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WILL RUG HOOKING SURVIVE?

The other day  I read an email sent to reps on the Education Committee of the Albuquerque Fiber Arts Council regarding the potential of online education and the purposes of today’s guilds. This is something my own guild regularly discusses.

I ask because the answers might drive our educational goals in different directions.  And perhaps show us a source of inspiration to promote the continuation of the arts we all love. 
-Kathy Jackson

Earlier in the week and given current events, Beth Miller of Parris House Wool Works started a discussion on her business Facebook page. I urge you to go to her page and read the comments.

Why do we see so few BIPOC and LGBTQ people in rug hooking? Other textile arts are starting to increase in diversity, but I don’t think we are seeing that in rug hooking. Why is that?
For that matter, why are we seeing so few people under 40, or even under 50, hooking rugs? Or men?
What would it take to attract more people to rug hooking?
This is not rhetorical or academic. This is existential.
If rug hooking does not become inclusive, starting with young people, people of color, LGBTQ people, no one will be talking about rug hooking at all in a short fifty years.
-Beth Miller

I just turned 56 and am the youngest person, I believe, in my guild. This is not an anomaly among ATHA guilds. We’re aging. All you had to do was look around at last year’s Biennial in Denver to see that.

On the subject of ATHA guilds, I was amazed to read in Beth’s comments that some guilds aren’t even accepting members any more. WTF?

I also have it on pretty good authority that the circulation of Rug Hooking Magazine has been declining for the last number of years.

So what are we to do if we want to ensure that this tradition sticks around for another 200 years?

Personally, I’m really impressed by the buzz that is punch needle rug hooking these last few years.Those mostly young mostly ladies are all over Instagram, the current social media of choice, especially for artists. They’ve got online and in-shop classes going. They’ve got rock star celebrities like Arounna Khounnoraj of BOOKHOU and Rose Pearlman. No, I don’t necessarily care for all of their designs; in fact, I find many of them simplistic, but perhaps that’s what it takes to get the “youngsters” to sign up and learn the skill. All art and artists evolve with time, and they’re just starting.

Traditional rug hookers are on Instagram too, but, frankly, it’s not the same. We sometimes lack…the panache. Our projects can seem almost…fuddy duddy, I’m sorry to say. Not that there’s anything wrong with primitive rugs or traditional patterns, but, let’s be honest, is a finely shaded rose – and especially all the “rules” that go with that finely shaded rose – going to draw the attention of a typical 28 or 38-year old who’s got a full time job and maybe a baby taking up her time? What we have to do is show EVERYTHING that rug hooking can be, that is has the potential to be a rose and a 3-D sculpture à la Liz Alpert Fay or Rachelle LeBlanc.

In reading the responses to Beth’s questions and thoughts above, a few things stand out.

DIVERSITY
I don’t have to tell you that this is a HUGE topic today. And I mean this very day in June, 2020, not something theoretical. And society is hopefully starting to examine how a lack of diversity and acceptance pervades almost everything making up our society. I don’t feel qualified at the moment to pontificate on how we can draw other groups into our very white, older woman rug hooking demographic. And BTW, I am not apologizing for being a white, middle-aged rug hooker. But any group can grow staid after a hundred years or so. Change is good. Fresh ideas and perspectives are to be welcomed. Again, it’s about evolution.

TIME
A number of folks mentioned how the “young” are busy with: school; jobs and career-building; families and all they entail; and so on. Yes, this is undeniable. I started hooking when my kid was around seven years old. I was working part time as an environmental manager in a manufacturing plant. I was busy too. But I also knew that I wanted to create. Something. Rug hooking was something I could do in the evening when I watched television after the kid was in bed. And I wasn’t on a schedule. If a rug took a year, it took a year. Canadian hooker Karen Miller spoke about this just yesterday on Instagram and Facebook. She’s got a couple of kids, a fiber art business, and writes books! If something appeals enough to an individual, they will make the time for it. Ask Amy Oxford; she sells a lot of punch needles to people like me who are teaching beginners. Again, how do we make rug hooking appealing enough to gain more of our own beginners?

EXPENSE
This is a big one. And it certainly appears that rug hooking is an expensive sport what with the hand-dyed wool, the linen, the cutters, the patterns, the workshops and teachers. I’m sure I missed something. Here’s the thing, though, that’s just bullshit. The Canadian and New England ladies back in the 1800s didn’t have all those things, did they?

