Visiting Canadians

The Narrawilly Proggy Ruggers recently enjoyed a visit from a top Canadian Rug Maker.

Kurt_and_Karen_in_OZKaren Kaiser, of the Ontario Hooking Craft Guild, and her husband Kurt, from Belleville, Ontario, were visiting the Milton-Ulladulla area and while at Narrawilly Karen held two workshops.  On design and colour in rugs and the other, dyeing and backgrounds.

 

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(Above)  Karen, preparing dye 1 Miriam_Miller_Australia_Karen_Kaiser_Canada_Jacqui_Thomson_Australiapots and

(Right) Karen with Miriam Miller and Jacqui Thomson who organized the workshops in Miriam’s Rug Room at Narrawilly

  Both workshops were attended by enthusiastic rugmakers who were pleased to have the opportunity to learn from an international instructor.

 Local rugmakers were amazed to hear the Ontario Hooking Craft Guild has over 1,000 members and fascinated to hear about the differences in their rugmaking.

Canadians and Americans tend to use new wool fabric, whereas most Australians use recycled fabrics.   While recycled fabrics make rugmaking very inexpensive, it is sometimes a challenge to find just the right colour to create the desired effect.

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(Left)  Maggie Whyte (Canberra, ACT) and Elke Smith-Hill (NSW) are members of the Narrawilly Proggy Ruggers and also The International Guild of Handhooking Rugmakers. (TIGHR)  Images of work by both Maggie and Elke are shown on the TIGHR website along with a translation into German by Elke – “Why Join TIGHR“.

Karen, Miriam and Jacqui are also TIGHR members.

 

(Below)Setting up Karen’s rugs for display at the workshop; note Poppies by Karen on the back wall.

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If you are interested in seeing some of the Narrawilly Proggy Ruggers work, they are holding a rug exhibition as part of Milton’s Artfest during the weekend of 27th/28th September, 2014   from 10a.m. to 4p.m.

The Venue:  “The Rug Room”  35 Stony Hill Lane, Milton

 

UK fibre artist in Perth for workshops

 

Sue Gilmartin from the UK working on an artjournal from Michel Wise’s workshop

Sue Gilmartin of the United Kingdom will be in Perth conducting two workshops using the rugmaking techniques of her heritage on 17 and 18 of November.  See Events for details and contact information.

 

Great opportunity to learn how to use recycled materials.

Rug Expo International Success

For the weekend of 20 and 21 October 2012 the town of Strathalbyn was filled with rugmakers from all over Australia and the world attending and teaching at the RUG EXPO.

Workshop leaders were: Linda Rae Coughlin, USA; Susan Feller, USA; Kris McDermet, USA; Gene Shepherd, USA; Michele Wise, USA;  Heather Ritchie, UK, Diane West, UK

The general meeting of ARG was held Saturday evening welcoming the new recipients of the TIGHR Founders Cup (the International Guild of Handhooking Rugmakers) JO FRANCO and JUDITH STEPHENS.  These two ladies were presented the cup for their dedication to the International Guild and rughooking, having networked their passion for the traditional craft into ARG and hosts of TIGHR for the past three years.  The new officers for ARG were sworn in and are listed under Board Members 

The Stationmasters Gallery concurrently exhibited dozens of hooked, prodded and fiber works by members.