ISSN 2007-001X 26th August 2018
Rug Hooking Week 2018 at Sauder Village has come and gone.
After 2 long non-stop flights; Perth/Doha, Qatar, connecting to Miami, the easily recognizable suitcase and I arrived safely in 
the USA and spent the weekend with relatives in sunny and warm Florida.
Early morning, Monday 13th August, brought another non-stop flight, short this 
time, to Detroit where Susan Feller met me.
We collected those recognizable bags and after a 2hr drive through green corn and soy bean fields and neat-as-a-pin farm houses, we arrived at Sauder Village in Archbold, Ohio.
Welcome to Sauder Village – the sign was hard to miss and 
there was an Aussie Flag flying alongside the Stars & 
Stripes and Canadian Maple leaf.
At Sauder Village they think of all the little things – the Village is extremely well run, and the staff are helpful and friendly – a great destination if you ever find yourself in that part of the USA.
The hanging of the Exhibits was well underway when we arrived Monday afternoon and work went on late into the evening and through the next day – all complete by 5.0pm Tuesday – Kathy Wright is an amazing organizer.
Tuesday morning as we walked to the first of many meet & greet opportunities at Sauder Village, Susan and I met up with Meryl Cook. Shadows on the pavement in Ohio from Canada, Australia and West Virginia.
It was a busy day setting up for “Re-imagined”; unpacking and installing the Textile Tessera exhibit, demonstration materials for the information table, my laptop to be connected to the large screen TV and WiFi connection to be made.
That evening a reception was held, and Workshop Instructors, Authors and Special Exhibitors were introduced, your Editor took the prize for the one who’d travelled the furthest to attend. The reception was followed by a Private Preview in the Founders Hall, for Vendors, Retreat Students & Instructors and Exhibitors. Featured Exhibits included special Celebrations 28 & Celebration Hall of Fame rugs and the first public viewing of the virtual “Re-imagined” Gallery.
Click this link to enter the virtual “Re-imagined” Gallery
https://artspaces.kunstmatrix.com/en/exhibition/121832/re-imagined
The Rug Hooking Week Exhibition was amazing, hundreds of rugs so well curated. The rugs and Featured Exhibits were displayed by category on panels and easels in the centre of the Founders Hall Gallery. This image of the Gallery and many other images of rugs in this Blog taken by Janine Broscious, USA – thank you Janine for sharing.
What an amazing display – I’m afraid I’ll keep using that word as it truly was a spectacular event. Vendors booths lined the walls of the Gallery and spacious entry foyer. Tools; frames and hooks, fabrics; hand dyed wools, bolts of Dorr wool fabric, hand spun wool yarn, sari silk and novelty fabrics. Patterns, kits, and rug hooked bags, jewellery and home decor items …….. for a rug hooker it was like being a kid in a candy store. On Wednesday morning people were lined up across the parking lot waiting for the doors to open and then the serious shopping started.
Debra Smith, Editor – Rug Hooking Magazine was at the RHM booth to talk about Celebrations 28 and other RHM publications and Authors were on hand, ready to discuss and autograph their new editions also available for sale.
Meryl Cook author of “One Loop at a Time”, Meryl’s first book describes a devastating diagnosis, her journey to recovery, in the process discovering a new lease on life through art and rug hooking – was there with both of her books.
Meryl’s second book, “One Loop at a Time, The Creativity Workbook (November 2017)“, shares tools for beginning the process of reinvention through journaling and sketching. Learn more about Meryl, an author, speaker, contemporary rug hooking artist, teacher, and former homeopath here http://www.merylcook.ca/
Retreats & Workshops took place in spacious well-lit rooms of the beautifully appointed Heritage Inn adjacent to the Founders Hall Gallery. Many of the workshops incorporating Gallery Tours. Below, a Monochromatic Class with Donna Hrkman – another of the many photographs taken and shared by Janine Broscious.
Celebrations 2018 and Celebration Hall of Fame Honorees Deb Smith Editor of Rug Hooking Magazine presented the awards. Here are just some of Rug Hooking Magazines images.
Check out the profiles of Hall of Famers here: https://www.rughookingmagazine.com/Celebration-Hall-of-Fame-Profiles
Gallery Talks – Susan Feller lead groups through the Celebrations 28 collection discussing the three components for a good piece: composition, materials and technique. Several makers of the works were in the audience of the talk I attended, and they shared their inspiration and talked about tools used.
A special braiding exhibition was curated by Kris McDermet and Christine Manges, seen here discussing the contemporary work and the history of braided picture rugs on loan from the museum.
Below, Delsie Hoyt describing her pictorial landscape BRAIDED rug, with the museum braided pictures of Jessie Kinsley in background alongside contemporary rugs.
Rug Money by Mary Anne Wise – With Susan Feller’s permission; comments on this book from her Facebook page ; “The gallery talks were powerful, informative and educational. Mary Anne Wise presented the story she is involved in empowering Mayan women in Guatemala through rughooking. The book, just released, titled RUG MONEY (play on the more common terminology drug money), tells how pulling loops has lead to self-esteem, value in family and community, and economic growth. published by Thrums Books and available at independent booksellers or online.”
Above a Special Exhibit of Mayan Rugs. A Gallery Talk “The Power of Mayan Women” was followed by a “Trunk Show” at the Heritage Inn where Mayan rugs and smaller hooked items were available for sale.
Google Earth Exhibit – At breakfast I was introduced to Linda Pietz by Susan Feller who had taken Linda’s Google map rug designs workshop. Following the workshop Linda put out a call to her students to submit their finished rugs to an Exhibition planned to be shown at Rug Hooking Week.
It was interesting to hear Linda talk of how she used Google maps to design her rugs. With some Challenge participants present at the talk there was an active question/answer session. Susan’s framed Google Earth fiber art piece “Mountaintop-Removal-Jewelry” shown on the right of the panel, was inspired by a site near Pax, WV viewed from space.
Political rugs curated by Liz Marino – Below, one of three panels of Political Rugs and clothing
Inspiring messages by all. Top, Deirdre Pinnock, below left Caryn Eeg Linn, flag below Karen Ostrom, right Kris McDermet, bottom left Laura Ponkos and on bottom right Dana Lee Psoinas` and standing – Susan Feller’s shirt and jeans.
From the Editor: There’s so much more to say about the many events which took place last week and were shared on Facebook. Please join me for the final instalment. Wish you all could have been there.
Happy Hooking 
