Rug Hooking Articles

The Hockey Rugs had to Come from Somewhere....
Hockey was not a big sport where I grew up in Newfoundland. Though I must say we did have road hockey down to a science, especially when it was time to yell “CAR”. Everybody grabbed their sticks and ran to the side of the road impatiently waiting for the car to drive by. Occasionally I would see a crowd of boys going down the hill, skates slung over their shoulders like the carcass of a small, long dead animal. They would be headed towards O”Keefe’s Pond. As a small girl on a drive with my father we would occasionally pick up one of these boys on their way home after a game so that my father could give them a talk about not hitchhiking. Hockey was a minor part of my childhood.

When I moved to Amherst I learned the meaning of a hockey town. The local junior A team , The Amherst Ramblers, were the talk of the town. If it wasn’t what they were doing on the ice that people talked about it was what they were doing at the bars on a Saturday night. I went to games because it was what you did but I never really followed what was happening, it was just part of my initiation into a hockey town. Going to the games meant I could say “some game last night” to new acquaintances. It was an opportunity to belong to my new community.

. It was a conversion by association. For years my husband has played twice a week . When I began to complain that playing Tuesday night until 1:00am was a bit too late he quickly informed me that he had playing the game of hockey at that time, on that night far longer that he had been playing me. I was quieted , Tuesday night hockey, I realized was very important and I could not meddle with it. Over the years I came to accept hockey as part of our life. Sunday mornings and Tuesday nights were taken, along with a week or two in the winter that were reserved for tournaments.
This was the year I learned to appreciate hockey This winter something different happened. My seven year old boy became a hockey kid. All of a sudden he developed an interest in hocked that was so powerful it superceded everything else he had liked to do. It became the focus of his other interests. His Lego men were hockey players, He only wanted to read hockey books, he only drew hockey players and each night before he went to bed he would lay out his hockey equipment on the floor of his bedroom so that it looked like a sculpture of a man playing hockey. His enthusiasm led his father once again to try and build the backyard rink. He had tried in the past and had done okay but this year he had a cause a reason, his son was going to play in the NHL so the rink was necessary.
The first rule as far as I can figure about building a rink is to thaw the hose in the living room. Every year I come home from somewhere and find the great green snake has returned to claim my living space. The hose it seems is never ready and has to be warmed in the house before the flooding begins.
When the hose starts to make puddles on the floor and the outside tap has been thawed with the blow dryer, it is time to flood the ice. Night after night, for about a week my husband stood outside pouring water over layers of ice on an 18 by 60 foot rectangle of ice. There were lots of rules it had to be thick. It had to be smooth. Some nights you had to sit outside with it and drink a cold beer just to keep it company. The rink was a needy thing, I thought until I began to see it for what it was, a symbol of love. Love of the game, but most of all love of the child.. One night I pulled in the yard at about 11 PM, the children had been in their beds for hours, and during that time their father had been outside coaxing the ice, gently molding it to conform to his idea of a good backyard rink.
With in a few days the rink was ready for skating. It was a topic of conversation people began talking about the rink, like they talk about the weather.”I saw Robert out at the rink last night”, or “Boy Mikhail sure loves to get on that ice” they said when I met the neighbors at the local grocery store. Every night Robert would go out and coax the rink a little more, nurturing it , making it a little bigger . The skating began with in a few days . My boy would drag out his gear ,layering it over his after school clothes and head out on the ice and skate. My daughter who is three would skate with a chair. They would skate up and down and around in circles. They skated in the sunshine, and under somber clouds. The most beautiful thing I remember about the rink was my seven year old son in skating in the moonlight. A boy, in a Toronto Maple Leafs hockey jersey, all by himself under a well lit moon, shooting the puck into an empty net over and over again would make any one fall in love with the game of hockey. Especially when it is your little boy, your only son. As I watched him through the window with our old grey shingled barn as the backdrop I began to believe that he might play in the NHL.
For most of the winter the rink was a big part of our daily life. They skated on it , groomed it and played hockey on it. The biggest event in the life of the rink was the birthday party. Cars lined up on the side of the road as parents dropped off the players. Mikhail’s birthday party was a game of hockey with his friends on his own ice. They played steady for two hours, occasionally some one would come off crying with a minor injury, but aside from that it was all fun. The splashes of green, gold, royal blue and red of their jerseys and snow suits against a background of pristine white snow and ice on a sunny Sunday afternoon was an art work in the making. The little guys with their runny noses and wobbly legs were nothing short of beautiful.
The rink lent itself to many beautiful moments. There were many pictures that have been frozen in time. There was lots of hot chocolate and popcorn eaten after a skate. Tears were shed after lost games. The rink became part of the daily routine until inevitably it would happen,
a thaw, the enemy of the backyard rink. The men of the house, just like in the old days , would begin watching the weather. They would consider their options should they flood it or would it just make it worse. They would question was this just a brief mild spell or was it the end of winter. Each time they would manage to save it until in late March spring really came and the rink shrunk until it was little more than a hockey stick frozen in a puddle.
The backyard rink is a symbol of the Canadian winter for most of us. It is the real reason why we as Canadians love the game of hockey. In the backyard we can watch our children be the star, score the goal, and win the game, time after time, winter after winter.

Telling Stories with Your Rugs
The Gathering of Stories
Over the last winter I have had a lot of changes in my life. My father who had struggled for years with a debilitating illness died in February. He was seventy nine years old and had been languishing in a nursing home for five years. As lonely as it was to see him leave this world, I felt a great sense of relief for him when he had drawn his last breath. When I came home from the nursing home after he died to spend some time alone I thought a lot about my father and I struggled to understand what I was grieving. My fathers spirit had been gone for many years, in his illness he had become less than a shadow of his former self. He had not recognized me or spoken to me for over two years. This was quite something for a man who had been a robust storyteller, sitting at the kitchen table with friends and a drink.
Two months later, I lost my mother suddenly and unexpectedly. She had a heart attack getting out of the bath on a Friday night. By the time I got to the hospital she was gone. She was a fine woman, a hard worker. I have her hands, with big strong fingers, well suited to hooking rugs.

When I was little, Some of the most exciting times at our house where when friends and relatives arrived from the states for summer vacations. This was story time in our house. As people came and went the stories grew longer and the characters got larger than life.

I grew up on the island of Newfoundland, next to an American Naval Base at Argentia, Our community always had strong ties with the United States. Not only because of the Americans who lived nearby, but because local girls often married Navy men and moved away to the states. They would send home parcels filled with used clothing, and sometimes a treat like Rice a Roni, or some other special treat that could not be bought in our local stores.
Newfoundlanders also had a strong tradition of working on the high steel in New York City. Local boys who had grown up balancing themselves in a small dory boat on the rough Atlantic ocean found they were well suited to walking across two foot steel girders twenty stories above Manhattan. If you lost your balance in either case the effect would have been the same, and chances of survival were grim. Every summer these Newfoundlanders came home from the states to visit. Aunts, uncles, and neighbors old and new, gathered around our kitchen table where they ate, drank, and told stories about the year in between. Some times the best stories were about the years before they left. I remember my father during these times. He was so well liked. People enjoyed seeing him because he made them feel they were home again. In the time since my parents death I have learned that many of the stories I tell in my mats are stories I have learned through them. I never hauled a net from the rough Atlantic waters , or salted a fish for market but I watched those things being done and I listened well.
The first part of telling a story in a mat is finding the story you want to tell. We gather stories
just the same way my parents did, by sharing what you had. Those people who visited us every summer are a story in themselves. They knew that in my parents house there was a warm seat, a cold beer, homemade bread, and a bottle of jam. They knew they would hear a tale or two, and that they would be heard out and listened to. As much as people like to hear our stories, we have to know that they are often dying to tell their own. Sharing our lives with others is the easiest, and most natural way to gather stories. Being open to the moment, offering a hand, and asking the right questions can lead to the most amazing discoveries.
The other thing to remember is a story is just that a story. A writer friend of mine always says that the story is more important than the truth, and I have to agree. It is the integrity of the story, not necessarily the factual truth that counts. Stories can be factual, they can be fiction, fantasy or myth. The story is up to you, and you must decide what you want to tell.
Recording Your Own Personal Stories
Keeping a journal is a easy way of recording some of your stories. A journal allows you to explore the stories you might like to tell. In it you can recount daily activities, past events both big and small. It is a great source of ideas for the stories you would like to tell.
Family pictures, especially old ones, can lead to all sorts of ideas about telling a story in a mat. There is nothing like looking a the look on your fathers face as he gazes down at your twenty five year old mother to get the mind going. All kinds of questions come to mind. Often the answers can never be really known. You can see them in a different context, understand them better, and love them more because of it. When I look at an old photograph, I always wonder about the circumstances on the edge of the picture, that part which I cannot see. Who took the picture? Where were they going? What lies behind the picture? Asking yourself these questions are great for the story teller’s imagination, especially if you are not worried about the truth because most of these questions cannot be answered factually. The picture, just like a good pictorial mat gets the mind going ad the viewer is only given a hint of the real story.

So then once you have decided that you want to tell a story with your rug, and you have decided on the story, How do you do it in a rug? The old adage, “A picture paints a thousand words” is true enough but just how does it do that? How is it that a picture can make us experience an emotion, or think something. How does it lead us to believe or question something about ourselves? A picture, a painting, a drawing, or a hooking is a way of communicating. The artist is communicating something to everyone who looks at it. Sylvia Plath, the famous American poet, and author of The Bell Jar, once said that once she writes a poem she leaves it to the reader to interpret. Good art is sometimes like that. The artist/rug hooker sets out to say one thing but another is interpreted. That is because each of us views the rug from our own experience. We bring our personal history along with us every time we view art. Thus when we set out to tell a story in a rug we cannot control other peoples response to it. I know that in some cases when I told a story in a rug I found a studio visitors interpretation of it more interesting than my own. We should be willing to listen to others interpretations of our rugs as they can sometimes give us a glimpse of our inner selves. That is of course if you believe in the subconscious. I feel now that I am not always in touch with all my emotions, or ideas and that sometimes things come out in rugs that I am not fully aware of in myself. This is a delightful, but not that common way of having a story emerge in a rug.

