As I struggle to keep wool for the two different projects I’m working on separated, this idea sent in by Judith Stephens (Guild Pres.), is just what I need. The only problem is, I don’t have time to stop and make up the baskets, so I’ll continue with my tangle of yarn/strips in the dreaded plastic bags. Then ………………. I’ll get organized! (I’m modelling Margaret’s hand-knit Beanie, to be decorated with quillies, destined for the Alice Springs Beanie Exhibition – my beanie is still under construction.)
Here’s what Judith had to say …….
I decided that I should use up the rather large bucket of ‘bits’ that I have accumulated over the past year or two! Whenever I dye some wool, I tie the skeins with about half a metre of yarn which also gets dyed in the dye bath.
These I collect – just because I am too stingy to throw them out! And of course, there are always little leftover pieces of yarn from my projects.
Anyway, I needed to keep the colours in some kind of order, so I needed some baskets. I bought some gutter guard plastic
and made the baskets
Because they come in a long length, I can make the ‘basket’ as big as I need. There is no base in this basket, but it doesn’t seem to matter.
So now, the colours are sorted, and I started on the rug
It’s nearly finished, but it still leaves me with a very large bucket of bits to use up……..
That all sounded so simple but I just had to ask Judith about the “bottomless” basket – her answer was ……
I have half-a-dozen of these ‘baskets’ and they sit on my hooking trolley. If I need to move the basket, then I just put my hand under the basket and the bits don’t fall out. What’s good about these, is the fact that I can make them as big as I need and they are easily stored flat, so don’t take up much room. I’ve also locker hooked one length and have it around a pot plant – I’ll take a photo of that tomorrow morning when the sun is shining! I do have another plan to use up the bits!
Locker hooking on plastic grid – that sounds like an interesting project. Beats having to search for the locker hooking mesh which isn’t readily available, although there is an online supplier on the Guild SWAP n SELL page.
Maybe I’ll find a local supplier at the Perth Craft & Quilt Fair in a few weeks. The Fair runs from 18th to 22nd May at the Perth Exhibition & Convention Centre.
After visiting Guild members in Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia and thinking about rugs hooked by members in Victoria and Western Australia, I realized just how differently members of this Guild approach design and the creation of their rugmaking projects.
The question often asked –
“is rug hooking an art or craft?”
is hard to answer because it depends entirely on who you’re asking and what they’re aiming to express through their rugmaking.
The simple techniques used in the past to create floor coverings, are now used artistically to create wall hangings, home decor items and wearables; to make social commentary; express inner feelings; bring groups together to work on community projects; promote well-being or just provide an outlet for a person to relax while making something they feel is attractive and useful.
While staying with Jacqui Thomson in New South Wales I was thinking about this as I admired the art work and rugs on her walls, particularly a large 4ft (122cm) square wall-hanging on the wall of Jacqui’s study hooked by Ilka Landahl, a member of the Narrawilly Proggers.
Unfortunately this photo, taken with my phone (permission given by Ilka & Jacqui) kept turning sideways in this blog. No amount of editing would prevent that happening, so I resorted to printing and scanning it back to my computer and in doing so lost the high resolution of the original image. My apologies Ilka, the detail in your rug, traditionally hooked with recycled fabric is truly amazing.
Social Commentary features in many of Judith Stephens (South Australia) hooked wall- hangings. Her work below, traditionally hooked using 100% wool yarn (photographed by Malcolm Edward-Cole), is for an exhibition later this year or next, concerning immigrants and Australia’s double standard.
Artistic expression: Judi Tompkins (QLD) has taken the rug hooking technique of Waldobrough to another level in wall hangings of her own design that represent something unique and full of meaning for the recipient of the piece.
Judi also pushes the envelope when it comes to the shape and framing of her hooked creations, as in Costas Hummingbirds which is framed with cactus wood.
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Community Projects: Bec Andersen (QLD) has promoted several community projects using various rug hooking techniques in her fibre installations.
Below are pieces hooked by school children (11 year olds) using the Oxford Punchneedle hook. This was a special project of Bec’s which she shared with me and has given me permission to write a full report on in a future magazine article.
Expression of feelings: Our plans changed and I wasn’t able to visit Victoria (Aust) and meet up with Joy Marshall and Chris Noorbergen however they’d previously forwarded me photos of their rugs shown below.
Joy entered the work below in an exhibition which included works that depict loss, love and hope by those who have/are experiencing grief and depression.
