A U3A rugmaking group, 20 active women in Bermagui, NSW, has taken on a very ambitious project:-
they are planning to create a 7metre wall hanging to help absorb sound in the local Surf Life Saving Club.
Here are just a few of the group of novice rugmakers with their first practice pieces.
Anja, Dawn, Sheila, Hazel, Lyn and Elizabeth (kneeling)
This community arts project has begun with a local artist (86 year old Rona) painting her 7metre drawing of a Bermagui scene. When completed the group will transfer the design to 1 metre panels of backing so that they can work on it in small groups.
They think the completed panels will have to be hung individually, with a small space between, as joined together the wall hanging would be enormously heavy and unwieldy. The leader of the group is a self taught rug hooker, the rest have no experience with rug hooking, but between them they are coming up with some sensible solutions.
They’d welcome any advice on their proposed project
(Besides……………… not to attempt such a hug project in the first place!)
You can post a comment below, or email rugcraftersaustralia@yahoo.com.au and your message will be forwarded.
What do you get when you marry a lost traditional craft with one-off design?
Three pieces of unique and valuable fibre art!
In January, it was decided that it was time for the members of the Sunshine Coast Rug Crafters to “fly solo” on a collaborative community project that would challenge them to design and handcraft a series of fibre art pieces that would ultimately be donated for a community fund raising project.
Judi Tompkins (group coordinator) recognised that some members were not convinced they “really” had the skills to produce fibre art of a quality that it could be offered for public display – in spite of the fact that nearly every member had been besieged to “make me something” by a friend or family member.
Behind the scenes, Judi thought this community project would be an ideal way to let the group prove to themselves that they had the skills to carry off such a major project and planning sessions were held regularly at Judi’s studio. (Judi did not work on any of the pieces but was available to discuss traditional techniques and design.)
The group decided to design and hook three wall hangings using the theme “Under the Sea” and guidelines were developed to insure that the three pieces could “stand alone” or be displayed as a triptych of the chosen theme: “Under the Sea”.
Each piece incorporated some of the same fabric so the theme was carried through with the materials as well as the topic. The members sorted themselves loosely into three teams and over the next nine months gave birth to three healthy, unique pieces of fibre art.
A spectrum of positive outcomes resulted from this group collaboration:
The project confirmed members knew more about this craft than they realised.
Through collaboration they developed skills to give and receive praise / criticism.
Recognition they possessed good problem-solving skills – they didn’t need “the teacher” to fix things.
Members’ knowledge / skills of other crafts led to innovative solutions.
All learned to project plan every finished project – not just those for public display.
They can each confidently offer advice and help to others.
Collaboration is a great way to work – at least once in a while!
In appreciation for their support of the Sunshine Coast Rug Crafters, the triptych of wall hangings were delivered to staff of the Beerwah Library and the “Friends of the Beerwah Library” for their fund raising activities.
43 women devoted to the art of making beautiful but practical rugs and wall hangings from recycled fabric.
They came despite the wind and rain – nothing would prevent them from making this occasion memorable, and it was.
(Maggie Whyte besides the huge tractor we needed to pull a car from the boggy paddock. Many inches fell this day while we were inside the Rug Room having a great time.)
It all began in September 1994 after an advertisement was placed in the local paper. Seven women gathered in Miriam Miller’s home to be shown “how it’s done”, and left very keen to continue on with a meeting on a monthly basis. Who would have thought then, that 20 years later we still meet on the first Friday of the month and only a few years ago included the third Friday. We have never missed holding our rug day since inception. Our meetings are held on the Miller property, in Milton.
When thanking all for coming, Miriam outlined our brief history and where rug making has taken us; from small beginnings to being able to invite International Rug teachers to our shores. Members have been enriched by their visits as they impart new ideas and techniques. Australian rugs have their own individuality and from slow beginnings the enthusiasm for making rugs has spread to every State, with healthy groups in Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria, Queensland, ACT and New South Wales. We can now boast an Australian Rugmakers Guild formed on 11 October, 2008 with Board members from each State, and meetings held using Skype. We had “Show and Tell” following Miriam’s talk and saw some wonderful examples of our members’ expertise.
Miriam Miller, teacher, Emeritus of the Australian Rugmakers Guild., Past President of The International Guild of Handhooking Rugmakers, is a driving force in the promotion of rugmaking in Australia; she is the author of Australia’s first rug book “Proggy and Hooky Rugs”, and has recently brought forward a revised edition.
Her students have traveled from every corner of our country.
Since inception we have diligently kept a record of every meeting and the rugs made by our members. These books were on display for members to look back on and to reminisce – how some of us have changed.
