WHAT HAPPENS WHEN HOOKED RUGS GO COMMERCIAL?
APPARENTLY THESE CARPETS ARE ON SALE in New YORK City at a SHOWROOM in the last few days . . . .
they are designed by artists, trained at art schools . . ..and dyed and hooked , I believe ,by rug hookers.
THIS is their MANIFESTO-please check it out! I am interested in your comments!
By the way . . . .
A " terroir " is a group of vineyards (or even vines) from the same region, belonging to a specific appellation, and sharing the same type of soil, weather conditions, grapes and wine making savoir-faire, which contribute to give its specific personality to the wine.
Here on their web site is their (RED SPRUCE ). . . . .
MANIFESTO
CHECK OUT these rug designs in their PORTFOLIO
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-red-spruce-2009.jpg)
-red-spruce-2009.jpg)
APPARENTLY THESE CARPETS ARE ON SALE in New YORK City at a SHOWROOM in the last few days . . . .
they are designed by artists, trained at art schools . . ..and dyed and hooked , I believe ,by rug hookers.
THIS is their MANIFESTO-please check it out! I am interested in your comments!
By the way . . . .
A " terroir " is a group of vineyards (or even vines) from the same region, belonging to a specific appellation, and sharing the same type of soil, weather conditions, grapes and wine making savoir-faire, which contribute to give its specific personality to the wine.
Here on their web site is their (RED SPRUCE ). . . . .
MANIFESTO
CHECK OUT these rug designs in their PORTFOLIO
-red-spruce-2009.jpg)
-red-spruce-2009.jpg)
Hi Judith
ReplyDeleteI am responding to your question.. “what happens when hooked rugs go commercial” ..
I read the Red Spruce Manifesto and quickly viewed the web site…many designs… not clear whether each designer is doing the hooking or whether an atelier of hookers is needed!!! Seems to be quite a volume of Nova Scotia tradition rugs/carpets…
I was a little cross-eyed at the references to rugs and carpets coming myself from a region where a mat is a mat!!! sooo went to research to discover that the term can be interchangeable.. also that a rug is generally non-fixed and can be rolled and a carpet is understood to be more permanent/attached possibly heavier… that is is all a matter of size.. less than 40 square feet is a rug..a carpet, mon dieu, est super large... much hooking...
I can answer the question in relation to the Charlevoix area past Quebec City where I recently had the privilege of meeting Claire Thibeau who apprenticed with artist Edouard-George Tremblay. Around 1930 he began to make distinctive Quebec-scene rug patterns for his wife who hooked rugs for visiting tourists in the Quebec Craft Revival. As demand grew he opened a workshop where women hooked the rugs in silence! All processes were done from design transfer to wool dyeing. It is poignant to me that many of these rugs were not signed by the local creators who needed the money to subsist. Madame Thibault bought the atelier and the rights to M. Tremblay’s patterns. She now continues more or less alone and now hooks her name into her pieces for sale to tourists/collectors.
I feel that today some of us are creating ‘magical flying carpets” !!!! with the result of our international hooking contacts… we are producing rugs for sale with an amazing blend of techniques and traditions.. although I am still misty-eyed when I find few Charlevoix local people like Claire Thibault continuing the tradition of her region.
Lin Watson
Thank you Lin for your thoughtful comment . . .I find it very interesting and will certainly try to learn more about Claire Thibeau!
ReplyDeleteSounds like the Grenfells that were also created to provide income for the local women who hooked them . . and the mat designers coming from New York city . . .things seem to be going full circle!
I saw gorgeous, large hooked rugs in Mahone Bay, NS that were designed by artists and hooked abroad, ie in China. I've just gotten hooked, myself, am working on a kit project as my first. Look forward to designing my own....
ReplyDeleteGigi
Judith,
ReplyDeleteThank you for referencing Red Spruce in this blog post, and also thank you to the anonymous comment regarding rugs and carpets. The difference in usage between mat/rug and carpet is both a function of size (rugs are typically smaller in size and carpets larger in size) and of demographic (only rug hookers refer to them as mats). The term carpet has been bastardized by American/Canadian English to also refer to broadloom, which is that horrible wall-to-wall installed monstrosity to which the poster refers. We should also remember that size is relative. In the rug and carpet traditions of South East Asia carpets in sizes up to 14x20 (280sqft) are not unheard of.
To clarify: Our designs are hooked by Nova Scotia and Maritime rug hookers, who follow the designs and patterns we provide.
Also, for C and G Taylor it should me noted that with almost 100% certainty, I can say the rug they saw in Mahone Bay was not actually hooked but rather made with Needlepunch in China.
Finally. The designs we produce are all protected both by Canadian and International Copyright conventions and may not be reproduced without our expressed written consent.
Thank you,
Michael Christie
Creative Director
Red Spruce
HI this is Anonymous without an URL.... who did indeed indicate her name at the end of the previous comment...
ReplyDeleteare the designers in this venture all Nova Scotian?Maritimers like the employed hookers??
How frequent will be the repetition of a design.. or will it be a one of a kind designed rug/carpet hooked?? (perish the thought it would be called a mat!!!!!!) or a certain number of a particular design like numbered prints??
So a hooker may call a rug a mat because he/she makes it but then it turns into a swan/rug/carpet when it is then for sale in a gallery??
Mulling over the terms "ruggist" and "mat maker"..mmm but not for too long though!!
Playfully
Lin Watson..
aka Cycloop
Recycled Materials
Montreal Quebec, Northumberland UK
Wow! Those rugs are beautiful. The designs and patterns are very unique or should I say one of a kind. I wish I have rugs like those.
ReplyDelete