I learned how to hook in a community education class maybe 15 years ago. I did have to pay for that and a kit. The experience cost maybe $100. But I knew virtually nothing about hooking. Nor did I know anyone to teach me.

When my class ended, the teacher didn’t offer any additional lessons or mention a guild or anything. She did suggest a quilter’s hoop for finishing the project. Beyond that I was on my own. Thank goodness for the Internet, used books from Amazon, and Rug Hooking Magazine. With those resources I learned that:

  • I could get monk’s cloth for a lot cheaper than linen. (And no one talk to me about hating monk’s cloth and how it “stretches.” I learned on it and have always loved it. Pull in the opposite direction and it’s good as new.)
  • About rug yarn and punching, which I learned on my own. (Caveat: a few years later I took a class with Amy.);
  • How to draw a pattern;
  • How to finish a rug; and
  • Any number of tips which all you ladies have generously shared over the years especially as rug hooking groups proliferated on Facebook.

For years I used the student hook that came with my initial kit. My husband repaired that quilter’s hoop a few times when I over-tightened it. Once it was apparent I was in rug hooking for the long haul, he bought me a Puritan frame for Christmas. I still use it. I didn’t get a cutter until a couple of years ago; it was a guild hand-me-down that I purchased for less than $100.

Having no real rug hooking shop anywhere near me, I initially used wool yarn I found in a local shop. It was pretty thin. Sorry, I’m not good at yarn nomenclature. It took a really long time to hook up the two mats I made with that stuff. Later I bought old wool suit jackets from the thrift store. When I realized that it often wasn’t good wool, I came up with the idea of hooking with recycled t-shirts. They were plentiful, cheap, and came in lots of colors. Silk bouses and scarves and then bedsheets followed. If you can make a strip out of it, you can hook it. And don’t forget the yarn. To this day, so called “alternative fibers” make up the bulk of my work. And I get them at Savers or as gifts from folks looking to unload stuff.

I will admit that when I finally found a guild that sprouted up near me, I had a hard time. Or shall I say they had a hard time with me and my t-shirt rugs. I didn’t feel particularly welcome, though I’m sure some of the problem was my own sense of not fitting in and even inadequacy. I don’t know what it is about Albuquerque, but when I moved and  joined the Adobe Wool Arts Guild, I knew I was home. (See last week’s post.) They might not have wanted to hook with bed sheets, but they thought my rugs were pretty cool. I felt welcome.

During non-Covid years I teach a class to beginners called “Hook a Rug, Save the Environment.” It’s pretty much always filled with ladies who have never hooked and, therefore, have no pre-concieved ideas about beautiful wool or rug hooking rules. BTW, I am not a certified McGown teacher. I have nothing against them; hey, we have four or five in our guild! There’s room for all of us. My career in environmental management was all about rules and regulations. Rug hooking is where I can let it all out, do whatever I want. It’s art and it’s personal. There are no wrong answers. I am the boss of my rug, as we say in our guild.

The punch hookers have grabbed onto that idea and run with it. They use whatever yarn they want. No one cares if it’s acrylic or wool. They keep their pieces small to fit within a hoop or whatever they use to hold the piece; no cumbersome moving of the rug on a frame. Many of them see the back of the rug as the front! (The loops are on the back.) Or, better, they switch it all up and have flat and loops on the front! Sure, I think that loops on the back is a waste of yarn, but who cares? They are the bosses of their rugs. They’re having a great time, and their rugs are new and different.

So, how do we as the “old guard” re-excite our sisterhood (and our brothers) enough so that we can share this marvelous art with the “youngsters”? It’s gonna take technology, I fear. Damn, I’m still not all that excited by Zoom. When “they” let us, we need to get out into our communities and do a lot of demonstrations. And leave the expensive equipment at home. I’m not saying we should all start using bent nails instead of hooks, but maybe have some hoops and burlap or monk’s cloth on hand to let a kid try pulling some Lion brand bulky acrylic yarn. Most get it pretty quickly.

I’ll close my rant with something that the editor of Rug Hooking Magazine wrote in the March/April/May,1993 issue:

I hope the new people we introduce to rug hooking will find in it a totally fascinating art. Let us be welcome to newcomers. Let us teach beginners patiently. …Let us encourage and inspire.

