Rugcrafters Australia News - August/September 2009

RUGCRAFTERS AUSTRALIA GUILD NEWSLETTER AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2009

GUILD NEWS: The next General Meeting of the Guild will be 17th April 2010 during an Exhibition at Narrawilly. At this time Gene Shepherd will give 5 workshops: the first, on Thurs 15th will be Three Dimensional Prodded Flowers: Learn Gene Shepherd's simple approach to making

realistic prodded flowers using a template supplied, or a simple pattern of your own that calls for prodded flowers. This popular workshop will be repeated on Sunday 18th. Other workshops by Gene: Fri 16th “Fixing Rug Problems”

Mon 19th “Hooking Techniques - Tips to Improve” Tues 20th “Making a rug in 12 hours”.

Bookings for workshops start December 2009 and must be finalized by February 2010. Class space is limited. Don’t miss this great opportunity – book early! Contact: Miriam Miller at narrawillyfarm@shoal.net.au It

sounds as if Gene is really looking forward to his visit to

Australia, go to his blog http://geneshepherd.com/blog1/

Membership: Updated 2009/2010 Lists will be forwarded to members at the end of August – we’d like it to be as up to date as possible – so please get those renewals in right away. The names of new members will be listed each month in the newsletter so that you can keep your list current.

TIGHR Triennial Conference and ATHA Biennial Conference - Kentucky,USA They’re off and racing.......... to Louisville, Kentucky , the home of the “Kentucky Derby” - Judy and Jo will meet up with Miriam and Jacqui on the 19th Sept in Louisville for the 2009 TIGHR & ATHA Conferences. More about these Conferences in the October News

SOUTH AUSTRALIA: "Strath Matters" news from South Australia

A few of our group travelled to Keyneton recently and met with four of the members from the Kapunda class. We had a wonderful time whilst sharing ideas, information and skills - all accompanied by lots of talk and really nice food! The day was so infectious that we decided to combine our two groups on a regular basis - and the next meeting will be held in a Gallery in Birdwood - about halfway between our locations, on August 22nd. We're hoping that most of our members will be able to attend. The Kapunda group will be exhibiting their rugs in the Salon Rouge Gallery in Kapunda - opening on September 5th.

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Gene Shepherd has given permission to print the following report shown on his blog ................. To hear directly from Gene about his plans go to http://geneshepherd.com/blog1/

“Although held in a country on the other side of the world, the agenda for the meeting, as reported to me by Sue Lange in another email about the event, sounded somewhat familiar: a delicious pooled lunch, gorgeous rustic surroundings and most enjoyably, an afternoon of good company and conversion about --rug hooking! Our shared interest in rug hooking is reaping many new friendships, which is a wonderful bonus to the enjoyment of rug hooking itself. Here I have been attending hook-ins with an international flavor for years and I did not even know it! Sounds to me as though it was an event to make any rug hooker feel right at home. Just looking at some of the things on the table, it could have been my home. “ Workshop "All you need to know about making a rag rug" will be held in Strathalbyn on August 29th at 20 Langhorne Creek Road. For details email Judy on jbingram@bigpond.net.au or phone 08 8536-3451 Strathalbyn Antique and Collectors Fair, an annual event which involves the whole town, will be held on August 15/16. The Rug Matters will be hosting a display alongside the local quilt group in the bowling club during that weekend.

NEW SOUTH WALES: Miriam Miller’s Narrawilly Proggers have joined with rug making groups across Britain who are ready to take part in the

Rug Aid RUG Rave

Mark your calendars for SATURDAY NOVEMBER 21ST 2009 ----- it will be a very special day! It was reported in the Rug Aid Newsletter (June 2009) that Alison Maldane, one of the supporters of Heather Ritchie’s Rug Aid programme suggested on The Welcome Mat forum that everyone should have a go at blind rug making. The idea was well received and someone else suggested that Heather make some of the original Gambian designs available to supporters - this was followed by a suggestion that there be a fund-raising day for Rug Aid – and so RUG AID’S RUG RAVE came about. The basic idea is very simple: spend some time on Saturday 21st November making a rug. You can work alone or, to make it more fun, get together with as many other rug makers as you can. To add your name or that of your group to the list of Rug Rave locations go to http://www.rug-aid.org/rug-rave.html More information on the project and a picture of the rug Heather has designed for the day can been seen on this site. You can also see footage taken in Gambia by Heather for rug-aid.org on her video on YouTube

SOUTH AUSTRALIA ............. contd.

Ladies pictured are (left to right) Noreen Wendelborn, Sue Lange,

Marion Nefiodovas (behind in orange sweater), Yvonne Dalton

(hostess for the event), Marion Allan, Kathleen Berry, and

Judy Ingram. Photo by Jeanette Marshall

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TASMANIA: Happy Hookers Rug Exhibition, Launceston & Lilydale 2009

by Maura O’Connor The lovely village of Lilydale, 19kms north-east of Launceston, Tasmania was host to the

Deloraine Happy Hookers travelling exhibition for the

second and third weekend of July as the exhibition slowly

wound its way across the state..

