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Members in News

Members write for Rug Hooking Magazine

The November/December issue of Rug Hooking Magazine includes several articles by TIGHR members.  See excerpts of these along the left sidebar of their home page www.RugHookingMagazine.com

Ask the Experts…. Shirley I. Bradshaw, Nova Scotia diagrams the elegant finishing technique of a herringbone whipped edge.

Advertisement on page 9 for TIGHR promotes the Triennial, speakers, and joining the organization to “Connect with other rug hookers from around the globe.”

Ebb and Flow design by Jo Franco, photo by Michael Kelly Star Creations
Ebb and Flow design by Jo Franco, photo by Michael Kelly Star Creations

 

Australian Connection… Josephine Franco, West Australia describes the garment designed with 100% recycled materials and hooked by a local group as entry to Common Threads Wearable Competition.  The piece evokes the ‘Ebb and Flow’ of the sea and was selected as a finalist.

Camps and Workshops…. features an article by Susan L. Feller celebrating TIGHR’s 20 year history.

 

Rose Wirtz… written by Linda Rae Coughlin, New Jersey, USA is inspired by nature in her designing and colorings.  She exclusively uses natural materials to create a subtle palette.  Rose was a presenter during the Louisville 2009 Triennial.  Her  description of natural dyes can be found on our private site under Education.

Working it Out… Donna Lees Bleam, Virginia USA writes about finding a four panel Oriental pattern and challenging herself to complete it. Then working with a local carpenter to create a screen.

 

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international membership rug hooking rug hooking travel rug hooking

Busy Week Ahead

It is countdown time this week anticipating December 4 and International Hook-In Day. We have listed many plans on our special Calendar page Dec 4 Hook-In and you can read about some of the events in the November 22 blog entry at www.RugHookingMagazine.com/blog

Diamonds on the Soles of her Shoes by Rosemarie Hutchins, USA Original design hooked using hand dyed and as-is wool
Diamonds on the Soles of her Shoes by Rosemarie Hutchins, USA Original design hooked using hand dyed and as-is wool

As noted on the blog, there is a way you can participate in promoting an event.  People are encouraged to post directly to Rug Hooking Magazine’s Facebook page on Dec 4 https://www.facebook.com/pages/Rug-Hooking-Magazine/276410345770221

The page will be monitored by staff. Approvals of posts throughout the 24 hour period from Australia, Japan, the United Kingdom then across the Atlantic to the Canadian provinces and United States will appear chronologically.

If you are not near a fibre friend to talk face-to-face, call them, Skype, or sit-down and write a note.  The world is looking forward to the many creative mats, rugs, artwork, jewelry, purses, clothing, and objects we create with our craft traditions.

 

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international membership rug hooking Members in News rug hooking travel rug hooking

December 4 Int’l Hook-In Day

Twenty years ago on December 4, 1994 the formation of The International Guild of Handhooking Rugmakers (TIGHR) was proclaimed in England.  In celebration of this anniversary and to further our mission statement “come together in friendship to share ideas, and to explore the different techniques of the art of rugmaking using a variety of fibres” we have declared DECEMBER 4, 2014 as the International Hook-In Day.

Let’s spread the word to fellow rugmakers and plan a local event to publicize our traditions in the 21st Century.  Comment below on your plans.  Create a display at a local library and demonstrate at a community center.  Take your project to work for lunch break, bring a mat to be whipped while watching your child play a game after school, go out to tea with a friend and talk about a new project.

Rug Hooking Magazine will be featuring this event during November on their blog and on Facebook December 4.  We are looking for people to post images from Sydney, Australia across that continent to Perth on to Tokyo, Japan to the United Kingdom and Spain then across the Atlantic to Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, the Eastern United States all the way to  California and  Victoria, British Columbia the site of our 8th Triennial October 4, 2015.

Comment below if you are willing to upload an image on December 4 or before.