Joy describes her Glimmers of Hope as –
My first rug using a linen backing and is approx 4 feet long and 1.5 feet wide. It uses recycled hand dyed blanketing and is my own design. It is a graphic representation of a phrase I woke up with in my head one morning a few years ago. “Glimmers of hope pierced the gloom” I then finished it with “like stars in the night sky”. After googling this phrase with no results I can only put it down to inspiration. I have long admired Van Gogh’s work and this piece is strongly reflective of Starry Sky. After the recent loss of my youngest son, this rug brought together the hope I have in God’s love that shines in the darkness of grief, Starry Night, and a hankering to try a design with cats paws.
Chris Noorbergen has used her creative rug hooking talents and the experience gained from a workshop with Heather Ritchie to hook a wall-hanging from a photograph of each of her six grandchildren, as they were completed, all have been featured on the Guild’s Facebook page. Chris has also lovingly created a hooked wall- hanging depicting members of her family and family events.
Marion Nefiodovas (South Australia) – subsequently took a Hooking a Portrait from a Photo workshop from Chris. Marion hooked a remarkable likeness of husband (George). Marion displayed the finished project at her visit to the Perth Craft and Quilt Fair when she and George were in Western Australia last May.
Chris also traveled to Western Australia at the same time and she visited Elizabeth (Lies) van Beem who lives in the South West of the state, and took this photo of the wall hanging Lies is working on. It’s Lies’s life story since arriving in Australia which she plans to enjoy on the wall of her home and hopes will become a family heirloom.
Wearables Robin Inkpen who also lives in the south west of Western Australia is creating more of her unique hooked bags. These one of a kind bags are now offered for sale in a high-end gift shop.
Community well-being: I (Jo Franco from West Aust) have been instrumental in bringing together a community group and teaching them to teach others.
Sue Gilmartin from the UK stayed with me after the 2012 TIGHR Conference and when she heard me talk of an idea for a hooked installation to depict the coming together of an inter-generational, multi-cultural group who are passing on the knowledge of a simple craft and using it to create artistic pieces, she encouraged me to enter a local sculptural exhibition we’d just come across online – it was closing day for entries, so we brainstormed a title Handing It On and I emailed my entry minutes before closing time.
After Sue returned to the UK I was pleased to be able tell her my entry had been accepted and then came the interesting part – putting it together.
For the base I utilized an old rug of unknown origin, probably made in the 1920 or 30’s from recycled clothing; connected to my new rug, made also with recycled fabrics however these were brightly coloured recycled sari-silk off-cuts and novelty yarn.
Circles made using an aboriginal basketry technique taught to me by Judith Stephens were incorporated in my rug and the same technique was used to make a group of arms and hands to represent the women from the community group. The hands were also were made of fabric representing old and new and from the same “coiling” method as the circles on which they sat. The hands held hooks from my collection of old and new rug hooking tools. The installation was the only textile exhibit and very colourful among sculptures of metal, iron and ceramic in a white gallery!
This same community group in Wanneroo worked together on an entry for a Wearable Art competition in 2014, and in 2015, a wall hanging in commemoration of the ANZACs.
Norma Hatchett (West Aust) has been teaching rug hooking with the use of a Rumplestiltskin tool, for almost 30 years, to blind and disabled members of the community. Over the last 10 years she has successfully run programs with residents suffering from dementia living in aged cared facilities.
Below Norma is shown giving a presentation at WAFTA about facilitating these projects and the benefits received by the residents as they sit together hooking. Norma designs the piece and transfers it onto the backing in 16inc x 11inc segments (the size of her frames) then each person hooks their individual piece of the wall hanging and when all are complete Norma sews them together. You can see this in the second image which I photographed from the back – this image also gives a good indication of the overall size of the piece.
In a nutshell; Norma said this program is successful because while residents are “together” no interaction is needed between the rug hookers each one has their own carer to help them with their part of the project. This provides an enjoyable social activity in a non-threatening environment. There is much more involved in setting up and facilitating the project and I have visited one of Norma’s sessions to see how it all comes together – it is amazing. One of her successes was a resident who wasn’t to be part of the group because she hadn’t spoken for 2 years – Norma encouraged her inclusion and at the conclusion of the 12 week rug hooking project this same lady had begun to talk again.
While I was traveling, Kira Mead from Albany West Australia whose quillie wall-hangings created such a stir on the Guild Facebook page, sent me an image of her latest rug. She is experimenting again! this rug was hooked with a traditional hook using chain stitch on the wide open-grid backing used for locker hooking.
The local Wanneroo group also sent me images of a new member’s work.
