Tag Archives: Green Mountain Hooked Rugs

Teaching is Inspiring

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Remember returning to school and the first writing assignment in English class was “What I did over summer break”? Now in my adult career the academic calendar runs in short sessions and I get to travel. This summer included team teaching Geometrics and Graffiti in Montpelier, VT; representing an international online webinar from Australia while I was in Archbold, OH twelve hours earlier; recording video and audio interviews with fiber artists, and teaching to see while sailing on a windjammer on the Penobscot Bay out of Maine.

Graffiti and Geometrics student work in progress

Geometrics and Graffiti combined in one hooked piece? Stephanie Allen-Krauss and I developed the class similar to how a hooked pattern would be analyzed: motifs and surface. Graffiti are painted on walls, sidings, pavements all of which have textures and geometric patterns. The graffiti designs were created – personal tags or messages. Students gridded the shapes which would enhance their message, deciding on colors, values and direction of hooking. Each personality came through in their work at Green Mountain Hooked Rugs School in Montpelier, VT.

Webinar launch and Textile artist video at Sauder Village

During the 23rd Annual Rug Hooking Week at Sauder Village, Archbold, OH I was asked to represent the Global Textile Hub, a new online project lead by three Australian rugmakers. During the preview night attendees in Sauder were patched into the live webinar during the Q and A session. For all who missed the event (with global participants) it has been archived along with an advance video of interviews at YouTube Kira Mead. Subscribe to her channel for upcoming projects. Throughout the week we collected answers – why do you hook or work with your hands? how many workshops or events do you attend annually? where do you work?, is this a hobby, social enjoyment, therapy, profession? Share some of these with us below in the comments.

Janine Broscious at her traveling RV home, one of the interviews.

I have launched on a year long project storytelling, documenting our process, researching history and networking with contemporaries. More to come on this as my learning curve gets easier to climb. In the mean time here are some people I have talked with this summer. Janine Broscious, Capri Boyle-Jones, Liz Marino, Sandra Brown, Anne Cox, Michelle Wise, and all the unique students.

Students working designs drawn while on the windjammer

Thanks to Beth Miller and Ellen Marshall of 207 Creatives for the most unique workshop site: the 92 year old J&E Riggin windjammer sailing from Rockland, Maine! Before we boarded students worried about their “drawing” skills, it takes repeating to learn. What “pattern” will we be working on? – their own after they find it, draw and then transfer to linen. Will there be wool for every design? YES but not loads. Through the four day trip the anxiousness dropped away, we learned to look closely to develop lines, shapes and values with colors, textures to portray movement, strength, and overall memories all senses experienced.

Now back in the studio I got back to pulling loops myself. The final rug in Trees Series is evolving. Using my Instagram thread and ArtWools facebook page the process is being documented. Studio time has resulted in work to send out for shows.

Submissions are out for several shows. This Spring four were included in the WV Invitational at Juliet Art Museum in the Clay Center, Charleston, WV. Opening November 17 through Feb 18, 2020 two pieces were accepted in the 2019 WV Juried Biannual, sponsored by the Dept of Arts, Culture and History in Charleston, WV. They are Seneca Rocks #3 and Pussycats Pillow Talk #1

Entries accepted in 2019 WV Juried Exhibition

25 Years Creating

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I talk about the Girl Scouting and handwork skills learned while growing up, the BA in Art and History with photography as my creative medium but until Lillian Vale gave me a 15 minute lesson on how to pull loops I was not confident to proclaim: I am an artist. That session was on January 1, 1994, and rug hooking has lead to an amazing journey over 25 years.

First frame

This frame supported hundreds of projects until 2008 when I upgraded to a floor model. I had to pin the backing taught, pulling the push pins out when I needed to move to another part. The first top wore out and Jim made a second one!  I logged every project on the wooden base listing size, start, finish, title and if sold to whom.

 

 

the Spinner, Susan Feller

We do not have many places to store items, but the Pig rug is missing and 1994 was before digital photos. It was a large rounded pig line drawing (no “designer’s name). He was in the center of backing with no other details. However the second rug was my own design – the Spinner. A dream of what we would do when getting into our log cabin. The inspiration was Moravian Pottery mosaics. And rug hooking line drawings lead me to studying fraktur motifs, geometrics, nature and finally the confidence to “paint with wool” as an artist.

Flash through the years, 200 rug patterns, dye recipes, a Design in a Box filled with fraktur templates all as Ruckman Mill Farm are now distributed by Green Mountain Hooked Rugs. I served on boards of national and international rug hooking organizations, vended throughout the US and Canada, wrote a book about Design, sold hundreds of rugs, and exhibited in fine art collections. For the past five years, under a new company ArtWools, I have taught design to fiber artists, advocated for the arts in WV and work in my studio. The best of this journey is my confidence to say I AM AN ARTIST and the many friends I have met along the way.

Working at home

Looking forward to the next years creating.

Reflecting and Planning

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It has been 5 years since I began the Year Study.  My goals were to explore, evaluate and exhibit the results of daily sketching and creating. I did EXPLORE with materials, techniques and composition lessons resulting in a renewed interest in hand stitching, experimenting with brushes and paints, and seeing more simply.

