RUG HOOKING with ELLIE BECK
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My rug hooking hobby
started in the late 1980s when I attended a rug hooking camp in Maine.
I had been an antiques dealer and decided to combine a camp with a shopping
trip. While in New England I bought some old rugs and learned the rudiments
of rug hooking.
In 1990 we bought a stone house near Mineral Point that needed a total restoration. I now had a real purpose, supplying the finished house with hooked rugs. And so an almost obsession began. At the same time I found a rug hooking group in Milwaukee and joined in with their activities. It was there I met some local Madison women who had a monthly meeting and they invited me to join them. In 1992 I attended a rug hooking camp in Vermont with some of these women and was "hooked". I attended that Green Mountain camp a total of 14 times. I also attended camps on Nantucket and Williamsburg, Santa Fe and Mineral Point, and hook-ins in Milwaukee and Wautoma, and a lot more informal gatherings. |
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I have made many of my own designs and used printed patterns of other designers, often with my modifications to fit my ideas. Choosing colors is great fun for me and hooking them into a rug very satisfying. I've given a few to other people because: (1.) I have plenty and (2.) Making them is the fun, having them is not as much fun as giving them to chosen people who I know will treat them carefully. Inspiration comes from many sources. Many years ago there was a first article in the New Yorker magazine that would have an illustration heading it. The chorus of chickens drawn by Edward Koren, just had to be a rug. The New York Times frequently has long, horizontal photos of lines of people, dogs, dancers, whatever. My rug of diversity dancers was my version of their photo. Magdalena Briner is a rug-hookers rug hooker. She hooked rugs for income in the mid 1800s. Her rugs are documented in many books as true folk art. Evelyn Lawrence of Pennsylvania has sought them out in PA and made patterns that are sold to rug hookers. I've loved her style of abandon although I can't quite achieve that. They are simply my style. I've documented our little stone farm house with a rug designed by a woman in Minnesota. However, I made a number of changes to include our house, barn, garage, trees, etc. The animals are only in the rug! |
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It's been a great journey.. |
| Ruth Knight Sybers Knitter's Treat Monticello, WI 53570 www.209main.com - Textiles - current and past exhibits at The Dining Room at 209 Main knitterstreat@wekz.net - to join e-mail list for announcements of new exhibits at The Dining Room at 209 Main knitterstreat@wekz.net
- to order patterns, books, Vivian
Hoxbro kits, yarn, etc.
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David Braunschweig who assists in "hanging" each exhibit. |
Photos by Lori Manning
Copyright ©
2015.
Past Displays: