Café-Shadows” another original design – this one by Martha Rosenfeld, Kalamazoo, Michigan. My apologies to the artists if my photography doesn’t do their work justice.
Trish Johnson’s “Honest Eds” street scene. I just loved this hooked tapestry especially the reflections in the store windows of the cars out on the road.
“Aaron” by Russell Nichols
The use of light to bring out detail in this grayscale portrait was addressed by Susan Feller in the Gallery Talk – so it was interesting to see this artist’s use of bright colour in his animal pieces
YES!! an Australian entry in Celebrations 28
“Temple Fish“. by Gail Nichols (Braidwood, New South Wales)
Unfortunately Gail’s rug was not on display, however Gail is a finalist and there is still time to place a “Readers Choice” vote – click the link below and follow the prompts https://www.rughookingmagazine.com/voting/Readers-Choice
Val Flannigan, a McGown Guild member, pictured here with Janine Broscious who took many of the rug images shown in this blog. Two of Val’s rugs were on exhibit, “Elephant” and another of my favourites “Fiddler” – standing in front of the actual work, the fiddler was almost dancing off the wall.
Here are some more of my favourite rugs shown on the Celebrations 28 Readers Choice page :
During the day at Rug Hooking Week, contact with my “Re-imagined” Co-Convener was via Facebook messenger. Susan Feller and I spent the evenings updating our Facebook pages. We were surprised late one night when the screen on my laptop lit up and who should appear, calling me on Skype … Judi Tompkins she was a passenger in their car in Queensland, Australia, 14 hours into our tomorrow … cyberspace at its best! Judi’s comment; “Um …. I think Jo and Susan can hear me talking in their sleep”
Wrap Up – at the end of a wonderful week –
from Susan Feller:
“This is how neatly the show pieces are prepared for owners to pick up and check out at end of Rug Hooking Week at Sauder Village. There is no way names can be put on a list of thank yous, someone would be left off. Suffice to say the ENTIRE staff of Sauder Village knows how to make their guests feel part of a welcome community. A big thank you to Kathy Wright who loves spreadsheets and I believe has one programmed in her brain she is that organized, with a smile for all !
She gives herself one day off then begins the plans for 2019 August 12-17 (put it on your calendar).”
I second Susan’s comments and look forward to returning to Rug Hooking Week ..…. one day. This “LONG” report, much of which has already been posted on Facebook, is shared here for those of you who don’t “do” Facebook. Visiting with rug hooking friends continues as I wend my way home to Perth.
Hope you enjoy reading about the event as much as I enjoyed being there – 
and … here is what prompted this trip –
The virtual “Re-imagined” Exhibition is what took me to Sauder Village this year – to see the online Gallery – Click this link to enter https://artspaces.kunstmatrix.com/en/exhibition/121832/re-imagined