We need new people in rug hooking. …I hope we find many of them. Please welcome them with all your talented, warm and wonderful hearts…
-Mary Ellen Cooper

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I got a cutter just like the big girls!

 

My new Fraser wool cutter.
I love how I can clamp the Fraser cutter – Brad – to almost any table I’m working near. So much better than the way those little rubber cups under the Bliss dehydrate out here in the Southwest and then slip all over my granite counter tops. Just like my pencil sharpener.

It finally happened. After hooking for maybe 14 years, I finally got me a cutter! No more cutting wool by hand with the old scissors unless I wish to (for some dumb reason). Check him out; my husband named him Brad after the insurance commercial. You know, the one where the girl goes on about her long relationship with her car Brad. Until she totaled him. We will NOT be totaling Brad in this house!

He’s an old Harry M. Fraser 500-1 that had been donated to the guild. And he works much better than the old and very sad Bliss I’d tried. Brad was accompanied by a #4 cutter head. What am I going to do with a #4 cutter head – me who spends most of my time cutting up old sheets and t-shirts to hook with? That’s like hooking with crazy thin sock yarn or something. But, but…

 

 

 

 

Wool for rug cut with Fraser cutter.
My penguin addition to Mary S’s tesselation rug. You can barely see those #4 strips, they’re so narrow! I love how his feet came out. Okay, like his white front, they’re hooked from yarn too. The little button eye could be an issue if the rug’s going down on the floor. That’ll be Mary’s problem. 🙂

 

Remember how the Adobe Wool Arts Guild (AWAG) is doing our friendship rug project? Well, after finishing the Mystery Rug last week (currently at the framer’s), I could finally work on the friendship rug that’s been sitting in my house for over a month. Mary S drew a tessellation – very cool. Mary S, along with many of the gals in AWAG, often hooks with #4s. Laura does not. But, when all you pretty much have is a #4 cutter head… So, I threw on the big girl panties and cut #4 strips. And then, to the blue light of the television’s Olympic coverage – mostly figure skating, I hooked my part of Mary’s rug. On the linen it came on, not monks’ cloth. Okay, I used a little cream rug yarn for texture, but I THINK IT CAME OUT SO COOL! I am not so bad at this hooking thing after all.

Sewing hooked rug
Sewing the binding onto the “Big Boucherite.” Took three sewing sessions. Thank God for all the freaking figure skating.

So, now I’m hooking with the big girls – wispy, little strips of wool. Is this my new medium? Hell, no! Sure, I’ll definitely use the cutter. In fact, I ordered a #6 head because I’m in the midst of a rug that I started using Mary R’s Townsend cutter. Then I found a #8 that was with the junky Bliss cutter. So, I’ll have a nice little stable of three heads to use WHEN I’M NOT CUTTING BY HAND/HOOKING/UP-CYCLING T-SHIRTS, BEDSHEETS, AND OTHER UNLOVED TEXTILES. (The plastic bag mystery rug was a good experiment, but not one going into the permanent repertoire.) In fact, just last night I finished sewing the rug binding onto my new project. (Remember, I’m one of those who was taught to do that first, makes it easier to finish later, and NO WHIPPING!) It’s BIG, the biggest I’ve tackled thus far, but I can’t wait. It’ll be the “Big Boucherouite,” done up mainly in bedsheets because of how much I loved that in the “First Boucherouite.”

Hooked rug and dog.
While it’s not on the frame yet, here’s the “BIG Boucherouite” with Tynan posing to show the size. It’s about 55″x49″. It’ll take a bit of time and not be particularly portable. Cue the “Baby Boucherouite”!

Nonetheless, like I said, I’ll definitely use the cutter. It’s kind of funny, though. Last week, there was a post on one of the hooking Facebook sites. Someone made mention of how disappointed she was in her old Fraser, that she could only cut two strips at a time. Very slow going, and what cutter did others use and recommend? Life’s relative, I guess. Here I was – same evening – pleased as punch that I was getting three (!) nice and even #4 strips cut at once. So much easier and quicker than using my scissors. But, like I said, it’s all relative. I’m sure that if I was hooking exclusively in wool, I’d be salivating over a Bolivar or the absurdly efficient Sizzix.

 

What about you? How do you cut your wool?

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