Story telling can be much more deliberate than this though. We can set out to make our rugs a narrative pictorial. That is many of the pictorial elements in the rug are purposeful, and part of the story. The rug hooker sets out to tell a story and tell a story she does. I tell a lot of different kind of stories in my rugs. Sometimes they are strict narratives of a factual event. Other times they are facts embellished with a bit a fiction. This of course is the root of all good story telling.

The very first thing you must do is sit down and figure out your stories. What is it you have to tell? Look at your own life, your experiences, and your surroundings. Sometimes when I am working with a group people I get them to create a lifeline. Take a large piece of paper and draw a line on it. At the beginning of the line, put a zero. At the end of the line put your present age. Don’t worry you I don’t make people pass the paper around. I then ask people to start drawing pictures, or writing down notes about the things that happened in between. I get them to record the events out of their life that were important to them, the things that stand out. If you would like to sort out some of your own stories you can do this on your own. Do not be afraid to draw little pictures, or you colorful markers and play with the lifeline idea.

Last weekend I had a group of rug hookers from a nearby city come for a two day workshop and we did the lifeline activity together. It was a way to get people talking about the stories they would like to create on a mat. It is also a great idea for your rug hooking group or class to do together. Not only does it help to sort out your ideas but it is a wonderful tool for getting to know each other.
Turning the Story into a Rug
Once you have decided on the story, you need to figure out the important elements of the story. Is it a person, a place, a thing? What it the most important part of this story? Once you decide the most important part of the story, you have the major the main theme for your rug. It is a simple as that. A rug on its own may not tell exactly the story you set out to tell but you can certainly get the mind thinking in a certain direction. So the first question you need to answer before starting to design your rug is , what is the most important element of your story. Last year I was drawing out a large design, about 6 feet by 6 feet on the floor of my studio. It stared out to be a beautiful pictorial of a seaside village. As I began to draw the news came on the radio that the Supreme Court of Canada had granted fishing rights to a native man who had been charged with illegal fishing. The story shook me. I knew that something important was happening and I decided to tell that story in my mat. The fishery in Atlantic Canada had once been the mainstay of our economy but in recent years with declining fish stock catches were low and some areas had been put under a moratorium, meaning that fisherman were no longer allowed to fish. I knew that this decision would cause a lot of friction. I had the personal belief that natives should be allowed to fish but I was worried as to how this would play in itself out in the real world. This is how I worked out my concerns and turned my story into the rug “Too Many Boats In The Water”. I created a typical coastal village, facing all the houses towards the water. In the very foreground , and in the background I put in many, many boats, symbolizing the stress on the fishery. I also put two groups of people , one in red shirts to symbolize the natives , and one in white shirts to symbolize the white fisherman, having a tug of war. At the very top of the rug. I wrote the line from an old fishing song, “There is a place where the fisherman gather”. When you first look at this rug you might see just a village but if you take few minutes you can see the layers of meaning.

Sometimes a rug can be used to explain a belief or an idea.. Over the years I have known many people who struggled with depression. I have seen healthy happy people succumb to depths that I did not know they could reach. More than a time or two it has broken my heart, and sent a shiver through my soul. I felt a need to express this. To explore the idea of depression in a tactile way. I had spent years as a counselor dealing with it in headier way, and I wanted to create a rug about it. Sometimes I believe we spend too much time searching for answers and not enough time enjoying our daily life, smelling the roses. Thus I created the rug, “The Meaning of the Journey”. In this rug I created another idyllic coastal village. In the foreground I had people dancing wildly as if at a garden part, and at the top of the rug I wrote The meaning of the journey is between you and me. What I meant by these things is to have fun, enjoy the present and to take notice of who is on the journey of life with you. I believe that it is in them that we find a lot of meaning.
In both of these rugs I told a story, using several techniques. I used words to write a little message in the rug. When I did this I hooked the words in double rows of hooking so that they would be readable and I was certain to hook the words in a colour that stood out from the background. Writing words in your rug is a clear and direct way of helping the viewer understand your story.
Borders can be very important in a story rug. They are great places to write a message, set down a date or place, or to use a motif, or symbol that is important to the story. Though Atlantic Canada has undergone an economic crisis with the loss of the fishery, we are a resilient people who know how to make do. This is the story I wanted to tell in “Seven for Secret never Told”, because we never hear much about what happens to the people who loose their jobs after a year or so the media forgets about them but truthfully, they are still out there making a living one way or another. What happens to them and how they survive is often the neglected story. I n this rug I used the border to add seven blackbirds to the mat, as seven blackbirds according to folklore stands for a secret never told. In the body of the mat I put five people, all different types of workers standing under the night sky. The woman is holding a cod fish in her hand, so we know that fish are important in this story. The man is holding a gaff, which is a hook for catching fish.

When you feature people in your rugs their clothing, a hat type of boot, and especially what they are holding in their hand all help to tell the story of who they are. It is these little things that describe their character, and lead the viewer to think about them in a certain way.

Symbols are a great way of telling stories. There are many books that describe the symbolic meaning of flowers, and animals. I sometimes use symbols directly taken from books. As well there are many decorative styles that lend symbolic meaning. There are hundreds of books of Celtic, Arabic, Egyptian, Roman etc. symbols that can enhance the meaning in your rugs. I often use traditional floral, scroll and leaf borders on rugs that are more pictorial and contemporary in design because I like to mix the old fashioned traditional border to show respect for the history and tradition of rug hooking.
The wool you use in the rug can also be part of the story of the rug. Joan Stephenson, sent me a piece of wool when I was creating the rug “Something in Common”. This rug was created from the wool donated by seventy seven women who had survived breast cancer. Joan sent a piece of wool that was from a suit of her mothers who had survived breast cancer years prior. She said that she had used some of the wool from her mothers suit in every rug she had made. The suit was one her mother had long stopped wearing but loved so much that she would never let Joan tear it up. After her mother passed away Joan did use the suit. It added a common thread to all her rugs, and made them even more meaningful. This winter after my mother died, I took her green wool car coat when we cleaned out her place to use to sign my initials in all my future rugs. The coat still smells of her. With great sadness I cut away the first bit of it the other day to sign my initials in the six foot by eight foot floor carpet that I just finished. It was the rug I had been working on when I got the call that she had fallen.

Giving your rug a descriptive and thought provoking title when you send it off to a show, or when explaining it to your hooking group is an important element of telling a story with a rug. Titling your rug is probably the simplest and most effective way of making a point with your rug. Calling a rug, “Cat # 3" is fine, but it tells us little about the cat. You need to describe some things about the cat in the title. For example who owns the cat? what is it doing? Where is it? The title is a chance to describe what you would like to say.
I sometimes write down the story for someone when they purchase one of my one of a kind mats.
It is a nice idea to see the story leave the studio with the mat, and know that the story will be preserved. Yet on the other hand, when I tell the story verbally and the new owner goes off with the mat I like the idea that the story will continue to grow and change, and that the mat will take on a life of its own. It is a lovely feeling to create something and have people respond emotionally to it. I have learned a lot about myself through hooking rugs, especially from the way people respond to my rugs. So though I spend a lot of time creating the mats and put stories into them, I do not guard the story to closely. I like to see others respond to the rug based on their own experiences, and I like to see the story grow.

The Rug Hookers Guide to Creativity:
From Every Craft there Grows an Art
About five years ago I decided that I wanted to help people become more creative in their approach to hooking rugs. I had already been captivated by rug hooking. I was locked into it, lured by the texture of wool, using it to express myself. I began developing a series of workshops called Color, Texture Creativity and Design for Hooked Mats. When I first started these workshops teaching people to play with texture, to hook randomly and more freely there were plenty of raised eyebrows in the class. They were happily raised eyebrows, the kind that says, “I like you but I’m not sure about this.” Through humor and warmth, I got people to try some different textures, wider and thicker cuts of cloth, and to go with them, more loosely woven backings. When I first started working on blending creativity and rug hooking I found people moved into that direction with trepidation. Most saw rug hooking strictly as a craft and had strict ideas about technique and the type of products they would use. The only thing I had going for me was that some of them liked my designs, and appreciated the freedom they saw in them.

As rug hooking has continued to grow, and many books have been written, a lot of people have picked up the craft on their own, teaching themselves in their own living rooms. There is also a wealth of information on the web about rug hooking and people who are interested in it can find out about it easily. These things have meant that there is a great sharing of ideas and ways of making rugs that go beyond what we can learn in our own communities. I find it very interesting that new technology such as the internet, has meant that an old idea like rug hooking has been renewed and allowed to flourish. Many people have become very interested in using rug hooking as a tool for self expression. Many people are open to all kinds of possibilities when it comes to hooking rugs. These days many of the workshop participants come with fresh ideas and have had exposure to the idea of blending creativity and rug hooking. Being creative and putting more of yourself into your hooked rugs has become the norm for many hookers. Whether it is in adapting a stamped pattern or creating their own designs, or being daring with their use of color, some how it seems to me that with each passing year rug hooking is growing as an art form.

Creativity and rug hooking blend together beautifully. The limitless possibilities offered by our minds mixing color and texture means that it will continue to grow and develop as an art form. Primitive Rug hooking is a relatively new art form when compared to drawing, painting, tapestry, sculpture, or weaving. It is only a baby at 150 years old. Those of us who practice the craft are really still in the establishment phase of it, if we look at it as a medium that will continue to grow and develop over time. We have a lot to offer it’s development, but we have a lot to learn about it as we explore its’ possibilities. What an exciting prospect this is. As each art form grows and develops, the creativity of those who are practicing it adds a little to it’s development.

