ISSN 2207-001X 23 August 2024
Out of the box and onto the wall, at Rug Hooking Week, Sauder Village, Ohio, USA, August 2024. Witchetty Grub was designed and hooked in 2023 by Josephine (Jo) Franco, for the Magnificent Bugs in Rugs project. 
Many thanks to Susan Feller @artwools for images of the grub on exhibit at Rug Hooking Week.
Canadian textile artists Yvonne-Iten Scott and Leslie Knight are the Curators of Magnificent Bugs in Rugs, https://www.instagram.com/magnificentbugsinrugs/ a travelling exhibition of artistic, hand-hooked rugs, which they also published in a children’s book. The editors have done an excellent job of creating verses to go along with each entry. Profits from this project will go to promoting the traditional craft of rug making to a new generation.
The project Brief sent to rug hookers around the globe called for an indigenous bug. Most people think of lovely butterflies and colourful beatles. For me coming from Australia it was no different, our country has more than it’s fair share of butterflies, spiders and colourful bugs, but knowing the rugs for this project were intended for a children’s book and remembering when my sons were small, how fascinated they were with sticks, stones, rocks, and yucky bugs, I narrowed my search for yucky bugs and grubs, deciding on the Witchetty Grub which features in many articles on Australian Bush Tucker (Bush Food) found in the Outback – the barren and dry “red heart” of our country. Tourists blanch when told by indigenous tour leaders that the grubs can be eaten raw (taste like almonds) or when quickly roasted in campfire coals, they taste like scramble eggs or chicken. The grubs are a rich source of protein, vitamins, and healthy fats. Can’t say I’ve been game enough to give it a try – but there’s several videos on YouTube of people who have.
Witchetty grubs are the larval stage of Ghost Moths (Endoxyla leucomochla). Ghost moths lack functional feeding organs and only live for a few days. Before they die, they lay eggs around the Acacia bushes (Acacia kempeana) commonly called Witchetty Bush. When the eggs hatch, the grubs burrow into the ground and feed on the sap in the roots. If the grub is not dug up and eaten, after pupating the adult moth emerges from its woody home leaving behind its protective skin.
Having chosen the witchetty grub, the next thing was how to depict its “plumpness” (some grubs are big enough to stretch across the palm of a person’s hand) and how to simply depict the colours of the area where the grubs are found. I settled on a 3D hooked grub, giant Waldoboro hooking if you will, on a flat traditionally hooked background featuring the red/gold colours of the West Australian outback often referred to as part of “the red centre”.
After drawing my grub and having it enlarged at a local print shop, I stuck the print to the window and covered it with tulle tracing the design onto it with a thick marker pen.
The next step was to lay the tulle over my foundation cloth and transferred the grub to it with the marker pen. I use the term foundation cloth instead of “backing” to avoid confusion, because I knew the finished piece would have a decorative, protective backing.
To see where to begin my sculpting within the body of the grub, I hooked the outline of the segments in dark coloured wool, strips from my stash that I’d overdyed, grouping the previously cut strips together with rubber bands to go into the dye, then placing them in a lingerie bag to be rinsed in the washing machine before
hanging out on my clothesline to dry.
I knew Waldoboro was a matter of hooking loops high, packing them close together, cutting the loops and then sculpting; and had seen progress photos of work by Judi Tompkins who lives in QLD on the other side of Australia, so figured I had this in the bag – not so…
it’s more difficult than it looks.
The simple background was drawn in next; distant hills covered in spinifex (yellow/gold clumps of tall grass) were hooked with alpaca. Thethe broken tree root, clear vibrant blue sky and the red earth below – all hooked with cut wool strips salvaged from my stash.
With the dark background complete, I began to pull long loops using a mixture of white wool, wool tops (unspun fleece) and several strands together of spun alpaca. This is when I knew I had a problem. When hooked, the first segment looked like it was exploding, how was I ever going to cope with the rest? Time to place a call to Judi and get some advice.
Gradually I managed to tame the grub sculpting from the section emerging from the broken log to the head, which was the hardest part that I left for last. At that point it was time to think again about the finishing. I’d given some 
initial thought as to how to present, because of the raised centre decided if possible, to show on a plinth rather than hanging.
Thanks to Judi T., I had a supply of hand-dyed thick rug wool, unspun fleece (tops) and spun alpaca. Three large tubs of skeins of undyed alpaca had been donated to our group in the West, more than we could ever use, so a couple of large bags of skeins were sent to Judi in QLD who, with help from some of her group members, dyed the skeins and came up with a wonderful array of variegated colours. From her pictures I chose what I needed. The dyed skeins were rolled into balls and sent back to me (that was some well-travelled alpaca). I used the alpaca for the distant hills and because it was so fine, I had to double or triple it after unwinding to cut out the segments of colours that I wanted. Along with the yarn came a piece of cotton fabric with an embossed stitch that had been dropped into the same orange/yellow dye bath which worked beautifully as the backing.
Before attaching the backing to the hooked piece, a pocket was added as a label, showing artists details and to hold more printed and laminated information on the grub. The backing was tacked in place and the excess material folded over to the front of the work.
To make sure the weight of the grub didn’t pull the rug out of shape if it was hung, a running stitch was sewn under the outside edge of the grub attaching it to the backing.
Then came the decision on how to cover the wide turn-over. Normally I would roll the backing to the front of the piece and whip stitch it in place, but with the extra width this didn’t look like an option. I’d only used a small amount of the dyed rug wool, and a pile of it lay next to the piece during my thought process. A braid to create a frame seemed like the answer, but because my turned over backing wasn’t even in width, I felt something more unstructured was needed, plus the extra height would give additional depth to the piece. The question was, how to fix those loose strands to the work?
That’s where single strands of the dyed spun alpaca came into play. I was able to wrap the alpaca strands around the loosely placed thick wool and stitch the alpaca ends into the foundation cloth, a tedious job – it would have been so much easier to have whipped or added a braid!
I was not happy with the finish, but it was too much to undo – so out came the needle and alpaca thread again and I button-hole stitched around the base of the wool border into the seam of the backing – yes I am picky! but happy with the final look. The project took 3 months to complete and our dining room table was finally uncluttered.
To be invited to participate in this project was an honour; to be amongst so many experienced rug hookers who create intricate and amazingly fine shaded colourful works. It was a challenge to come up with something that would fit in with their traditional pieces, since the scope of my current work with up-cycled textiles is outside my McGown Guild training and accreditation. Fortunately, memories of my two young sons some 50 years ago, provided the inspiration. The challenge was worth it; starting from scratch, figuring it out as I went along, so glad I took Judi’s advice and documented the project from beginning to end.
I’
m proud to be included in the Magnificent Bugs book and the travelling exhibition to be shown next at The International Guild of Handhooking Rugmakers (TIGHR) Triennial Conference, Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada from September 29 to October 2, 2024. https://tighr.net/
I’d love to attend but due to health matters can’t make it this year. Greetings to all –