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New Season, New Events

September brings changes in family routines. The rughooking community is gearing up too with exhibits, celebrations, shows, and gatherings around the world.  Check out our Calendar on TIGHR.NET

Narwilly Ruggers of New South Wales, Australia
Narwilly Ruggers of New South Wales, Australia

Australia will be entering Spring on September 5 celebrating the 20th Anniversary of Narrawilly Proggy Rugmakers with a tea and reunion at the Rug Room in Milton, NSW.

 

The Strathalbyn RugHooking EXPO October 11-12 will be the third time workshops and exhibits fill the town in South Australia.

 

Village Ladies Matmaking by Heather Ritchie, Great Britain   Original design hooked recycled and dyed fabrics wooden hooks attached
Village Ladies Matmaking by Heather Ritchie, Great Britain Original design hooked recycled and dyed fabrics wooden hooks attached

The United Kingdom can be a destination all Fall with the Knitting and Stitching Shows popping up around the Kingdom.  The largest is October 8-12 in Alexandra Palace, London where Jenni Stuart-Anderson will demonstrate rag rugging, recycling into mats.

Wool Festivals are in a variety of communities in Great Britian, Cilla Cameron can be found at a few and co-coordinating the Reeth Retreat with Heather Ritchie in the Yorkshires mid September.

 

In the United States October 15- 18 Hooked in the Mountains, Essex Junction Fairgrounds, Vermont  exhibits hundreds of hooked art pieces, special features of Rachelle LeBlanc and Peg Irish’s work

October 25- November 29 Hooked Art 2014 at The Gallery, UConn, Stamford, CT will be the largest collection of contemporary hooked art curated by Liz Alpert Fay and sponsored by Newtown Hooked Art Shows Fumiyo and Mr. Kangaroo 

 

October 24-30 24th Annual Rug Hooking Exhibit, Chinzanso Hotel, Tokyo, Japan coordinated by Fumiyo Hachisuka

 

web-size.jpg  Culminating the excitement is December 4 The International Hook-In Day celebrating TIGHR’s 20th Anniversary.  Call up a fellow fiber friend and go out for lunch, tea or a chat with your rughooking.  Demonstrate at a local library or community center.  Set up an exhibit of hooked work in a gallery.  Promote rug making around the world.  Use our site for background information and links.  TIGHR.NET

Forty friends off to eat
Forty friends off to eat

It is not too early to make financial and calendar plans for the 8th Tri-Ennial of The International Guild of Handhooking Rugmakers to be held October 4-7, 2015 in Victoria, BC Canada.

 

Rug hooking Canadians in all provinces hold exhibits, guild meetings, and workshops search Canadian Rug Hooking.

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international membership rug hooking rug hooking Rug Hooking Styles

What’s in a Name? a lifestyle? hobby? traditions? Contemporary?

Words influence the attitude one assumes when discussing their craft. Is it a profession, hobby, social/psychological/creative outlet? We are educating in casual conversation even with an initial title……. rugger, fiber artist, rug hooker, matter, hooker, textile artist, traditional rug hooker. Recently our international membership responded, many describing their mindset for the terminology:

Susan Sutherland, Ontario, Canada
“If someone asks me what I do, I generally say I’m a fibre artist and I use traditional rug hooking as my preferred method of creating my art. If I want to have someone ‘stop in their tracks’ I tell them first I’m a “hooker”, and then I qualify it and say I’m a fibre artist and I use traditional rug hooking methods that our pioneer mothers did.

There is so much misconception about rug hooking with strips of fabric that I find I’m always clarifying what I do. I sometimes say ‘I don’t knot nor do I use short pieces of wool yarn’, especially if someone says ‘Oh yes, I did that when I was a child or in school’. Most of those who say this in Canada are remembering latch hooking.”
Fritz Mitnick, Pennsylvania, USA
“I imagine most Americans say “I am a rug hooker“. I do proddy also. I also thought about our guild name. I never say the full name. I say the international guild or the international guild of rug hookers. Maybe I should start doing it right!
Of course my husband always introduces me saying, “This is Fritz. She is a hooker.”