Mounted in the library wing of the Old Court House building in the main street of the village the exhibition was a perfect match in both the number of exhibits and the size of the room which was well lit by both natural and artificial light. Care and attention to detail ensured all rugs were hung straight with sufficient space between them to allow ease of viewing. Consequently, despite the small space it was a joy to wander around the room and take the opportunity to look at each rug carefully, marvelling at the creative energy of the small group of women who meet regularly at the etc café, Elizabeth Town in northern Tasmania. All the rugs are abstract in nature, although many have hidden meanings within the design. One rug, all grey except for a thin ribbon of pink through the middle – perhaps reminding its creator of the vivid pink of the native heath, Epacris impressa which flowers profusely through the understorey of the Tasmanian bush in winter, was made for a pet Eastern grey or Forester kangaroo, “Flossie”, while another by the same hand reminded its owner of the ordered fields of Vietnam. Another rug, featuring swirls of grey, blue and white suggests the galaxies to its creator yet in another mood, by the same hand, a narrow rug, bright yellow in the centre provides a relaxing as well as stimulating place for prayer and contemplation. Still another reminds its creator of the changing landscape over summer in the paddocks around her home while another rug, by a different hand, takes the very basic design of stripes in brilliant to quiet hues, narrow and wide bands to produce an outstanding work. There are more that have not been described but all are equally effective. So much so, that on first seeing the exhibition, a local resident went home to collect and then display a rug that has only seen her bedroom to this point.

Notes about each rug were displayed carefully in a folder on a reading slope so that visitors could understand the inspiration behind each design. A panel of pictures and notes about the group was strategically displayed amongst the rug while outside the building a sign clearly identified the exhibition inside. An example of how a latch-hook rug is made, complete with tools, was set up in the middle of the room.

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WESTERN AUSTRALIA: Hooked on Hessian Norma Hackett’s second child Nathan required long term care after he suffered a stroke caused by a childhood illness, so Norma, a nursing graduate, went in search of meaningful activities that would stimulate and encourage the use of both hands and both sides of the brain. In 1990 Norma discovered rug hooking and worked on it with Nathan as therapy. In 1998 Norma along with Nathan, then age 18, became involved in a program for the visually impaired using a special “egg-beater” type hook. They also taught rug hooking to groups of school children. You can meet Norma and Nathan, who now runs their business, on their web site www.hookedonhessian.com.au where you will see more photos of rugs made in their workshops by local school groups. Norma has also become involved with The Society for the Arts in Dementia Care (Aust) Inc. The 4th International Conference on Creative Expression, Communication and Dementia, “Arts

Ageing and Creativity – Unlocking the Potential” to be held in the Adelaide Convention Centre, from 22-23 Oct 2009 with pre-conference workshops on 21 Oct 2009. For more information on this contact Norma at hookedonhessian@hotmail.com Norma has undertaken a number of Hooked on Hessian weaving projects with residential and aged care facilities in WA. A hooked “tapestry” featured on the cover of a training manual for the Creative-Expressive Assessment Tool used

internationally was facilitated by Norma at the Maurice Zeffert Home. This weekend Norma is co-hosting a workshop on Storytelling Through Tapestry looking at all the Community projects they have been involved with. This workshop is open to anyone who is interested, they would love to swell their numbers . It will be held in their cottage in the hills and Norma says the garden looks amazing, so workshop participants would get double the value.

NEWSFLASH!!!!!

Finally...... a new Australian Rug Hooking website is underway - it is already up and running even though adding the content has just begun. You can see it starting to take shape at

http://rughookingaustralia.com

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QUEENSLAND: (BEC BEC Designs) of 8 Griffith St North Tamborine, Qld, 4272.. Ph: 55451934 Email: becthor@bigpond.com Bec advises that she is selling a primary backing fabric that is 100% polyester made in Germany which she uses for both her hand-tufting and also hand hooking. It will withstand a lot of wear and tear and also will not harbour mould etc. and it can be used with Miriam’s frame and lap frames with grippers. The backing has the appearance and feel of linen.

The product is ESTEX 266 Grey and sells for AU$15 per square metre, plus shipping. Small and large pieces available.

As a textile artist, Bec designs and produces hand-tufted rugs from 100% New Zealand Wool that she hand dyes using natural dyes processed from bugs and plants from all over the world to create a colourfast palette that is unobtainable from chemical dyes. When asked to explain “Hand-tufting” Bec said ...............

“the process of hand tufting as quite unique - I draw my design onto a backing that is stretched like a canvas on a huge frame. I use a hand held tufting-gun that I load with coloured wool. Then I shoot the wool through the backing, much like painting with wool.”

Bec sees her designs in everything, bark from a tree, snail trials on a pathway, rows of stones, and even childrens art. Using photoshop, she edits and designs photos taken with her digital camera to create the final design - her principal goal she says, is “to produce beautiful and functional products to enhance the environments of the people around me.”

EDITORS NOTE:

Due to your Editor’s busy travel schedule, the next edition of the newsletter will be in October when we hope to bring you rughooking news from across North America, the UK and Africa. In the meantime, Happy Hooking or Progging/Prodding as the case may be.

To receive future newsletters - Remember to send in your Membership RENEWALS

Cheers Jo Franco