EVALUATING my use of time is an important element as an artist. How to continue networking in one circle while expanding into others; keeping an ear open and helping in different ways needs to be communicated by actions and in conversations. Scheduling studio time and developing themes for the upcoming exhibits rather than creating inventory has been a process. One that with the distractions of nature here in West Virginia is more enjoyable than a commercial speed on the East Coast as I age. Transferring the Ruckman Mill Farm patterns and products to a new generation at Green Mountains Hooked Rugs opened my schedule to more studio time. Now teaching is focused on design and encouragement, others provide the materials.

The EXHIBIT goal was met at Sauder Village Rug Hooking Week in 2015 when all twelve months and a collection of work were featured. Juried into and invited to show in several fine art exhibits validated the direction and I respect my peers recognition. My resume’ lists these venues with the ultimate, an Award of Excellence and purchase by the State Museum from the 20th Bi-Ennial Juried Exhibition in 2017 for Progress in the Mountains. The opportunity to curate the collection Glimpses Inside Appalachia this fall, shown at Raleigh Playhouse, Beckley, WV brought my work before a new audience and opened other exhibit venues.

My five year goal includes developing the themes I identified from the study and exhibiting each in different markets. A new decade will be on the horizon by then and more goals.

Speaking out about current events , Nature’s Beauty and Human Impact, and a Travel Series  where I am developing each sketch several times. 

Hope to meet you on our journey. Happy creating.

A morning in Lowell then on the road

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Reasons to visit Lowell, MA : 1. Interested in history of industrial revolution and manufacturing impact on communities, economies.  2. Explore the roots of unions and establishment of child labor laws, realistic work hours. 3. The seeds of suffragette movement, and women’s rights. 4. Textile heritage portrayed through one of the first urban National Parks featuring the architecture, lifestyle, and today the craft at New England Quilt Museum, along with the mills in the park. 5. Today’s lively arts and cultural heritage celebrated in festivals, concerts and shops. #LikeLowell   likelowell.com/ 

Climate Change how we can help

 

The signage at the Visitors Center included a display about Climate Change.

 

 

 

The New England Quilt Museum on Shattuck Street near the Visitors Center for the park has a gift shop on the first floor and rotating exhibits on the second along with a reference library. The shows currently include collaborative work from the beginnings of Art Quilts (the early 1970’s). A collection worked by two close friends Molly Upton and Susan Hoffman which are stunning in their simplicity yet rhythmic combination of materials and shapes. Quilted Canvas II

The second exhibit Migrant Quilts of the Southern Arizona Borderlands is a series of quilts using materials found, names of lost people, and chronicling the deaths by years. (a panel for each year)

I only had a morning to spend in the city but look forward to returning with some textile friends to share the emotional experiences I had, discuss the many topics of mutual interest, and support this community.

On the road again heading north, with NO more major cities there was minimal traffic. Montpelier is my home for the upcoming week. The state capital for Vermont, with two major streets : State and Main. You can definitely “park your car” and walk around visiting shops, eating farm to table, Vietnamese, Thai, Chinese, Italian, Skinny Pancakes, at the New England Culinary School, pizza, gelato, 802 Coffee, or steak at the Capitol Plaza Hotel.

I am here for the Green Mountain Rug Hooking School (in its 37th year). There are two four day sessions lead by instructors from the US and Canada. Check out this year’s schedule and consider attending in 2019. The listing of classes will be online after this session ends.

My students in Contemporary Celtic Design explored the making of their patterns to be able to colorplan the knots, twists and turns. It is challenging and rewarding to see the lines become shapes.

The next post will drop in on more classes and aspects of the school.

 

Abstract Expression workshop

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Broadway Restaurant, Grace Hartigan at Nelson-Atkins Museum, Kansas City MO

Last days of planning for Green Mountain Hooked Rugs School in Montpelier, VT took me to several museums, the most recent was Nelson-Atkins Art Museum in Kansas City, MO. Seeing work in person incorporates all your senses and emotions. To walk into a gallery and witness the curator’s selections enhanced by painted walls, lighting and spacing opens understanding and questions I want to ask of the artists. Their work speaks for them, to me and others. Conversations with fellow museum goers has expanded my appreciation and docents or labels add to the education.

Abstract Expressionists’ elements, interpreted in slow motion (the textile techniques of handwork), will be explored by students willingly reacting to music, verse, street scenes, and their own “homework” sketches. I experienced their unease while working through “Nesting Frenzy”. Illustrated are sketch #1 and mixed media versions #2 and #3. These are works in progress. Expect a final report to be published in the near future. It was an uncomfortable but rewarding experience.

catalog

Artists to explore include those in the traveling exhibit Women of Abstract Expressionism.

Grace Hartigan, Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Joan Mitchell, Perle Fine, Helen Frankenthaler, Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, to begin the listing reacted to each others work, critiquing, responding to and were driven to express the environment (social and natural) around them at the time.

We continue to use our skills to exhale today’s bombardment of outside and internal influences. Our art speaks.

 

Traveling to Vermont

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What designs could come out of a June week in the capitol city of Vermont with friends?

Plenty of ideas for artwork and many personal memories were gathered while enjoying Montpelier, VT and the Green Mountain Hooked Rug School.  Looking forward to returning in 2017 teaching “Working in Abstract Expressionism”. Registration is open at GreenMountainHookedRugs.com