Forgetting Restraint and Exercising Creativity
Some people feel they have no creativity in them. This is rubbish. As my good friend says, “Gee Deanne, I think it takes creativity to keep getting out of bed in the morning, don’t you?” How can you not be friends with someone who thinks like that. She is funny but she also sees the value in all the little things we do to keep our lives on the right track. It takes creativity to live. If you have ever adapted a recipe, sang a little song, played with a child, dreamed a dream, or doodled on a piece of paper you have exercised your creativity. Granted , some people may be naturally more inclined to creative thinking, but all of us have some level of creativity with in us. It is part of our humanity.

The real issue is exercise. Some of exercise our creativity more than others. We all have creative potential. Each of us have wishes and wants, a passion that lies with in us. Each of us has approached a problem , a past time, or our work with some level of creativity. It is true that in finding rug hooking, I was lucky to find something that I like to do so much. I was lucky but I was also open and free thinking at that time in my life. If I had not be open to all kinds of possibilities my luck would not have mattered so much. If I had not had a sense of playfulness and discovery I would have just run rough shod over my good luck. Openness and playfulness, hanging on to that wonderful sense of discovery that we had as children are prerequisites for uncovering your creativity. I constantly remind myself of the importance of “wasting time”, and of holding on to my childlike qualities.

Uncovering your creative side and finding the artistic rug hooker with in you .requires an open mind, and a responsive heart. It asks that you be quiet and listen to your spirit. The search for art cannot begin as a search for art. It is much more basic than that. Finding your creativity begins with fooling around with ideas. Many people I know fell into their art because they explored ideas. A passion is not something that can be adopted. It is something that lies in wait waiting to be discovered. It is the snake in the wood pile, slipping out just when you least expect. Like the snake it will quickly slip away if you do not pay attention to it, and follow it to weird and unusual places. You need to see where it takes you. Passion is not like some red hot love in a romance novel. It requires commitment and diligence. You do not fall through the looking glass like Alice in Wonderland, it more like climbing caves into the interior of your self. So the second step in becoming more artistic in your approach to rug hooking is making a commitment of time to carry out the craft. It may mean setting up a routine, so that you hook regularly, and hopefully frequently.

When you take a water color class it does not very often go “bang”, You do not become an artist by registering with continuing education and buying $150 worth of paint and paper. The first important thing to do is to play with the paint, feel the brushes in your hand. Then you need to start thinking about the way you feel when you paint. Rug Hooking is the same, a cache of great wool, a beautiful hook with a coco bolo handle, three yards of linen, and an expensive frame does not make you a rug hooker. Sitting quietly with yourself, or not so quietly with your group, and pulling the wool up through the backing makes you a rug hooker. It is in the practice of making rugs that we really learn how we can approach it more creatively.
Digging for Ideas
I think that finding your creativity should not be approached as a search. It is more like archeological dig. Many of us have a great advantage in that we know how we like to create. WE want to hook rugs. Knowing your medium puts you ahead of the game. The biggest part of your creative self has already been uncovered. We have all kinds of clues around us as to what might incite us to create. It is much more about uncovering yourself, and getting to know yourself than it is about a big search through the whole wide world of ideas. It is important to ask ourselves what are our likes and dislikes? What colors make us feel good and give us energy? What ideas are important to us?

One of the biggest myths about creative people is that they gather ideas out of thin air. Most new ideas are a combination of two existing ideas. For example french fries happened because someone understood potatoes, and deep fat frying, and put the two so nicely together. My own ideas grow from watching, listening, smelling, thinking, feeling, touching. I use my senses to understand what is going on in the world. I let whatever they gather rest in my mind, and I wait to see what happens. Sometimes I work at it a bit. I sketch . I write. Mostly, I remain open to the emergence of an idea. I like to lie in wait, and like to be caught by surprise. Our unconscious self is always gathering and filing away information. This information is ours waiting in a kind of secret filing cabinet inside ourselves. This information mixes with the new stimuli we are constantly getting and allows new ideas to develop.

As I go about my daily life I remember that I am making ideas for later on. I try to live fully and see what is in front of me and around me because I believe they will be important later on. I think that ideas develop because we live whole lives. Though I respond instantly to things sometimes, their inspiration does not always hold. A few weeks ago I saw the northern nights. My instant response was that would be my next rug. When I came home, finished what I had been working on I no longer wanted to make the northern lights rug. Inspiration takes time to gestate. It was not ready to be born as a rug. I put my image of the northern lights away with the only other time I had ever seen them. I can see my small self under that big starry sky. I know it may emerge as a rug but I am not sure how. I await, patient and anxious at the same time. Rainer Maria Rilke, in his book, Letters to a Young Poet wrote “Everything is gestation and then bringing forth” Our ideas fully ripen in the darkness of our unconscious, where they are lost to us, until they emerge one day as a complete surprise. Rilke suggests that an artists cannot count time because with patience our ideas will emerge freely from our soul. I agree we must sit and wait, but, like Rilke, I do not believe we have to wait idly.

There are many things we can do to get in touch with our creativity and apply it to our rug hooking. The best part of this is that many of these ideas and activities can be both fun and part of our daily living. We must live creatively to be creative. If we want to express ourselves through rug hooking we must put some effort into it.

The most common way of developing ideas is through the use of Brainstorming. You can do this on your own or with a group. For example if you are trying to think of themes for your next rug, you would write down every idea that comes to your head, good or bad, and generate a list to work from. If your rug hooking group is trying to think of a title for a group show at the local museum you would do the same, working as a group generating a long list of possibilities. Once you come up with, and decide on an idea share it. Inspiration when it is shared around just grows and grows. Ideas get bigger. Sometimes they are better for the sharing, sometimes they are worse. A good idea well developed is often unidentifiable from the original thought that created it. Sometimes an idea can become overdeveloped and what we need to do is to get back to the root of the thing that you began working on. Ideas need to be worked a reworked. Do not be afraid to play with them you can always go back to the original thought.

Many people feel that art creates art. Every time we create a new thing we have built upon the last thing we created. Sometimes I take a theme, and I work it in different ways as an exercise. The working of the theme can sometimes lead you to new levels in your work. Other times it may lead you back to the roots of it. If for example you have chosen night sky as a theme to work on, try making three mats with three different night skies. Deliberately choose different wools, hook in different directions, and try to create three different effects. There is no way you can carry out this activity and not learn things about hooking night skies that you did not learn before. You may also find you like the first one the best, and this could lead you to have better trust in your initial instincts. When you finish a mat live with it for a while so that you can learn from it. Hang it , or place it in a place you can visit it daily. Take note of what you are thinking when you look at it. Think about what you are thinking, and learn from your own rugs. What would you not change about it? What could you have done better? What is working in terms of color?

The idea of keeping a creativity journal has become very popular with the rise of current books on creativity. It is a useful tool because it forces you to sit and reflect on your work. If we just sit and think about what we might like to express over a cup of tea we have no record of our ideas. As often as not they become lost to us. Writing down thoughts and ideas is a way of learning about yourself from yourself. You can go over the ideas you have written down months later. I feel that creativity journals should be kept in a nice unlined sketch books so there is room to draw. Rug hooking is a visual medium, and all your notes can be accompanied by rough sketches and drawings. Do not say “I can’t draw” because you know that I am one of those aggravating people who is going to say, “You can’t draw because you don’t draw”. Drawing, like rug hooking, or creativity in general is a practice, and practice makes all things possible, not necessarily perfect. Who needs perfect? No one, but we can all use a little practice.

When you go out to buy yourself that beautiful sketch book full of clean white sheets. Think of it as a new year in school when you opened your fresh new exercise books. Remember the feelings you got of a fresh clean start. You might want to pick up a good pencils and a basic sharpener, a black ink drawing pen, and a glue stick. If you like on the first page of the book you can use the glue stick to past in a picture of yourself when you were a child. I say this because small children own creativity. They know how to play and are uninhibited in their drawing. It is important for us to stay in touch with that part of ourselves, and to nurture it. You can also use the glue stick to paste in bits of inspiration that you see as you open your eyes to the world around you in search for creative rug hooking ideas. This special book can become your inspiration source book. It is a place to recount all the things that inspire you. I can see filling it with bits of fabric, art post cards, new paper articles, your own writings and drawings, and of course the doodles that you did on your napkin at the luncheon meeting you had at work. Those doodles can sometimes be to good to throw away. After a little while of keeping this book you will be able to go to it when you are working out a color or design problem in a rug and use it as a tool to help you figure things out.