Margaret is new to the group and likes to work, not necessarily on miniatures, but on small pieces. Below is her first piece of “toothbrush” rugmaking finished after returning home from her first day with the group. Not quite sure how to overcome the fact that her rug was curling up, Margaret turned it into a birds nest. With some further instruction from the group the following week, she made a rug base for the nest and her bird, that I’m guessing is a Blue Fairy Wren from the south west of WA.
Eight members of the Australian Rugmakers Guild who are also members of TIGHR will be traveling to this year’s Conference. Miriam and Jacqui have already left and have visited a rug hooking friend in Israel. They were thrilled to see Pamela’s hooked rugs, which will undoubtedly feature in Miriam’s next newsletter on her return home. Their travels will take them through Europe, to the Outer Hebrides and across the USA before we meet again in Victoria.
A few weeks ago when I was in New South Wales we talked about how amazing it is that this simple, old-fashioned craft has taken us on journeys across Australia and around the world and bought us in contact with so many interesting, sharing and caring people.
I have just realized that Miriam will be giving a talk on this very subject at the Conference; the different techniques of rug making in Australia, and has taken some samples to show. Hopefully she will include an article about her experience at the Conference in her newsletter at the end of the end of the year.
Now I must away and pack my bag, as I too will soon be leaving for Canada.
Judith Stephens and I have planned a short road trip in British Columbia prior to the Conference on Vancouver Island. The scenery will be vastly different from what I recently drove through on my trip across Australia – we definitely won’t be seeing any road signs like these……..
I just had to include this image which I took on our return trip as we approached the West Australia border having driven across the Nullabor Plain. This part of the coastline shows on the map as the Great Australian Bight.
We’ve made this trip before on Eyre Highway the southern East/West road but have never pulled off to at any of the vantage points to take photos. It wasn’t far to drive from the main road and I was glad we took the time the view was spectacular!
Well this blog started with a rug hooking image on a grand scale – ending with almost a miniature,
and here I am finishing with my own personal travel pics.
I feel fortunate indeed to be able to travel and enjoy my craft through meeting other rug hookers and seeing their creations.
A family holiday in Queensland provided the perfect opportunity for me to visit rugmakers in the area.
Judi Tompkins, the Guild’s webmaster and I talk regularly each week on Skype in an effort to maintain the website and bring rughooking news and Australian Guild members together.
Judi facilitates group meetings at the Beerwah Library from 3:00-6:00pm on the 2nd Monday and 3rd Tuesday of each month.
However to fit in with my schedule, she invited members of the Sunshine Coast Rug Crafters to her studio on Sunday 2nd August for an informal workshop and “hook-in” and asked them to bring a recently finished, or favourite rug for Show & Tell. Some of the rugs have been shown before on this blog but there‘s nothing like seeing and touching the real thing.
In a recent post about the SCRC group’s demonstration at the Palmwoods Art & Crafts Show Stella could be seen working on her porpoise piece which is now completed and shown below with its companion piece.
Cetacan Dreaming designed and hooked by Stella Edmundson
Kangroos on Mars designed and hooked By Stella Edmundson
This was a day of exchanging information.
I shared Judith Stephen’s method for making bags & baskets using the toothbrush or nalbinding technique (also spelled nålbinding, naalbinding, nalebinding).
Some of the group decided to give the technique a go and make a bag, others opted to make mats – this one started by Bea.
Jo looking on as Anne & Pat, Cassie (with help from Sally) & Bea get started with their toothbrush rug hooking.
(Left) Annette & Diane studying the iPad bag made with this technique by Judith Stephens
and below, Judy and Annette getting started with their own toothbrush rug hooking projects.
Below is a bag made by Sally, a new member from Brisbane, who discovered this gathering through the Guild’s Facebook page and decided to join the Guild and attend.
Sally uses the punch-needle rug hooking technique and has worked on Amy Oxford designs which she purchased while overseas. She recently took a punch-needle hooking class with Bec Andersen at Mt. Tamborine, south of Brisbane,
On this day, Judi Tompkins showed her the traditional rughooking technique and how to prod a flower onto the little bag she’d almost completed.
(Below) Sally practicing the new techniques.
Information wasn’t just going one-way;
Sally brought her punch-needle hooked rugs to show, as well as the frame she’d made with a locally purchased substitute for metal gripper strips.
Details of this frame, the gripper substitute and images showing how Sally installed them on her frame, will be in the next Guild Newsletter ‘In the Loop’ emailed to members.
The day was full of conversation with everyone sharing rughooking ideas and asking questions, the only lull coming during morning tea and lunch as we enjoyed all the wonderful goodies everyone bought to share.
