Rug Hooking

Rug hooking is the art of creating rugs with strips of wool fabric pulled through a foundation fabric, such as burlap, linen, or monks cloth. In very basic terms, rug hooking consists of one stitch - pulling a loop of wool through a hole with a hook that resembles a crochet hook with a handle. It's an ancient art that dates back to the Egyptians.

Today, rug hooking is viewed as a way to balance our increasingly hectic lives with a creative outlet, while creating heirlooms and collectibles.

Rugs

Rugs/Carpet making in Afghanistan is a craft of great antiquity for which the country is justly famous. Before 1978 Afghanistan's Rugs/Carpets ranked fifth amongst the country's exports. Rich in form and color, the flat-woven, hand-knotted and felt creations woven by highly-skilled Turkmen, Uzbek, Hazara, Aimed, Kirghiz and Baluch craftsmen once represented the highest quality in Central Asia.

Daulatabad is a famous rug center just north of Maimana, and Shahkh, near Qaisar, to the west. In addition, one may often find good buys in other tribal Turkoman rugs such as the Mauri and the Qizil Ayak. They also display numbers of Donkey bags, bildow (narrow woven pieces used for yurt decorations) and namad, felt rugs. Ranging from black to grey, occasionally a prized white, namad are decorated with floral and geometric designs in bright, hot pink, yellow, orange, and white. When used as roffing for the yurts, the decorated side is turned toward the inside to enhance the colorful interior festooned with long strings of pompoms, woven bands, some narrow, some wide, all gayly exuberant.

Almost every walled compound in the suberbs of Maimana contains a yurt (prounonced ooy in Uzbaki) for summer living. The namad are made by specialists in the village of Wenchalat across the river from Maimana and are available in quanitity only on bazaar days when they may be purchased on almost any sidewalk and off the backs of numerous donkeys. Besides these various types of rugs the rug dealers also offer saddles and finely embroidered hats for sale.

Kelowna area rugs

Leopard Area Rug

Zebra Area Rug

Ultimate Shag

Giraffe Area Rug

Beauty of Quality Area Rugs

Modern Design Rugs

Oriental Rugs

Durable Area Rugs

Southwestern Rugs

The Rug Room

Artist Debuts Rug Collection Inspired by Maine

When artist Katy Allgeyer wanders the woods behind her studio, everything she sees informs her artistic vision. A piece of bark, a lichen encrusted rock, a granite sea wall--Maine's natural environment has inspired the artist's new "Organica Collection" of handcrafted rugs that will be shown at the High Point International Furniture Market in High Point, NC April 25-30.

"My new Organica Collection of rugs is directly related to my experience of Maine," Katy Allgeyer said. "I was able to simulate the texture of a tree in my design called "Bark" through combining Tibetan wool with hemp fibers as well as through sculptural trimming techniques that create a high/low pattern."

All of the rugs are made by hand in Kathmandu Nepal by skilled workers who've passed down their Tibetan rug making techniques for generations. The factory that makes the rugs belongs to "Rugmark", which insures that no child labor is involved.

Hand woven Rug

Ashan runner from the Shirvan district Caucasus

This wool and cotton Afshan rug is from the Kuba region of the northern Caucasus. The term Afshan refers to a particular design, derived from 17th and 18th century Persian and Indian floral and arabesque sources, rather than a group of people or a geographical area. Rugs like this one were made throughout most of the 19th century and possibly earlier, and sit within the broader category of Shirvan rugs.

Carpet weaving in the Caucasus has a long history, the earliest known group being the so-called 'dragon' rugs which date back to the 17th century. The Afshan design is related in structure and colour to dragon rugs, and is in turn an obvious design source for many later Shirvan rugs.

This rug belongs to a collection of five rugs and three nomadic trappings covering the main carpet making regions of Asia, from western Turkey across Iran (Persia) into Central Asia. The collection was given to the Powerhouse Museum by Dr George Soutter to acknowledge the achievements of the Oriental Rug Society of NSW, an affiliated society of the Museum, to emphasise the significance of the Museum's rug collection and to encourage its growth. The collection, which includes floor coverings and tent partitions, horse decorations and saddle bags, documents different types of rugs and trappings and highlights their varying functions.

Rug Hooking

Rugs have been made in the Maritimes since Europeans first settled here. There is evidence to suggest that rugs were made in Great Britain during the eighteenth century and it is known that rugs were made in Nova Scotia in the nineteenth century.

Rug hooking came from thrumming, which is a process in which yarn (thrum) is inserted into canvas. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the craft was already well developed, but by the end of the century the art of homemade rugs was in decline because of the availability of commercially made rugs.

There are two tools needed for rug hooking: a frame and a hook. The hook, which is used for pulling the nap (surface cloth) up through the backing, is similar to a heavy crochet hook. Hooks of the nineteenth century were made from a thin nail inserted into a wooden handle. The point of the nail was rounded and then barbed.

The frame consisted of four wooden slats. Canvas was tacked to the two longest slats and the backing for the rug was sewn to it. Some rug hookers also attached the rug to the smaller sides of the frame with yarn. Iron clamps were used to hold the frame together in a rectangle shape and it was set on wooden legs so that the rug hooker could sit down to work.

The backing that was used for rugs was almost exclusively made of burlap from old feed bags. These were easy to get and the burlap was strong. Weak burlap could seriously shorten the life of a rug.

Designs were draw on the burlap with “firecoal” - a piece of charcoal from the wood stove. To hook a rug, a strip of material is held under the burlap and then hooked up through with the hook. Four to ten loops per inch are common, with six or seven being the best for floor rugs. Our craftspeople make rugs in this traditional fashion at the Temperance Hall. The rugs are used in many of the buildings on site and may also be purchased by visitors to the Village.

Canal boat Astra

Handmade rag rugs were some of the many canal related crafts available for visitors to buy on the towpath

State Drawing Room

This room is used for greeting official visitors and for posed photos with the Governor.

The rug is an exact replica of the original Aubusson Tapestry Weave made by Lacey Champion Mill of Fairmont, Georgia. The rug was added during Governor Zell Miller’s administration and many restorations in the room have occurred during Governor Perdue’s administration.

The gentleman in the portrait on the far wall is Robert Augustus Alston a Georgia State legislator from Decatur during the post Civil War period. He was regarded for his fairness during reconstruction and was shot tragically by a detractor in Atlanta. The lady is Lillian Henderson who was the director of Confederate pensions and records in Georgia.