Judi Tompkins, Australia
“Obviously I’m a “hooker”….and I usually explain that to be a great hooker means that I am a good stripper…..ah how I luv the ashen looked faces I see!  Clearly I am the crazed, white-haired ol’ lady…. Sometimes – when I’m trying to be “nice” or “professional” I’ll ID myself as a “traditional fibre artist”….which means I don’t fall into an immediate category of “hooker” (many think of latch hooking) and opens the dialog about the spectrum of how these 3 words might be defined/applied.”

Heide Brown, British Columbia, Canada
“I say “I’m a Hooker.” Which always gets giggles or weird looks till someone, me if I’m alone, qualifies the term to — “Rug-hooker.”
I like “Rugger”  — my friend here calls herself a “Matter” and our weekly hook group “Monday Matters”. (NOTE: TIGHR’s newsletter is called “Hooking Matters”)

Jenni Stuart-Anderson, Herefordshire, UK
“I call myself a rag rug maker or designer/maker depending on where it is.
I have not heard the term “rugger” here in UK, maybe rug maker but that could be a weaver. Of course everyone sniggers when I say hooker, even if the term is American.”

Lynne Hunt, British Columbia, Canada
“I think we all struggle with the term hooker. I find here on the Coast most folks think of latch hooking and the shag rugs of the seventies. I tell people I am a fibre artist (gulp). It is a fine art practised at many levels. Whether you design your own work or work with the designs of others, there is so much more in what we do. I tell people I make mats, for the wall, the floor, chairs, tables- only limited by your imagination. I explain that I use a backing of burlap or linen, strips of fibre, mostly wool, new and recycled and a hook similar to one used centuries ago. I explain that the process involves colour planning, maybe some dyeing and choosing textures and materials for your work.
So I am a mat maker in the tradition of our pioneer sisters, creating something functional and beautiful.”

Elizabeth Soderholm, Virginia, USA
“My husband loves that I call myself a hooker and it always grabs folks’ attention.  Gives me a chance to talk about this wonderful fibre/fiber art.  My boss (who is from Mississippi) will ask me on a Friday, in his lovely Southern drawl, “You goin’ hookin’ this weekend?”  It’s probably the best way to bring attention to our craft outside of schlepping our rugs and other projects around with us.”

Liz Alpert Fay, Connecticut, USA
“I call myself : a textile artist or sometimes just an artist.
I make: hand hooked rugs and mixed media sculpture.”

Sarah Province, Maryland, USA
“I call myself a “fiber artist” and our medium “hooked fiber art”.

Jane LeBaron, British Columbia, Canada
“I variously call myself a hooker and braider, a quilter and bookbinder and general fibre freak. I am fully confident that upon one brief look at me people understand my intended context in use of the term “hooker”…

Rachelle Leblanc, Alberta, Canada
“I tell them that I am a fiber artist and I make fiber hookings.”

Mary Watson, Washington,USA
“I say, “I’m a fibre artist and paint with wool”.

Dianne Tobias, California, USA
“Since I came to hooking through braiding I introduce myself as a fiber artist then say I am a braider and a rug hooker. That seems to somewhat limit the usual jokes!”

Sheila Stewart, British Columbia, Canada
“I use the term fibre artist and then say I am a rug hooker.”

Linda Rae Coughlin, New Jersey, USA
“I tend to work with this statement, the response changes depending on who I am speaking with, i.e. fellow artist vs. a layperson.
I am an artist whose medium is textile. I create with the technique of rug hooking/stitching using recycled clothing and materials.”

During the 2009 Tri-Ennial held in Louisville, Kentucky, USA we asked attendees the terminology they used to describe favorite fiber techniques. Miriam Miller, an Australian is a rugger and spinner; Susan Feller West Virginia, USA a fiber artist specializing in rugmaking techniques; Kim Dubay, Maine USA fiber artist; Jacqui Thomson, Australia a rugger and spinner; Iris Simpson, Ontario Canada a Hooker; Yvonne Muntwyler, Ontario Canada a Fiber Artist in rughooking medium.