As for living creatively, who does not want to? We all want to experience as much as we can in the one life we are graced with. Enriching our lives is our responsibility. It is an essential part of making our lives whole. Our approach to rug hooking will be enhanced if we live creatively, and try out new ideas. There is no need to shake up our lives, but there is a need to fill them up with healthy creative ideas. Simple thing matter. Try changing your routines. If you hook in front of the television try turning it off and listening to classical music. If you always listen to classical try some jazz. I like to think about what I am hooking while I hook it. Not constantly but some of the time. I find that instrumental music lets me get closer to my ideas about what I am working than does listening to the news.
A lot of inspiration can be gathered from going to the library and checking out a pile of big coffee table art books. Take out a bunch, not just of the artists you know but discover some new ones. I find it fascinating how closely rug hooking approximates the brush strokes of a painter when I look at these types of book. I find that poring over books of black and white photography really gets me looking at composition, and design. These thick books are mind candy, and soul food for you if you want to approach rug hooking creatively.
Find out the gallery that is closest to you and make a practice of visiting it once in a while. If you can get to the city, or have access to galleries that focus on contemporary art check out those to. It may seem that huge pieces of modern art, or conceptual installations have no relevance to our simple craft, but what is relevant is color, shape. Form, and the development of ideas. Once I was working with a group of modern artists at a symposium creating art on site in a contemporary gallery. I was not quite sure why I had been chosen for the project but I was curious and happy to be part of it. In talking with one of the artists, I said,” Sometimes I just stand in front of it and I just don’t get it.”. The much older well established modern artist said,” I just stand there til I do”.I was nicely put in my place. The next time I went to see an installation, I stood there until it made some sense to me. It did not matter what the artists intentions had been. What mattered was my understanding of it. Understanding art is about what you bring to it. Do not be intimidated by it. Keep your feet firmly planted on the ground and really look at it. Think about it, whether you are at the Louvre smiling at Mona Lisa , or you are in trying to figure out three stripes on a sheet of canvas. You relationship with art is your own.
Change your habits what ever they might be. Wash your sheets, yell in the forest, smile at strangers on the street, flirt ( don’t go to far), stay up til midnight and howl at the full moon. Put some energy into living and that energy will emerge in your rugs. It is impossible for it not to. It is bound to happen.
Ideas to Nourish the Creative Genius With in You.
It would be so great if I could tell you that if you drink a new herbal tea and take a yoga class you will become more creative but there is no sure fire recipe for creativity. However we can do small activities that stretch our minds, making us more aware of a receptive to creative ideas as they come to us. Creativity is an approach to life. As individuals, sketching, writing, drawing, reading, thinking, and setting up small creative challenges in our daily lives may not seem like huge steps toward hooking rugs more creatively but they are. Each day we wake up with a bit more knowledge about ourselves, and slightly thicker book of self understanding. I like this self directed approach towards creativity but I know that there are plenty of other simple and unique ideas to push us along in our path. Many of the idea and activities I am going to suggest are playful and fun, designed to open up your mind to creativity. They can be done as an individual or as a group. You can change them around and adapt them to suit your needs.
Organize or Participate in a Show
Recently Linda Rae Coughlin, in Warren New Jersey invited me to participate in an Art Card Rugs show. Linda had gotten this idea from a group of quilters who had organized a show and created a deck of cards out of art quilts. She took this idea and adapted it to rugs invited fifty three rug hooking artists to participate. I gladly participated for several reasons. I liked that she had the initiative to take on such a huge project and wanted to support it. I also liked the idea of making myself create a rug that I never would have thought about doing. I chose the jack of spades and creating a very interesting rug that blended my idea with Linda’s ideas for a show.

A second show that I have decided to submit to is called Art Hits the Wall. Jan Moir, of Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia is curating a show that asked rug hookers to create a rug based the work of an artist or piece of work. Usually I like to come up with my own idea and try to remain as uninfluenced as I possibly can. The “usually” is exactly why I have decided to submit to this juried show. I need to keep exploring ideas, and that sometimes means doing things that I do not see as “like me”. I got out my art books, and starting sketching, not pictures of the works in them but sketches inspired by them. I found a book of paintings by Gustav Klimt and saw a richly coloured painting of a group of women all wrapped up in fabrics. It reminded me of when three or four of my sisters and I used to sleep together in the same bid. The trigger went off. Klimt’s visual image captured a memory and a feeling for me, and I had a reason to make a rug. I have just started this rug and will submit it to the jury for the show, knowing that the exercise is not in getting my work accepted but it has been in responding to the challenge that the show’s organizers presented. If you are part of a rug hooking group you might want to work together in a brainstorming session to come up with a show theme to host at your local museum or library.
Plan an Inspiration Journey
Two years ago myself and four other artists from different disciplines decided to use Nova Scotia’s Studio Rally map, a list of artists in the province, to plan a little studio tour for ourselves. We picked a route and organized a Band B for a one night vacation, and visited the studios of six or eight artists along the way. We have made this an annual event , finding that visiting different kinds of artists in their own studios filled us to the brim with ideas and inspiration. Check with local tourist boards for information on artists studio in your area. They are everywhere, hidden in the hill, down by the bay and on city streets. If they advertise studio visits go see them.
Keep Inspiration Close at Hand
Try setting up a bulletin board and a little shelf up near where you work or spend lots of time (over the washer in the laundry room is a good place) so that you can tack recent inspirational things to. You can paste them in your source book later. Things like great post cards, show invites and deadlines, paint chips, fabric swatches, sea shells, bits of branch and abandoned birds nest, a piece of moss, an old button can be good fodder to stir up your mind. Whenever I travel I like to bring back a little found things that helps me hold on to a memory of the place. It isa often a beach rock, a shell, or a twig.
Use Nature to Color Plan
A walk in the wood, or a stroll on the beach, can lend some great ideas for colour planning. Once while walking on a beach in Advocate, Nova Scotia, I picked up five rocks all different colors, and saw a wonderful combination of colors for an abstract rug I was working on. I gladly took the rocks home as a reminder of how well planned nature actually is.
Wish Lists
Generate a wish list of things that you want to do in your hooked rugs. How much do you want to hook, in what ways do you want your hooking to grow, what do you want to achieve with your hooking what tools do you want to acquire. Be sure to check it once or twice down the road to see how you are doing.
Playful Ideas
Buy yourself a new box of crayons, make a sculpture with play dough, draw a self portrait (it is okay if it does not like you), find a recipe with an ingredient that you have never used before and make it, buy a cd that you have not already heard, change the channel on your radio and turn up the volume, turn off the tv, invite someone to new to dinner, swing on a swing set, write to someone you admire, kiss the cook, and think of six other possibilities that might make you approach rug hooking and life more creatively.
Template Exercise
Give yourself a template ( a simple traceable stencil) and try to think of several different designs for it. If you are part of group, try creating a set of templates (three or Four) for yourselves. Let each member of the group go off and sketch several different design possibilities. Share the ideas with each other. Another fun idea for a rug hooking group is a mat or pattern sway based on the templates. Each person goes of and creates a pattern or small rug with the groups template ideas. Set a date for completion, get together and have a pot luck supper and a swap. It gives everyone a nice memento of their rug hooking group.

There are many ways to become more creative in our rug hooking but the most sure fire way is to become more creative in our daily lives, placing importance and emphasis on living artfully. The results of this is sure to trickle down into inspiration for you hooked rugs. Remember, know yourself, waste some time, and smell the orange blossoms in the summer. They are too good to miss.

Grenfell Mats
The History of the Grenfell Mats

      Hooking mats or rugs has been a tradition on the East Coast of Canada since the 1860's and many people believe it began as early as the 1840's. It is one of the few crafts that is believed to be indigenous to North America. Hooking was a well established craft in Northern Newfoundland by the time Sir Wilfred Grenfell arrived on it’s craggy and rugged seacoast. Grenfell, a young English doctor arrived to find terrible hardship in the English colony. Born in 1865 in the village of Pargate, England, Grenfell studied medicine in London. Initially he worked in the slums of London but quickly he learned of the lack of medical help for fishermen in the North Sea. After three years of this work he responded to a call for help to provide service to the Fishermen of Northern Newfoundland and Labrador.
      His lifelong service to the people of these coasts began in 1892. The people of this region were poor and destitute. Hunger and malnutrition meant that people were suffering from scurvy, tuberculosis and numerous other ailments. Fishermen could barely keep their families fed and were often taken advantage of by merchants and traders who bought their fish. As often as not they would end up owing the merchant money for supplies after they traded all of their fish. Grenfell’s mission to the coast of Labrador was a welcome one. People were suffering and needed the help. His medical skills were invaluable. His first hospital was established in Battle Harbour in 1893. By 1900 construction began on a hospital in St. Anthony. By 1903 it was serving twenty-five communities.
      Grenfell was impressed with the strong, welcoming people he met on the coast. He was convinced that teaching people how to help themselves would be better for them than handouts and charity. This led him to form “ The Industrial “ a cottage handicrafts industry in1906.
      In the spring of 1905, Grenfell met Jessie Luther while on a lecture tour in Massachusetts. Luther was a pioneer of the idea of using arts and crafts as therapy for “nerve problems” and had set up such a program in Rhode Island. Upon learning of this Grenfell got the idea that a craft such as weaving would supplement the incomes of the people he was working with. During the summer of 1906 Luther trekked to St. Anthony to work at the “Industrial”. During the first few years the focus of the industry was weaving. The special equipment needed, an inconsistent supply of wool and the lack of local skill made it difficult for weaving to flourish.
      By 1908, it was recognized that mat hooking, which was carried on in every home, offered greater potential than weaving to create a cottage industry. Women did not need any training. They already hooked mats as their mothers and grandmothers had done before them. Each home had all the supplies needed, a frame, a hook and the burlap feed bags. With some consideration for colour and design, Luther and Grenfell realized that they could be sold in the United States to fund the mission.
      The birth of the Grenfell hooked mats was recorded in an entry in Jessie Luther’s journal dated, January 29, 1908. “This afternoon was the beginning of the matting circle. Several women came but evidently with the idea of looking around before committing themselves. The women quickly learned that the mats they hooked could be traded in at the “Industrial” for cash, clothing or food vouchers.” Grenfell would oversee the sale of these mats in the United States. Mat hooking quickly became the mainstay of the industry with the majority of the 2000 handicraft workers registered as being “mat hookers”.
      Women were given their supplies in a kit form, with a pattern printed on burlap or “brin”. The most common theme among the patterns were northern scenes of fishing, hunting, animals and dog sleds. They were colour keyed and hooked carefully. Grenfell’s wife, Anne McClanahan, of Illinois became involved with the industry and standardized the mats. The most recognizable trait of the Grenfell mats is that they were almost always hooked straight across
in horizontal lines, with sometimes as many as 200 loops per square inch. Quality was strictly controlled. At first the mats were made with wool and cotton but by 1928 they were made with silk and rayon.
      To meet the demand for mats, the mission solicited donations of discarded silk stockings from the south. On his lecture tours in America, the slogan “ When your stockings run let them run to Labrador” got a great response. Middle class and wealthy Americans would pack up their old stockings to send to the mission. Their light jersey texture was perfect for dying and comfortable to hook with. Finely woven burlap was purchased in large bolts by the mission. Piles of stockings were dyed in pretty pastels. Used x-ray film from the hospitals was cut into stencils to transfer the design onto burlap.
      Each Friday the mats were brought to the mission. Initially the mats were sold for $5. The most common mat size was 25" by 41". The hooker would receive $5 and the industrial would get $3.50. Of course all the money made by the industrial would be invested back into the communities to support the hospitals and purchase supplies. The mat making was a god send to the women. It was their first opportunity to make money and escape some of the debt which they were burdened by. In the early years, less than 200 mats were made. At the peak of productivity, over 3000 mats were hooked.. Boutiques in Philadelphia, New York and Boston sold the products of the Grenfell mission. In Canada, the products had their own section in Eaton’s department stores. The depression of the 1930's led to a serious decline in the sale of mats, and interest in the industry declined dramatically after World War 2.
      By 1939 Grenfell made his last visit to the Labrador coast before he retired to Vermont where he died in October of 1940. His ashes were sent to St. Anthony to be with those of his wife who had worked with him since their marriage in 1909. His tireless work in Northern Newfoundland and the coast of Labrador made him a folk hero in Atlantic Canada and beyond.

Colour and Design

      To briefly describe the mats as “northern scenes” would diminish the character and beauty of the wonderful designs of the Grenfell mission. Before the arrival of Jessie Luther, Grenfell, and the influence of the “Industrial”, the women had generally been hooking geometric or floral patterns. Stamped patterns were creeping into some Newfoundland homes but they had to be purchased and were not a priority in a hungry household.
      Initially most designs were created by Grenfell or Luther but as time went on, many other people, including the hookers themselves, were designing patterns. Lady and Dr. Grenfell worked hard to find scholarships at American art schools for talented students. These students returned home from the States to work in the mission.
      The designs reflected the social and cultural history of the area they were from. They beautifully reflected the tradition of hard work of the people in both design and tecnique. The earliest designs showed dog sleds, bears on the snow, geese in flight. Other designs include seagulls over a lighthouse, Schooners, salt cod drying on a flake, hunting with spears, walruses, caplin, churches, the maps of Newfoundland, icebergs, etc. All the designs relate to the life around the women who hooked them. One of the wonderful things about the Grenfell mats is that the designs reflected the northern life. It would have been easy to try to make the designs more marketable in the U.S. by hooking designs that could be viewed as more saleable to U.S. customers. Instead, the designers chose to reflect the cultural traditions of the area in which they were working. There is no doubt that this is part of the charm of the mats.
      There was at times conflict over the design of the mats. Mrs. Grenfell felt that her husband’s designs were “more interesting” than Jessie Luther’s and this was repeated to Luther. Another designer, Rhoda Dawson, worked in Cartwright on the Labrador coast offered new inspiration in the 1930's. She recognized the importance of the industrial in promoting the folk art traditions of the coast. Her rug, “Fish on Flake” (1933), was designed to be hooked in the subtle shades of the undyed stockings. Her designs were sophisticated and somewhat abstract. In a 1931 letter to her father, she expressed concern that “...the regular customer won’t like my new mats, they’re too sophisticated. I’m sure Grenfell won’t but the old original charm was lost and they were getting so bad, one had to do something.” Designs such as these are rare today, as they were generally less popular with hookers who like to work with brighter shades and with the public who had become used to the Northern scenes.

Renewed Interest and Resurgence:
The Matting Season Show

      In her own words, Paula Laverty says that she “....either has a passion or a serious problem. I devoted the last seventeen years of my life to this.” The “this” she refers to is researching and writing about the Rugs of the Grenfell Mission. Her affinity for puffins, a small black and white bird sometimes pictured in Grenfell mats led her to them. Paula has a small collection of Grenfell mats, but as she says “I collect only that which serves the purpose of furthering my research. Paula’s research on the rugs has contributed a great deal to the renewed interest in the Grenfell rugs. They are now highly collectable and valuable. Rugs that once sold for $5 to $8 may now be worth between $3000 to $8000 depending on the subject, availability and primary condition.
      One collector, Robin Moore, purchased her first Grenfell over 20 years ago. Moore, a former folk art dealer, has collected more than 120 rugs. Her collection recently sold at the Bowmanville Antiques and Folk Art show in Ontario, Canada. The asking price was
$ 300 000.00. It has reportedly been sold though no one seems to be telling who bought it as of yet. Though collections like this one are rare, Paula Laverty estimates that there are still “thousands of rugs around today, though not in pristine clinics”. During a recent show of the Grenfell mats called “Matting Season” at the Museum of Textiles in Toronto which she curated, Laverty held two appraisal clinics where she found two patterns she hadn’t seen hooked before. Laverty is precise in her collection of information. As she explains she marvels at the fact that
“this incredible body of work was put together by a group of women who’s names will never be known.
      Laverty has worked hard to bring the Grenfell mats to the public domain. In 1994 she was a guest curator for “Northern Scenes: Hooked Art of the Grenfell Mission” at the prestigious Museum of American Folk Art in New York city. In 1996 she curated “Silk Stockings” at the Shelburne Museum in Shelburne Vermont. Her most recent efforts at the Toronto Textile Museum is her greatest effort yet. There are 106 mats depicting a wide range of the patterns hooked at the mission, brought together from various private and corporate collections. In addition to the familiar scenes there were some exquisite florals, swimming fish, sea urchins and starfish, as well as Rhoda Dawson’s exquisite depiction of fish on a flake. Hung together on cream walls, the rugs, which were for the most part in impeccable condition, evoked a spirit of the place. The symbols and motifs shown in this body of work depicts the climate, the hard working nature of these people, their religion, the wild life, the fauna and the lifestyle of these people in northern Newfoundland and the Labrador coast in the early part of this century. The soft muted shades so typical of the Grenfell mats were interspersed with rich rust and brown florals that were less familiar. Each mat seemed to be hand picked for the show.
      Though times have changed and interest in rug hooking has waned, the tradition of rug hooking continues at Grenfell Handicrafts in St Anthony today. Privatized in 1984, Grenfell Handicrafts continues to thrive today as a cottage industry. Many of the traditional patterns are still hooked, with yarn, by the local hookers. The Grenfell Historical Society continues to be an active part of community life. Sixty years after his death Dr. Grenfell remains a household word.
      Laverty plans to tour “The Matting Season”, tentative dates can be confirmed at her website:
www.grenfellhookedmats.com

Les Hookeuses au Bor de Lo/ Hookers near the water

Every once in a while you come across a person hooking rugs who has an approach all their own. They amaze you, and confound you. You are left wondering how on earth they manage to well up all that creativity, and churn all that emotion into a hooked rug. Imagine my delight, when I discovered nearly twenty of them.

As I set out to drive to Shediac, a small seaside tourist town on the southern coast of New Brunswick in early April, the trees, and the fields were thickly covered in silver ice. It was a magical journey, that day that I took with my friend and fellow hooker, Carol Oram. As I drove into Shediac, The water opened up right to the road. It was covered in thick ice and snow. Spring was still a mystery on the coast. I found the community center where the women meet to be a blue cedar shingled coastal interpretation center. As soon as you walked in you were facing a wall of windows that was no further than six feet from the icy bay. Usually this sort of scene sets me back , and makes me want to take the time to ponder it but it was not possible here. The women had gathered and brought all of their favorite rugs that they had made. There was an air of excitement, and a generous spirit in the place. People were here to share with each other their creativity.

As I walked about the room, I could see through their mats that these women had strong minds, creative spirits, and an artists’ need to make their voices heard. Their strong Acadian roots, as well as their personal stories were illustrated in their brightly colored, highly textural mats. Acadian women are no strangers to the art of rug hooking. They have been hooking rugs as long as anyone on the eastern seaboard of North America, and longer than many. Their rug hooking history is a history similar to most of Atlantic Canada. It is thought that women who went “into service”, meaning they worked as servants in the homes of the upper classes, and the English merchants spied the beautiful carpets on the floors that were imported from overseas and coveted them. Knowing they could never afford to import, or buy such finery they came up with a way of making their own mats. Using old feed sacks, warn out clothing, and a hook fashioned from a nail and a piece of wood, these women created their own textiles for the floors of their own homes.

This past time continued as a popular tradition with the Acadians living on the southern coast of New Brunswick until the early fifties. Acadian women never just stuck to hooking with wool. They used whatever was in the scrap bag, t- shirts, cottons, velvets, and any other fabric. There was nothing that could not be put into a mat. In the nineteen twenties, thirties and forties pedlars would visit these french speaking communities and buy up the years worth of mats from women at their door. Often they would trade the then popular linoleum squares for the woman’s cache of hooked mats.

As communities modernized, and there was a little more cash in hand, the Acadian women, like the English women further along the coast abandoned the tradition of rug hooking for other more popular pursuits. Rug hooking was then carried out only by a few men and women as a quiet past time. It was around this time that Gabrielle Savoie entered the picture and became a tour de force, changing the face of Acadian rug hooking.

Though rug hooking had not completely died out it was nearly lost to the Acadian Culture when Gabrielle Savoie became interested in it the early 1970's. Gabrielle was visiting Provence , France when she became interested in hooking rugs. She was working as an artist and had learned how to hook from one of the few Acadian women who were still actively hooking at that time, Mrs. Yvonne Dupuis. While in France she wanted to work in a medium that she could transport back to Canada. Initially she had thought she would study ceramics while there, but was drawn to rug hooking because of its transportable quality. And, so it was for practical reasons, not unlike those generations before her that Gabbie got caught up in a storm of rugs , and textile art.