Maxine Keys, who was unable to make the reunion, sent a hand-knitted rug for us to raise funds and the charity we chose was The Gambia School for the Blind in West Africa. This was hugely successful, and the winner was Florence Smart from North Turramurra.
It’s amazing isn’t it; from little things big things grow. Who would have thought that the small advertisement in our local paper 20 years ago led us to where we are today.
The previous post showed images from the Canberra Quilt & Craft Fair.
Displayed at the Australian Rugmakers Guild stand was a brilliantly coloured rug featuring Canadian Maple leaves.
This rug was hooked by Karen Kaiser from Canada who recently visited Milton, NSW and gave two workshops at Miriam Miller’s Rug Room at Narrawilly. As she was leaving, in appreciation for their wonderful hospitality, Karen gave Miriam and Jacqui two of her rugs.
Miriam and Jacqui travelled to Canberra to help Maggie Whyte on the first day of the Fair and they took the Maple Leaf rug to display. Maggie was thrilled as she is also a member of the Narrawilly Proggers and had attended Karen’s workshops.
So even though Karen didn’t make it to Canberra on her Australian visit – her rug did.
The Australian Rugmakers Guild was represented for the first time at Expertise Events Craft Fair in Canberra last week. Maggie Whyte was responsible for organizing friends and local rugmakers to demonstrate rughooking.
Maggie said it was a great success – they talked and demonstrated to so many, there was hardly time for a coffee.
Maggie said she heard so many times….. “my mother or grand-mother used to do this or they did it as small children”. She’s wondering what happened to the interest in rughooking in the meantime?
Hopefully these demonstrations, follow-up local workshops and national events, like the South Australian Rughooking Expo, will generate more interest in this craft.
Look for a group in your area or an Instructor on this website.
Karen 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.
(Above) Karen, preparing dye pots 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.
(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.
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
Editors note: Judith originally a New Zealander, lives in QLD, Australia, and recently exhibited a hooked rug creation in an exhibition in Kingaroy, QLD, commemorating
100 Years of ANZACs
The following photographs, with Judith’s comments, show the progress of her hooked creation.
Judith says: I used a rag mat (recycled fabric) as the medium because it was a common thing at the time and I left it “imperfect” because nothing about war is perfect.
Here the wording is almost finished. The stars represent the Australian Flag and the actual rug measures 58 x 85.5 cm.
This photo is to show you don’t need expensive equipment to make rugs
I found this British flag in the Op Shop and thought it a fitting backdrop as the young men shed their blood fighting for the British.
To make it more meaningful to the local residents, I copied the names from the Roll of Honour at the local war memorial of all the men from the area who died in the 1st World War and then wrote their names on the flag.
this portrait was hooked by Chris Noorbergen of the Yarra Valley Rugmakers, from a photograph of her grandson.
Chris has hooked portraits of several members of her family, and has the ability to capture their personality in the hooked loops. Chris will be teaching classes in this style of rug hooking (How to hook an A3 sized facial portrait from a photo) at the Strathalbyn Rughooking Expo on 11th & 12th October 2014. For more details on the Strathalbyn Expo click on the Calendar of Events.
Below Chris shares news and images of the Groups April meeting.
Our Yarra Valley rug makers group was small, as we met in one of our members homes in Warrandyte, Vic in April, but the atmosphere was definitely warm. What a wonderful time we had. As usual Anne greeted everyone with a smile and a cup of coffee.
As we don’t see each other from month to month, there was a lot of catching up to do. Leanne knitted, Joy hooked, (on her houses rug) Robyne chatted; and Anne and Chris chatted, tried out various punch needles and hooked all at the same time. Chris had a lesson in punch needle hooking from Jacqui while she was in Milton and she was keen to show off her newly purchase punch needle. Anne then brought out her stash of punch needles and we talked about the pros and cons of each model.
Anne (left) had needles for both embroidery and rug making. What a handy little tool that can be, used in such a variety of ways adding a different dimension to our hooked rugs.
We then had the fun job of dividing up our beautiful, made in the US [that’s what it said on the invoice], wool fabric which had arrived at Anne’s while she was away enjoying the retreat with the Narrawilly Proggers in Milton, NSW. Yards and yards of soft, beautiful wool dyeing to be changed into beautiful works of art.
The day went much too quickly, and after a lovely lunch we packed up our tools and left for home.
Cheers from the Yarra Valley Rug Makers, until next month, Saturday 17th May in Lilydale,
The following report and images were submitted by Jacqueline Thomson a member of the Narrawilly Proggers
Narrawilly Rugmakers Retreat; 28-31 March, 2014
Forty participants were present at this, our second Rug Retreat held at Narrawilly Farm, Milton, New South Wales
On Friday night 28th March, friends from near and far gathered in Miriam’s Rug Room where we held our “Welcome Dinner” and although it was a very wet evening, it did nothing to dampen the spirit of conviviality as we greeted one another.
All had dressed for the occasion and there was much anticipation in the air which soon filled with stimulating conversation, lots of laughter, as we gathered to enjoy good wine and food by candlelight.
Miriam Miller welcomed those present and outlined the format for the next two and a half days.
On Saturday morning the rain lifted and by 11am the sun had completely taken control of the situation. Rugmakers from South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland were represented and four rugmakers traveled from Japan: Fumiyo Hachisuka, Yuko Iwabe, Michiko Aoki and Eriko Hashimoto. It was a full day of activity as we worked on our rugs and those who desired had the opportunity to attend two mini workshops. One, “fun with fabric” with Judy Stephens was very popular
as was the mini workshop tutored by Maggie Whyte teaching how to make Flanders Poppies. The red and black felt looked particularly striking.
Making felted poppies
Jacqui Thomson demonstrated punch needle work as taught to her by Sybil Mercer. Miriam made her now famous cheese scones for morning tea and these were eaten under the autumn coloured grape vine or on the front verandah, while soaking up the view of the rolling hills and farm lands to the north.
Morning tea at Narrawilly Farm
At 5pm everyone drove to Narrawallee so that those who wished could walk along the beach, look for shells or just paddle in the surf, and I believe one brave soul actually had a swim.
Rughookers at Narrawallee Beach
We sat on a grassy bank facing the ocean and here we ate fish and chips specially provided in individual boxes by our local fish shop; drinks were available too as we sat relaxing, talking and enjoying our crumbed fish, followed with slice, chocolate brownies and juicy grapes. It was just on dark as we left to drive home to rest before starting another day. The ambiance of sitting by the beach was appreciated by all and a little of our district was seen on our drive to this destination.
Sunday was a repeat of Saturday with lots of rug work being achieved.
Three Wise Men by Annette White
Hooked Wall Hanging and Vest by Carol Treloar
There were again mini workshops as per the day before. The highlight of this day was undoubtedly the Fashion Parade organised by Pat LaRance and Miriam. Our much sort after models were Elke Smith-Hill, Anne Schafer, Christine Pearce, Jenny Harber and Carol Treloar. They really entered into the spirit as they modeled the trendy outfits. All clothes were for sale at the end of the parade for 50 cents per item. Funds raised will be donated to aid Heather Ritchie’s Gambia Project. This was established by Heather some years ago now and assists the blind and partially blind to make rugs which Heather takes back to the UK where they are sold and the money returned to the Project. No begging is allowed in The Gambia and work is hard to find as you can imagine.
Models Christine Pearce, Anne Schafer, Elke Smith-Hill, Jenny Harber, Carol Treloar
Our Japanese friends learnt to spin and knit, and to our delight ate scones, jam and cream with chopsticks. Although their command of the English language was limited, no one had trouble communicating with them and many new friendships were formed. They joined in all activities and demonstrations.
Fumiyo – scones with chopsticks
Fumiyo teaching Janet how to use chopsticks
In the evening we had a barbeque superbly cook by Robert Miller. A little light rain made its appearance, but did nothing to worry us as there was plenty of room in the house.
The following morning we had a brunch on the front verandah where we had freshly squeezed orange juice, muesli, yogurt, tea, coffee and for those who wished, individually cooked scrambled eggs. Farewells were said with a degree of sadness and we all felt stronger bonds for having spent this special time together.
Work in progress by June WeatherstoneJacqui Thomson
Editors Note:
If you missed the Narrawilly Rughooking Retreat and the workshops given by Judith Stephens (SA) and Maggie Whyte (ACT), think about traveling to Strathalbyn, South Australia this October where they will both be giving classes. Judith will show how to make fabric baskets using the “toothbrush hooking or naalbinding technique and Maggie will be creating wonderful fibre sculptures with a “chunky rugmaker”.
Miriam will join them at the Rughooking Expo giving classes in the proggy rugmaking technique, and the very creative Judi Tompkins from QLD will be at the Expo passing on her knowledge and experience of 3D hooking.
Chris Noorbergen from VIC will give classes on how to hook a portrait from a photograph and from Western Australia, Kath Smith & Barbara Phillips will pass on knowledge gained from Kris McDermet’s class in 2012 – how to add a braided finish to a hooked creation, while Jo Franco will teach beginners how to pull loops in a traditional rughooking class.
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This community arts project has begun with a local artist (86 year old Rona) painting her 7metre drawing of a Bermagui scene. When completed the group will transfer the design to 1 metre panels of backing so that they can work on it in small groups.
pots and
ar is perfect.
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