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Members in News

Eco Dyer, Yvonne Dalton from South Australia

Fiber Art Now Summer 13 Yvonne   TIGHR member and presenter at the 2012 Tri-Ennial in Strathalbyn, South Australia, YVONNE DALTON is one of seven international organic printmakers featured in the Summer 2013 issue of Fiber Art Now magazine. Yvonne speaks in the article “A very important consideration and obligation for me is to minimize my impact on the environment, as concerns of landscape are central to my art practice.”  The opening full page image of her banners flowing in the breezes on South Australia’s landscape emphasizes her philosophy.

Audience listening to Yvonne Dalton's presentation

  During the TIGHR presentation, in her quiet voice, Yvonne told her story and showed examples of cloth, garments and art objects made from the marked fabrics left in the elements for months.

She also assisted conference members in a workshop to create braided lanyards which closed the felted folders we made in another workshop. 

Yvonne Dalton Eco Dyeing

The following gallery shows Yvonne’s process in the groves of acacia and eucalyptus trees.

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international membership rug hooking rug hooking travel rug hooking

In Celebration of Australian Members- January 26

Happy Australia Day to our past board members and all the rughooking enthusiasts throughout the continent. 

While attending the Tri-Ennial, we exchanged small 4″ x 6″ mats with a theme of “The Sky’s the Limit”.  This gallery represents many of the Australians’ creations. ARG refers to the Australian Rugmakers Guild, our hosts.

Anne Callison, ARG member
Anne Callison, ARG member
Anne Shaffer, TIGHR member
Anne Shaffer, TIGHR member
Elke Smith-Hill, TIGHR member
Elke Smith-Hill, TIGHR member
Gay Wilkes, ARG member
Gay Wilkes, ARG member
Ilka Landahl, TIGHR member
Ilka Landahl, TIGHR member
Jacqui Thomson, TIGHR member
Jacqui Thomson, TIGHR member
Janet Taylor-Henry, TIGHR member
Janet Taylor-Henry, TIGHR member
Jenny Anderson, ARG member
Jenny Anderson, ARG member
Jo Franco, TIGHR member
Jo Franco, TIGHR member
Judi Tompkins, TIGHR member
Judi Tompkins, TIGHR member
Judith Stephens, TIGHR member
Judith Stephens, TIGHR member
Maggie Whyte, TIGHR member
Maggie Whyte, TIGHR member
Marion Nefiovodas, TIGHR member
Marion Nefiovodas, TIGHR member
Marlene Chapman, ARG member
Marlene Chapman, ARG member
Miriam Miller, TIGHR member
Miriam Miller, TIGHR member
Noreen Shier, ARG member
Noreen Shier, ARG member
Robin Inkpen, TIGHR member
Robin Inkpen, TIGHR member
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international membership rug hooking travel rug hooking

Off to OZ

Our bags are packed, E-Tickets printed and off we go to OZ, Australia.  Members from Spain, Israel, Japan, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States are flying around the world to meet with the Australians in Strathalbyn, South Australia.  The Tri-Ennial officially begins Monday, 15 October and continues through Friday.  The weekend will be filled with workshops at the EXPO featuring international instructors and members and friends of the Australian Rughooking Guild, at Strathalbyn Town Hall.

Our new Board will be transitioning into action, and be in full swing as of January, the month for RENEWALS of membership.  After 19 October check our Membership page for the details.

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international membership rug hooking rug hooking

Australian promotes rugmaking

We are proud of our members promoting the art and craft of rugmaking.
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international membership rug hooking travel rug hooking

Now it is really close!

Editor of TIGHR news and traveler Australian, Jo Franco has been on the West Coast of the United States with her husband, Ted for a few months.  We can see they are enjoying their trip by visiting http://geneshepherd.com/blog/1   The September 12 post includes smiling faces and a report from Gene Shepherd, a fellow TIGHR member, presenter at the Expo after the Tri-Ennial in Strathalbyn and co-chair for the ATHA Bi-Ennial next year in Long Beach, CA besides teacher, artist, business owner.

Yes the members of TIGHR are ACTIVE contributors in promoting the traditional art/crafts of rughoooking techniques worldwide.  We hope you too will be interested in joining for the next enrollment period 2012-2015, renewals and new membership will be taken as of January 2013 officially and the form available immediately after the conference in mid October of this year (one month from this writing).