I demonstrated some other mat making techniques taught to me by Judith Stephens/ Guild President; Stick Weaving and the Chunky Rugmaker – unfortunately, examples of rugs using these techniques made by Judith and Fibre Necklaces made by Maggie Whyte, V.Pres/Secretary (ACT) using the Chunky Rugmaker were left behind on my workshop table in WA. Thank goodness for laptops and smart phones, I was able to pull up these images to share.
(Above) a hot pad made with stick weaving using recycled sheets and wool yarn. Alongside are the sticks set up to begin a new project.
(Above) A mat being created with the Chunky Rugmaker using carpet wool and soft recycled fabric for the stuffing.
(Below) A Fibre necklace created by Maggie Whyte (ACT) with the same tool using knitting yarn and tiny scraps of fabric – the snippets from other rug hooking projects. Maggie will be at the Expertise Events Craft Fair in Canberra through this weekend, undoubtedly she will have some good examples of this technique on show.
(Below) Diana watching Stella start a stick weaving project extraordinaire – the finished project shown below is destined to be a hanger for one of her rugs.
Over the chair behind Diana is a mat she completed recently at a CWA workshop. It is similar to the toothbrush rugmaking technique we were using, the difference is it only uses one strip of fabric – there is no cording or base strip.
Pat and Val opted for trying Stick Weaving instead of the Toothbrush technique.
Not only was I meeting new rughooking friends but I also had the pleasure of catching up with Annette White again. We’d met at Miriam Miller’s studio in Milton a few years ago. Before she moved to the Sunshine Coast, QLD from NSW, Annette was a member of the Narrawilly Proggers and featured in many news reports about their gatherings.
Photos just don’t do justice to the detail in rugs and I was glad Annette had brought her Three Wise Men, which I’d seen images of while posting the blog, but hadn’t fully appreciated the detail and embellishments on this rug – they are amazing.
Below are some happy snaps taken by Judi Tompkins during our fun filled day
It was so good to meet these new, but very talented rugmakers after seeing so many images of the group in action, (Judy Owen, Stella, Diana, Ann, Pat, Cassie, Val, Margaret, Bea and Annette). Judi Tompkins focus in her own rug work is the Waldoborough technique and her rug designs are original and textural.
Judi has departed from the traditional square/rectangular shaped rugs, with most of her creations being free-form in shape and incorporating elaborate frames. This knowledge has been passed on to the group and they have really picked it up and run with it – there were no ‘ordinary beginner’ rugs in sight!
I think everyone went home suffering from information overload but very happy and ready for more of these social events.
Sally, who lives and works in Brisbane said – “Should you find other Guild members from Brisbane who are looking to catch up occasionally then please count me in.”
from the Strath Matters rug group of South Australia
The group held their first meeting for 2015 in a coffee shop at the seaside village of Pt. Elliot.
Instead of taking up a lot of space with rughooking paraphernalia, they took tools and material for a naarlbinding (toothbrush rugmaking) session.
Group members have previously made rugs and baskets, so on this occasion they were branching out and making bags like the ones shown below made by Judith Stephens
Although a simple technique, it does take a lot of material but colourful sheets and doona covers can be sourced from your local Op Shop. Look for for those that have colour on both sides of the fabric and tear or cut into strips 1.5″ wide, then with your toothbrush or naarlbinding tool just blanket stitch.
You can find many videos on how to make these rugs on YouTube or contact Judith at studioblue20@gmail.com
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.
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.
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!
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 attendingfrom 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.
The post “Finished at Last!” about Judith’s large “William Morris” rug created a great deal of interest – the question asked by many was, where do you find a large frame to make such a rug?
A large frame is not necessary Judith’s rug was completed on the frame shown here – the workspace in the face of the frame is 14″ x 18″. To begin with the backing was held to the frame with small clamps – as the rug progressed it’s own weight held it down.
Finished at Last! Judith Stephens of Strathalbyn, South Australia says her rug – “Minty Morris” an adaptation of a William Morris design with the addition of one of her own border designs. The rug measure 6′ by 6′ (180cm x 180cm) and was completed using hand-dyed 100% woollen carpet yarn, hooked on linen.
The rug was “underway” when the image below was taken by Gene Shepherd at the Strathalbyn Rug Hooking Expo (Oct 2012) and displayed on his Internet Rug Camp blog.
Now finished and in place, the colour-fastness of the yarn (dyed with Queens food colouring) will be tested, as the rug is in front of glass french doors in the music room. At the opposite end of the room another rug completed with wool yarn sits beneath the piano stool – Gene’s Miss Weigle design which Judith started at Cambria, June 2011 and finished just a few weeks after her return to Australia.
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