Book Note: Hooked Rug Storytelling, The Art of Heather Ritchie by Lesley Mary Close

Occasionally I will be posting reviews of rug hooking books, since books are so much a part of my life.  I'm a professor by trade, and therefore an author myself.  My house and office are filled with books.  Even though I am trying to get used to the e-book, the physical book will remain my love for as long as publishers keep producing them.

The book I want to start this series with is a brand new one published by Schiffer Publishing out of Atglen, PA.  Schiffer is well-known to me, since they have produced the beautiful hardcover books authored by Jessie Turbayne.  So I wasn't surprised to find a high quality hardcover full color glossy page book arrive in the mail. It is authored by Lesley Mary Close, Hooked Rug Storytelling: The Art of Heather Ritchie (2011).  It has 192 pages.  It is a large art book. 

Now I don't want to claim that this book represents a new genre of rug hooking books, but it comes close.  It is a biographical and pedagogical journey through Ritchie's rugs.  How much fun is that?!  Each chapter features a single rug, and narrates the story the rug recalls or represents.  There are beautiful closeups of various sections of each of the rugs, with an eye toward teaching the reader about the different techniques that Ritchie used to create each section.  Each chapter also contains copies of the photographs that Ritchie used (and combined) to create and hook her rug design. 

In addition, each chapter has at least one feature section that explains some important aspect about rug hooking.  These featured sections include the Reverse-Watercolor Principle (you work a rug by putting in the most important elements first), Flannel, Cut High Loops, Drawing Straight onto the Backing, Strip Cutting, A Word About Weaves - a Guide to their Identification and Use, Dip Dyeing, Finishing Off: edging and hanging, Choosing and Preparing Backing Fabrics, Creating Faces Large Enough to have Features, Maintenance, Repairs, Dyeing-Casserole and Spot, Preparing and Cutting Pile Fabrics, Trace and Transfer #1 and #2, Record Keeping, Hooks and Prodders, Proddy, and Frames and Hoops. 

As you can see, this is not just another pretty picture book of rugs from various sources.  This is an enchanting collection of rugs featuring Ritchie's life as an artist and a teacher.  Her rugs incorporate a wide variety of fabrics, hooked and prodded.  There are even multi-media pieces, with sewn elements. 

If you are a rug hooker, beginner or advanced, this book will speak to you.  It is a fascinating collection of story, memory and instruction that is sure to inspire.  It certainly has me!

Abstract in 1937

You must be able to tell I'm a historian through and through. W.W. Kent's books are fascinating, and what neat thing did I find within today? On p. 212 of Rare Hooked Rugs (1941), Kent displays a photograph courtesy of Mrs. Lilian Mills Mosséller who designed it (Plate 236). Mosséller lived in New York and Asheville, North Carolina. I scanned it and show it here.

Kent claims it is a "famous" rug called "Coffee and Cream." It is an abstract hooked before 1937 when it was exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the International Rugs and Carpets show. It was taken on tour across the USA by the American Federation of Arts in 1938. In 1939 it was exhibited at the World's Art Fair in New York. With my interest in abstract rugs, so far this is the earliest intentional abstract I have been able to locate to date.

The design idea was taken from the top of a swirling cup of coffee with cream in it. Unfortunately all we have in terms of a picture is this black and white. But Kent tells us that the colors were fabulous: six shades of white, oyster, eggshell, snow white, with an accent of chartreuse.

Mosséller appears to have been a well-known rug designer in her day. She wrote a few pages about the "contemporary rugs and their future" which Kent put in his book. She had a studio in New York and employed many hookers, whom she calls "artisans" and "workers". She seems to have been known for hiring handicapped people to hook her rugs. Kent preserves a photograph of these men and women working in her studios. She also had devised a huge crude cutting machine which stripped the wool in pieces that look to be around 3/4 inches wide. She was very keen on rug designers being considered on par with Picasso and Van Gogh, and she was very proud that her rug hung in the Met alongside these famous painters.

She is very insistent that designers must start signing their work by weaving their signature in the fabric, just as the painters do with paint. This intrigues me, because here is a shift from the earlier idea that hand-hooked rugs are utilitarian mats manufactured by workers and should not be signed, to the idea that the designer at least is an artist and her rugs will only increase in value if her signature is on it.

Two books by W.W. Kent

This afternoon the mailman delivered two old books I had ordered about rug hooking. Both were written by William Winthrop Kent. One is called The Hooked Rug. It was written in 1937 and reports to trace hooked rugs back to a 6th century Coptic mat!

Hey now I'm interested. An intersection has occurred between rugs and my academic profession (I'm a scholar of early Christianity, particular old Coptic texts!). The Coptic rug he has photographed (see below) is housed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC (p. 6).

It appears that he found out about old Coptic hooked mats from Helen R. Albee and her booklet Abnakee Rugs (my next purchase!). The Copts appear to have been making rugs the same way we do. They pulled the material through a cloth foundation in even unclipped loops. This suggests that the art goes back to the ancient Egyptians. Wow.

I have scanned the image of the cover of Kent's book because I thought the design lovely. Wouldn't it make a good hooked rug itself?

New self-published hooking book

Jennifer on Fish Eye Rugs has posted about a new book featuring the hooked carousel project that she reported on earlier. Read all about it and see some pictures of it HERE. To order contact wanda.john@onlink.net.