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Hooked Rag Rugs and Punchneedle
Welcome to my website! About me I originally trained as an illustrator, but did not pursue this professionally. Apart from drawing and painting, I have experimented with a variety of crafts, including: macramé, needlepoint, clay, plaster of Paris, papier mâché, hand-made books, a little embroidery and appliqué, and most recently rag rugs. Wanting to learn more about textile arts, I completed the Open College of the Arts Textile 1 course, which was challenging but very enjoyable. I discovered rag rug making several years ago. The simplicity of the technique particularly appealed (I have an aversion to using machinery and avoid it if I can!) as well as its versatility and the traditional use of recycled materials - a great excuse to go to jumble sales! My style is graphic, slightly quirky and mostly features people and animals, both real and imaginary. I work on small scale rag rug wall-hangings in a variety of recycled fabrics, supplemented occasionally by tapestry wools for fine details and metallic threads and other materials for special effects. More recent work is on an even smaller scale, using a punchneedle with embroidery threads and tapestry wool. Over the last few years I discovered stone-carving, mainly in alabaster, which I've really enjoying (link below right to carving blog), so textile work took a back seat for a while. However both rag hooking and punchneedle have now been resumed, and as lockdown goes on there will be plenty of time for more projects! |
Hooked in London - Rag Rug Group I’d been rag rug hooking for some time, but living in London (bit of a rag rug wasteland!) I wasn’t meeting other rag ruggers and was feeling rather isolated. So in desperation I decided to have a go at starting a London group. The group began in 2011 with 6 people; some experienced rag ruggers, and some novices, but all enthusiastic and keen to meet up regularly. Over nine years later we have a thriving group, though more of a mixed textiles group rather than solely rag-rugging, meeting every month in Islington and with our own blog: http://hooked-in-london.blogspot.co.uk/ Links to other sites:
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