When she returned from France and was running a boutique she sold the traditional rag rugs of a few of the people who were still hooking in the area. She continued to explore the medium itself, pushing the boundaries, and moving beyond the traditional hooked rug. She would often integrate three passions, hooking, quilting and weaving into a single piece. She was not bogged down by tradition. Though her mother was an artist, there was no tradition of textile making in her own family, with the exception that her grandmother did some embroidery.

Eventually Gabbie began teaching from her studio. I first heard of Gabbie, from her brother, a well known Acadian contemporary painter, whom I met while we both participating in an artist’s forum at the Gallerie Sans Nom in Moncton , New Brunswick.in 1997. He told me, “ My sister does this, but not like you.” Ever curious, I wondered what he meant by such an odd statement. It was nearly a year later, still wondering about his statement that I took a visit to her studio in Grand Barachois. She and her husband built a round studio on the ocean out of cord wool stacked on top of each other and cemented together. The studio itself is a work of art. As you walk along the softly rounded hall way to see where she works, there are small pieces of painting, carving and collage from contemporary Acadian artists. Gabbie’s work is not like anybody’s but her own. This studio is where Gabbie passed on her passion to many more Acadian women. She enabled them to renew their relationship with a strong Acadian tradition, making mats. Gabrielle’s philosophy is about “ Saying yes to your gifts.” She embraces ideas like she would a crying child. It is this philosophy that she has passed on to her many students. Ever the artist she says, “I have no control over the students, I just let them go.”

About twenty years ago she mad an important move taught Danielle Oullette. Last fall I became reacquainted with contemporary Acadian rug hooking when she came to the studio to buy hooks for a class she was starting. She told me that she had been a student of Gabrielle’s and was now ready to teach others what she knew. She had brought along a charming rug, of horses with a background hooked of denim. The saddles of those horses had every imaginable fibre in them. As soon as I looked at it you knew that Danielle had a strong artistic spirit, let alone the determination that it took to hook a background of denim.
It is the students of both Gabrielle and Danielle’s that formed the hooking group I visited in Shediac. They gather together on the first and third Wednesday of the month to hook, create and share their lives. Their contemporary approach to rug hooking could be compared to the work of Gloria Crouse from, Washington but it has too many qualities that are purely Acadian. I remember seeing Gloria Crouse’s work in pictures in magazines and books. The pictures did not do it justice. When I met Gloria at a TIGHR Conference and saw her work with my own eyes, I found a whole new respect for her work. I was romanced by it and intrigued. The Acadian rug hookers are like Gloria Crouse in that they will hook anything they want to or feel like into their rugs. On the one hand this may seem indiscriminate. On the other hand you realize that the choices they make are much more discriminate because they have had so much to choose from.
Imagine as a rug hooker who hooks primarily in wool have the choice of seven thousands types of yellow wool to choose from. How do you narrow that down? How do you decide which yellow is best for the piece you are making? When you are willing to use a wide variety of texture in your rugs the process of elimination becomes much tougher.
When I look around at this groups rugs I am enamored by the choices they have made and the freestyle approach they have come up with. Together as a body of work you can see that they share influences but you can also see that each member of the group has her own creative vision and is not willing to compromise that. Some of the women took a very traditional approach hooking flowers and simple motifs in squares, some mixed the traditional with the contemporary, while others took a completely contemporary approach, hooking chip bags into abstract designs. It was clear that these women had been encouraged to express themselves, and to accept in each other their many differences.
One of the organizers of the group, Lynn Losier, said the group has been wonderful for her. She began hooking when visiting her sister Danielle Oulette for a three week visit. During the visit, she was deciding whether or not to leave her husband of thirty years. He had been struggling with mental illness and it was taking it’s toll on her. Her sister set her up with a hook, and backing to help her pass the time. Lynn took the opportunity to illustrate her dilemma. She created a black and white pillow, that involved hooking and applique. She used lettered beads to applique on the words yes, non, and oui. As she hooked , she pondered her decision, and the pillow became a symbol of her struggle. She did decide to leave her husband and move back to New Brunswick. She later let her husband move down with her, but explains “I am in my white period”, meaning she is no longer so effected by his struggles. The group she explained has been helpful to her in this way.
Danielle, her sister, and teacher has also had her struggles and used rug hooking and creativity to emerge from them. She has always had a special appreciation for children’s drawing. When her daughter was three she was diagnosed with cancer. Danielle often used her daughters drawings as the basis for her own works of art. When the little girl was six she said to her mother,
” Mommy , why don’t you draw your own?” It was this statement from her daughter that made Danielle commit to her own creativity, she felt she owed it to her daughter to make her own drawings. Her daughter died six months later, and Danielle said it was it was her daughter’s death that gave her the gift of creativity. Without this gift she said she did not know if she would have gotten through such a difficult time. She has done the gift of creativity justice by exploring it and spreading it around.
Some of the women are very prolific, while other make only a rug or two a year. Annie Richard is one of the few women who remembers her mother having women over to hook on the mat. Eight or nine of them would gather and talk as they hooked. It was 1958, and as an eight year old Annie would cut the cloth up for them. These traditional influences still show in Annie’s rugs. She has made very near 1000 mats, ranging in size from 3" by 4" to 6 feet by 8 feet. The latter lays on her living room floor, but she does sell s me of her rugs.
Another member , Gisele Leger- Drapeau only hooks a few rugs each year. She is also a painter. he uses a lot of imitation leather and shiny materials. She is always gathering for her collection of textures. Sometimes she finds it all Walmart, other times it is $50 a yard fabric. She is open to all textiles and says,”There is nothing traditional about my work other than the technique. I don’t do anything flat.”
Other members enjoy exploring themes in their work. Grace Ward, has wrapped tree roots that became exposed on her waterfront property because of erosion with wool yarn and attached them to a hooked background. She is using this medium to explore the idea of erosion. Lynn Ciacco travels nearly an hour to meet with the group. She has taken the hook anything advice given by her teacher and ran with it. An artist, with a bachelor of fine art behind her, she is not afraid to explore and play with color. For years she fought going into textile art because it was frowned upon by the traditional art world. When her husband was doing an arts report for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation on Gabrielle Savoie, he told his wife you have to meet this woman. She did and the rest is history, she is now a textile artist. She said the teaching she received allowed her and the others to connect the hand , the mind and the spirit.
Other members have embedded objects into their rugs and used the object as an impetus for the hooking. Other techniques such as felting, and applique were commonly mixed with the tradition of rug hooking. This group was clearly of the “Rules were meant to be broken” camp.
They are making waves on the Acadian coast, and getting noticed in the near by city of Moncton, New Brunswick. Both Danielle and Gabrielle have upcoming solo exhibitions at established public galleries in the city and together they are planning to have a group show at the newly renovated Capitol Theater in the heart of the city. They have also come up with a new name for themselves. They used to call themselves the Tapiocas, a play on tapis, the traditional Acadian word meaning rug but they are moving out of the kitchen and becoming more daring. They have renamed themselves, Les Hookeuses au Bor de Lo. Bor de lo, in french means near the water. This of course is true for this coastal group but they were quick to point out the play on the English word bordello. I guess its true that girls just want to have fun, whether they are fifteen , fifty, or more. These women are doing that and more. They are redefining and reshaping the Acadian tradition of Rug Hooking. Their influences will be felt for generations to come, and you can bet that they will not mind if future generations push their ideas just a little further.

Capturing the Essence
The Art of Hooking Primitive People

Long before I ever thought about hooking a rug I was in a first year anthropology class discussing primitive societies. Little did I know that I would be reflecting on that discussion some twenty years later while thinking about making hooked rugs. It is impossible to know what moments will stay with us, and why they do as we journey through our days. That early February morning, my grizzly bearded professor stood at the front of the class and told me that ”... even the most primitive of societies is complex, there is nothing simple about a primitive society, it is a set of complex ideas that keeps that society working”. The professor scoffed at people who simplified the idea of primitive. I often think about that now when I reflect on hooking in a primitive style. At the outset, it appears as simple as can be but there are many layers to it. You have to understand the use of color, fabrics, texture, and design as it relates to a primitive style.
Designing and or understanding a primitive pattern involves trying to get across an idea in the simplest possible way. It is like writing a good poem, a few words that gives great understanding.
Hooking primitive people is very much like this. You need to get across your idea of a person, or a character by hooking wide strips of wool cloth on a backing. That sums up how simple it isn’t,
but how primitive it is.
I have been hooking primitive people for over ten years. Initially they were details in mats, as time went on they became the story in my rugs. I first got really interested in it when I completed rugs of my childhood next door neighbor, an old man who threw fish guts on his garden for fertilizer, and a portrait of my Aunt Mary who was always kind to me. These rugs hung in my kitchen for years. It was not that they were portraits of people, it was that they were a reflection of my memory of them. When you hook primitively it may be difficult to create a portrait that reflects the fine features of the face, but it is possible to reflect the character of the person you are trying to create.
Last spring I had the opportunity to have a solo exhibit at the Acadia University Art Gallery in Wolfville, Nova Scotia. As they often are this show was organized over a year before and I felt that it was important to create a body of work that hung together well, and made a statement about something I believed in. I decided to hook a series of primitive portraits of people. I called the show , The Common Soul, meaning that rich or poor we are in so many ways all the same. As my father, and probably your father said, ”We all put on our pants one leg at a time”. To get ready for that show, I pulled out a few rugs of people that I had hooked over the years and saved, and then I spent the winter creating rugs that were either portraits of people I knew, or characters in stories I remembered. The process of doing this led me to think a lot about what is important in hooking people. There were fourteen portraits in that show, and almost all of them were larger than four by four feet.
Getting Down the Basics
The very first thing that is important in creating a primitive hooked portrait is to think about what you want to reflect. It is like becoming reacquainted with an old friend. Think about their features. What is the most prominent thing you remember. Think about their actions and hand movements. How do they hold their head? How do they lay their hands on the table? Think a lot about their clothing as these things tell a lot about their character. Not the brand names they wore, of course but the type of clothing. Clothing can often gives us information about a persons’ role in life, their work, and what they value. Did they hold their head with a certain tilt?
My father always held a cigarette loosely between his fore fingers, and held his arm across his belly and this sums him up for me. My mother always held her hand bag with both her hands right in front of her, and she always wore a patterned bandana. For me these things capture her essence.

When you hook in a primitive style, it is important to respect what you can do with that style. A rug hooker has to respect the medium or style they have chosen and do the best they can with that style, or they will frustrate themselves to no end. If you want to show exquisite eye detail, or fine features than you should look at using finer cuts of wool. With primitive hooking, using wide cuts of cloth, of six , eight or higher cuts, you should aim to show a person’s essence. That is , you should focus on illustrating the most important features that describe them. This comes from refection, but it also comes from sketching.

Sketching often seems to be a chore, especially if you believe you cannot draw.
It is often under rated in rug hooking. People generally do not carry around a sketch book like the do their frame or their cutter. Yet if you want to create original design it can be an important tool. Drawing the person that you want to hook is an essential exercise because it will trigger your visual memory of the person. When you draw them , do it in pencil, erase and draw over if you need to. You may not be lucky enough to get it right the first time, so do a series a sketches.
Look over the group of sketches that you make, and pick out the elements that look right to you. The time spent sketching, is time spent thinking about the person you want to depict. The more time you spend on it the better you will understand your subject, and your rug hooking will make a stronger statement.

I do not usually use photographs but they can be helpful. They can also be a hindrance. The thing I like about photographs is that jog the memory, and they accurately reflect what a person looks like at a given period in their life. The thing I do not like about photographs is that we sometimes feel we have to depict everything that is depicted in the photograph just as adequately
as the photograph does. We sometimes will try to live up to an impossible task. Photography is a different medium. If you are trying to create a primitive portrait by looking at an old, or new picture, the first thing you will need to do is to start eliminating the peripheral stuff. If you try to pack to much into your rug, the person will not stand out. It is important to pick out the right picture, the one that captures the person as you see them or believe them to be. That is why I suggest that you sketch first to sort out your own ideas , and go through the photos secondly, with your goal being to find a pictures that really sums a person up. You can then go back to the sketch book, using the photograph as a tool to define you pattern.
Creating Faces
Hooking the face is the most threatening part for most people when they are hooking primitive people. I keep this process quite simple. I have found that when I spend to much times on the details of a person’s face it can take on a cartoon like quality, that makes the rug feel more like a spoof than a piece of art. That being said, if you hook with finer cuts, you could use them in the face if it was important to you to show some details. I choose not to because I am looking for a primitive effect in the whole rug. I prefer the way that looks, and the feeling that it gives off.
For a large face that is 4 by 6" I will generally use four to six shades of light tan or camel. For a smaller face I will generally use two or three shades. I cut some in six cut and some in eight cut as this will add a textural quality that can show a bit of movement in the face.
Generally I will take the shades that stands out a bit, perhaps it is darker, lighter or has a tweed, or some texture to it. I will use this shade sparingly, perhaps to shape a hollow for the cheek, a crook in the face for the nose. Generally these things are hooked one line thick with, two lines in a few places to accentuate it. I then usually choose a second shade, often a lighter shade to show the forehead and cheeks. With the other shades I fill the face in randomly. If there are several people in one rug, I usually add an extra shade, or change around the way I use the shades for each person so that each face has its own unique look. Adding a pale peach, a cream, chocolate browns, medium browns, and different shades of tans and other natural colors can change the race, and the coloring of the people you are hooking. I sometimes like a bit of pale pink od the lips or the cheeks to show someone who always wore a bit of make up. Generally I look for good skirt weight wools, camel hair coats, light tan tweeds, rather than paler flesh tones of wool. I user paler flesh tones for accents and details.
The faces are framed by hair. For hair I generally use natural sheep’s wool undyed for grey, or an older person’s hair. One of the best batches of dyed natural sheep’s wool I ever had was dyed with walnut hulls on the back of a wood stove. These were every shade of brown and auburn you could imagine. The natural sheep’s wool takes the dyes easily. Rusty red, gold, browns, tans are black are all useful for hair. You take the wool and pull it into strands, and hook the strands as if it were regular cut cloth. The effect will be fluffy and higher than the rest of the rug as hair often is. It can be trimmed up and sculpted with scissors to flatten it out or shape it a bit.
Dressing Them Up
Choosing what they will wear is one of the things I enjoy when hooking people. In primitive hooking it is the place where you really get to show who a person is. A uniform, rubber boots, an apron, a hat can sometimes sum a person up. When you hook clothing you can stipe it, make it floral, plaid or pattern. There is no need to stick to solid colors. I often make a dress floral by hooking up two loops of a pretty floral color such as mauve, then right beside it hook up a little loop of green. I then fill in the background with a lighter shade such as pale yellow or cream. Stripes can be created by alternating colors as you hook. Plaids can be created by hooking a grid on the article of clothing in one color and filling it in with a contrasting color. When I hook florals, stripes, or plaids I often show folds in the fabric by hooking short curved lines of back, that are about one third the size or less of the article of clothing. These black lines show movement, and flow. When I am hooking something in a solid shade I often use several colors very close together to show this flow of movement.
You can add adornment to clothing such as a special button at the neck of a blouse, or a bit of jewelry, either by hooking these things in , or by attaching a special antique button. I have found that attaching things to rugs looks best when it is subtle, and small.
Focus on the details as you hook clothing. Show the shape of a person in their clothes. Highlight a pocket, button holes, belts, folds in the fabric. These little things give the rug dimension, and make it interesting.
The Details
The context of the person in the mat is important. If they are the central figure than they need to be large and in the foreground. In a rug called “The Girl Who Went Away” I put the red headed girl in the foreground with her bright red suitcase to show she was leaving. In the background was a woman holding a laundry basket, a gold farm house and a line of laundry. This rug lead to a lot of discussion. Where was she going? Who was left behind? The context that the girl was placed in is an important part of the story, but it should not overtake the portrait.
I sometimes use a nice wide border to surround the portrait because I can use the border to put in symbols of the person, or things that remind me of them. Sometimes I use the border as purely decorative, a chance to add color and fauna to the rug.
You can also put something in a person’s hand to tell a bit more about them. Did they often bring you bread? Work in the garden? Like to fish?. What inanimate object could they be holding that would further describe them?

The importance of details cannot be overstated. At the same time it is important not to become more detailed that you can handle with a six or eight cut. I have been known to cut a strip of number eight down the middle so that I could put a flower in a woman’s hair. A small black line on the chest can show if a woman is buxom or lean. A ring on the finger, a feather in the band of a man’s hat, a bit of pink lipstick may only entail hooking up four or five loops of cloth but they can make the rug sing and speak volumes about a person.
As always when I hook, I spend half the times following rules (only the ones I have created for myself), and I spend half the time breaking them and experimenting with new ideas. Remember that you are hooking your vision of a particular person in a primitive style. If you want an exact replica of the person there are much better mediums available to you than rug hooking, and of course there are already plenty of photographs of them in the drawer.

Suggestions for Making Cheticamp Style Rug Hooking Frames

1. The legs are screwed together and bolted.
2. Heavy Canvas is nailed to the rods with upholstery nails so a pattern can be hand sewn on the frame with upholstery thread.
3. The gears are screwed to the end of each rod. The hole in the centre of the gears is 1 inch so the wooden end of your rod must be slightly smaller , 7/8" to fit into this hole.
4.The metal flaps that lock the gears in place are screwed to the leg stand so that the gears and flaps can work together.
5. Cup hooks are screwed into the inside of the leg stand so that string can be used to tighten the pattern from all sides.
6. Rods can be any length, from 24" to 80", are the usual lengths. There is a hole in each rod about one inch from the gears, that the metal rod will fit through so that it can be used to tighten the burlap pattern onto the frame

Working with Texture in Hooked Rugs

Texture adds dimension and depth to hooked rugs. It takes a rug from being a flat plane to being an interesting textile with sculptural qualities. It makes a person want to reach out and touch the rug, to feel the quality of the cloth in it. Somehow adding texture to a rug makes it seem more real, more picturesque. Plaids and tweeds give the effect of texture and do add some but it is the warmth and softness of heavily textures wools such as hand spun, slubs, natural sheeps’ wool, carded wool, and heavily textured cloths such as boucle that add extra dimension to your rugs. Bits of silk, linen, fine bits of metallic cloth take your rug out of the ordinary and bring it into the realm of art.

How To Hook with Texture
It is the same to hook as regular wool cloth or regular yarn. I like to take the natural sheep wool and pull it gently into a five or six inch strip, then hook it the same as I would a piece of cut cloth. I do tend to pull it higher. I also let the loops stand out from the rest of the rug. Some highly textured wool cloths or sweaters may need to be hand cut into strips rather than using a cutter.
If you are using a fine yarn or very thin fibre it is a good idea to strand them together to hook if you want that fibre to be more pronounced. If you want it to be in the background, or not to jump off the mat try hooking it as a single strand. This will give you a fine texture.

Where to Use Texture
Texture can be used well in landscape, for animals or for hair. Natural sheep wool undyed makes great clouds, and big fluffy waves in an ocean. When you dye it, it can be the sky or the sea. Using such textures in the sky gives a larger billowing feeling to them. I like to hook three texture in large patches to give this effect. When you hook it in thin spindly lines it gives a different effect, as if the sky is divided. I n the sea you can hook rows of un-spun wool under the waves to give them extra presence and strength..
For landscape you can use almost anything, in nearly any shade. Golds , rusts and other autumn shades will show the earth as fall, or somewhat parched. Bright yellows, reds, and purples will stand out as flowers. Greens will look like dimension in the land or bushes. I like to use multi- coloured slub that because the variegated quality changes the look of the land.
The most important aspect of using texture is to practice with it so that you can understand what it can do. This is true of wools in general. The more you work with different types and varieties, the greater understanding you will have of what you can get the wool to show, what you can make the wool do for you. You will need to experiment with texture to understand it better and gain greater control over how you can use it to make it work for you. Try it, even if you think it might not be quite right. Push your limits, and sometimes override what you think may be your better judgement. That is how you learn to work more competently with fibre, and it is how you put your own creative stamp on your work. Remember you can always pull it out if it is not working, ans start again. This is the forgiving nature of hooking.
Natural colours both dyed and undyed are great for hair. Haul the loops up slightly higher than the loops of cloth so that the hair stands off the head and is life like. I like to leave a strand or loose to show movement in the hair. This can look as if the hair is blowing in the wind.

Collecting Wools to Add Texture to Your Mat
Be on the look out for heavier woven fabrics, such as plaid coats, boucle, or boiled wool jackets. I have always used mohair scarves , coats, and blankets. They also dye easily and make wonderful texture in fields and skies. Natural wool right off the sheep, llama, or goats can be washed and used as is or dyed. Spinners have a vast array of yarns of different textures that add variety to your work. Sweaters, long woolen underwear, even old woolen socks give a fluffy dimension to your work. Very thin wools such as serges and men’s suiting add a thready texture that is great to show movement in a sea.
Bits of metallic fabrics, or threads can be added into key points in the rug. Remember that adding metallics will draw the eye to that area of the rug so it will become a highlight. Do not use it in an area you do not want to highlight.

Tips Tried and True compiled by Doris Norman,
As published in the Heritage Rug Hooking Guild Newsletter, Fredricton New Brunswick

Tips Tried and True

Don’t do as I do (too often), do as I say. Do the stay stitching on the pattern before starting to hook. If you leave it to the last, the hooking will be very heavy, especially if it is a mat. The latter will necessitate a table beside the sewing machine to take the weight. G. James
Wool needs to breathe, otherwise it may change colour or deteriorate in quality. Zip-lock bags are handy because they close tightly. Get the zip-lock bags that are for vegetables to store your small pieces, balls of wool and leftover strands. These bags have many tiny holes to allow the wool to breathe. Large pieces of wool may be stored in plastic tubs with a tight fitting lid. Before storing wool in tubs bore a few holes in all the sides, top and bottom to allow the wool to breathe. I learned this lesson the hard way. I had a hand dyed swatch change colour drastically due to being stored in an airtight plastic bag two years. G. James
Over dye small checkered woolen cloth (any colour) with yellow, brown or green. They are great for flower centers. G. James
Old Masters used black to darken their colours and did value painting or “glazed” over look. A. Boissinot
The Impressionists came along and used the complements to darken their paints. A. Boissinot
The Impressionists also discovered that placing a little of the complement alongside a colour will create the illusion that the colours have been mixed together. A. Boissinot
When dip-dyeing, run a basting stitch through the wool to be dyed at 1/3 and 2/3 intervals. This is easier than eyeballing to get proportions of colour required. C. MacIntosh
The main colour of a swatch is the middle values. When judging a swatch for colour comparison, use the middle values. M. Peveril
Yellows are difficult to dye. The #6 value often gets brighter rather than a lot darker. Addition of another colour ie., mummy brown or a touch of the omplement will give the dark value for the 6, 7, and 8 values. M. Peveril
Trimming tails – In relation to the wool “tails” left standing when you have hooked around them and are ready to trim off use this method; pull lightly on the tail and snip it off with sharp scissors, the slight tension helps the “tail” sink into the loops and become invisible. D. Norman
All measuring cups are not the same, capacity will differ between companies. Check that each cup has 16 TBS. Also check the measuring spoons. Each TBS. should hold 3 tsps. Bend shank of spoons for ease in measuring. D. Norman
Clean dye spoons in a glass jar containing course salt. Keep three separate jars – reds, blues and yellows. When the jar becomes coloured with dye, use it to dye fabric. The mordant will already be in the dye. I have sprinkled this on wet fabric for great results. D. Norman
Storing wool by colour is the easiest method. Move the wool around on a regular basis to discourage moths. D. Norman
Remember that moths do not like sun and suds. Wash all reclaimed wool in hot water and soap. In the spring, unfold wool, expose to the sun and air. D. Norman
Lee Valley “rare-earth magnet” placed on a gripper strip frame is a convenient place for scissors. Backing is placed over magnet. E. Bastin
Another “do as I say, not as I do”. Keep a photographic record of completed mats with an accompanying record of all pertinent info. E. Bastin
If you tend to pack when hooking a narrow cut and the result does not lie flat, hook on a more even weave foundation. It is impossible to hook tightly. S. Ladd
When trying to match a piece of wool in the dye pot, soak the piece you are matching so that it is as wet as the wool in the pot. Wet wool is darker. S. Ladd
Ginger was struggling with flower shading. “Don’t worry” says her teacher (me) “one day the light will come on and you will get it.” Ginger replied with a wail, “but my brain is no where near an electrical outlet!” S. Ladd
Stick a toothpick into a “holiday” on reverse side of hooking project, it is then easier to fill in holiday on front of hooking. D. Rankin
It is advisable for beginners to try a variety of hook types and sizes before becoming too comfortable with the first hook. D. Rankin

Jennifer Manuells Great Ideas about Inspiration and Creativity

Jennifer Manuell is a talented young, energetic rug designer from Ontario who creates a beautiful newsletter on rug hooking called the R.U.G. Sack. She has created a line of designs for making hooked rug purses. She also offers workshops on creating purses from her patterns. On reading her newsletter I asked Jennifer if she would be interested in contributing to the website and she agreed. You can contact Jennifer for info about her purse patterns or classes at fisheyerugs@hotmail.com, or 705-380-5366. The article below is a sample from her lovely newsletter.

“You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.” —Maya Angelou

I have a 25 year old book in my bookcase called “How to be More Creative,” by David D. Edwards (published by Occasional Productions way back in 1979). I permanently “borrowed” it from my sister years ago (I wonder if she misses it? J) Throughout the book, the author suggests a number of exercises and games to help you to develop your creativity…here are modifications on some of my favourites…

¨ Give yourself a “do nothing” period for 10 minutes or 2 hours…just do nothing and see what happens

¨ Begin a creative notebook…writing down your observations, questions, insights, whatever…even cut and paste pictures, photographs and sketches. Use this as a reference book when looking for a new project, list-making, free-associating, brainstorming, sketching—whatever you like.

¨ Browse through old magazines or visit antique shops to look for “new” ideas or seeds

¨ Roll up a magazine and scan the room for several minutes or look into your backyard through the bottom of a glass.

¨ Free-associate beginning with the word “mother”—simply write down the first thing that comes to mind and continue as quickly as possible through your entries (each time referring back to the most recent word). You can also free-associate with images instead of words…spend a few minutes free-associating images, starting with the colour blue.

There are no wrong answers…the objective is to relish the journeyJ

“Ah, good taste! What a dreadful thing. Taste is the enemy of creativeness.” —Pablo Picasso

“Creativity is so delicate a flower that praise tends to make it bloom, while discouragement often nips it in the bud.”—Alex F. Osborn

Inspiration: (ïn’spè-rã’shen) n

1. stimulation of the intellect or emotions to a high level. 2. One that moves the intellect or emotions or prompts action. 3. A sudden creative idea or act.

meaning: (mé’nïng) n

1. Something one wishes to convey. 2. Something intended : purpose. 3. Importance : significance.

symbol: (sim’b∂l) n

1. Something that represents or stands for something else, as by resemblance or association. 2. A written or printed character or sign representing an element, operation, quantity, quality, or relation.

Last fall, I attended a meeting of the Green Mountain Guild in Vermont where Mary Ann Wise, a Wisconsin fibre artist, was the guest speaker. Amid the plethora of gorgeous rugs in the slide show and accompanying speech, a part of her presentation really resonated with me. At some point fairly early on in her rug hooking, she stopped labeling her rugs—she “knew what they meant and that’s all that mattered!” As someone who has laboured over naming my designs…I immediately felt liberated. Unfortunately the feeling quickly faded when I began thinking “what do my rugs mean?” To me? To my family? My friends? Others?

As rug hooking continues to get more acceptance as an art, rather than just a craft, the need for meaning becomes more important. How can we add more meaning to our rugs? Aside from the relationship between pattern, colour and scale that make them pleasing to the eye….what else can we do?

For starters, we can try to add more symbolism to our rugs. There are several ways to go about doing this:

1. Create your own symbols. Choose motifs that have special meaning for you to represent people, places, events or emotions in a very personal way.

2. Add graphic symbols or ideograms (a graphic symbol that illustrates an idea or concept) to subtly convey meanings both tangible and abstract. For example (and in honour of Mother’s Day…)

spirit or soul Egyptian hieroglyph for woman

symbolizes the mother mother and child

3. Look to mythology or ancient deities for inspiration, such as…

Juno…ancient Italian deity; patron of women, marriage, childbirth, and motherhood

Isis…a popular Egyptian mother goddess; adept at healing and magic

Mut…Egyptian mother goddess—the divine mother; sometimes depicted as a lion

Mahdevi…a supreme Indian goddess; the powerful creative energy of the universe

4. Use colour to be symbolic of emotions, experiences, and surroundings—different colours are thought to have specific meanings. For example…

Green…often associated with healing and nurturing; related to the heart, especially in terms of human relationships and emotions; a green aura can correspond to healing, compassion, or growth

Brown…earthy; extreme practicality

Pink…symbolic of happiness and generosity; a pink aura can correspond to love, optimism and joy

Purple…an honour or privilege of the highest order

Yellow