History

Rag Rug making has been practised in one form or another for centuries, and despite fluctuations in popularity over the years, has proved and enduring and highly accessible folk craft.
The resurgence of interest in rag rug making today is not only a response to the great variety of creative possibilities in this attractive craft, but also reflects the growing awareness of the need to conserve natural resources. It is essentially a thrift craft, traditionally making use of recycled and scrap materials. The basic requirements of a frame, a hook or prodder, and hessian/burlap are relatively inexpensive. The rug or tapestry canvas used as the base material in some of the more ambitious projects described in this site is more expensive; even so, a hard-wearing and visually appealling rug or wallhanging need not cost a great deal to make.

Of the various types of rag rugs, those made by the hooking and prodding techniques are the most familiar. There are numerous regional variations of these terms, such as hooky, proggy, bodged and clippy. Hooked rugs, as the name implies, are made by pulling long strips of material through from the back of the base material to the front, using a tool very similar to a crochet hook but with a more acute angle, thus producing a looped pile. For prodded rugs, holes are made in the base material with a pointed piece of wood or metal; a small piece of material is then pushed trough the hole from the back to the front, making a shaggy pile.

The concept of introducing a loop into a base material was probably originated by the Copts in Egypt well over a thousand years ago; the Vikings too used a form of loop in some of their textiles. William Winthrop Kent, an American architect who was fascinated by the examples of rag rug making he saw in North America in 1930s, was the first person to study the origins of the craft. His research convinced him that rag rug making had originated in Europe, and he corresponded extensively with British contacts, notably Ann Macbeth, a contemporary authority on textiles, who had been the chief instructress in the Embroidery Department of the Glasgow School of Art from 1908 to 1920. William Winthrop Kent summed up his research in his book The Hooked Rug (long out print) , by concluding that although hooked rugs had been known in Britain since Tudor times, and their origin were indeed European, 'yet it is fact that the art was taken up more widely and developed more artistically in America than elsewhere'. He attributed this to the early settlers including 'both Latins and Irish, instinctively and generally art loving'. Wherever their birth-places had been, these American housewives in the main produced rugs that were more decorative than those made in Britain at the time.

The heyday of rag rug making in the British Isles was in the late 19th and early 20th century, when it was an intrinsic part of life for many working-class families. Interest in the craft then diminished, except in areas most affected by the years of the Depression and in the more isolated rural community. People still make rugs from Scotland to Cornwall, and although it may be popularly considered as being a traditionally North Country craft, in the course of my travels, both teaching and demonstrating. I have met many people who can remember their parents and grandparents making rag rugs in other places as diverse as Wales, Kent, Sussex, East Anglia, Worcestershire and the East End of London. During World War II a wide variety of rag rugs were made all over the United Kingdom as part of the 'Make do and Mend' campaign.

Unfortunately, however, the craft is not terribly well documented in the United Kingdom, where - especially in Victorian times - it was considered a working-class craft not worthy of attention. Because the base material then used was often loose-meshed sacking, the strips of the material had to be \cut extremely wide in order to fill in the holes, making the rugs heavy sand difficult to clean. They were mostly utilitarian articles with wide black or dark borders, but they were the only form of the floor covering the makers could afford. Consequently, rag rug making of them were preserved and are now held in specialist collections.

Rag rug making in the United States has always been of the hooked variety, but prodded rugs, known a poked mats, were made in both Canada and Newfoundland. Many people associate the craft primarily with the eastern seaboard of the North American continent, particularly in Maine, the Maritime provinces of Canada and New-founland, where it is still a rural industry. Today there is also a thriving Rug Hookers Guild in Ontario, Canada.

In the 1970s two American textile historians claimed hooked rugs to be 'America's one indigenous craft'; one of the arguments they put forward to subtantiate this claim was that most English rug-makers were influenced by the commercial patterns that were being manufactured in the United States by the 1880s. These were stamped on to hessian and sold in the same way as tapestry kits are nowadays. The patterns were advertised in American magazines and in mail order catalogues. However, considering the fact that rag rug making in Britain (not England, as stated by the American historians) was almost exclusively carried out by poorly paid industrial or agricultural workers, it seems most improbable that they ever saw the catalogues, let alone had enough money to actually purchase the pattern.

Contemporary textiles artists are not content just to use conventional materials such as rags and yarn, but are also exploring the potential of working with plastic bags, rubber gloves, foil and other non-traditional materials. Such project are adding a new dimension to the creative possibilities of using recycled materials. As well as the familiar hooking and prodding techniques, locker-needle and shuttle hooks are also being used more widely, and plaiting/braiding is another method of rug-making that is again popular.

In the North of England rag rug making is being used to foster a sense of community spirit with rugs being made by groups of women who had no previous knowledge of the craft.

More and more people are becoming aware of the exciting possibilities this environmentally friendly craft offers. I hope this book will encourage you to recycle your discarded clothes, dressmaking remnants and jumble or rummage sale 'bargains' into a rug or wallhanging as this will give you hours of pleasure both in the making and using. Don't just think in terms of rugs and wallhangings, however: as you will see, the techniques can be applied to many other household items such as cushions and even clothing and jewellerly. Rag rug making is craft in which both traditional and non traditional materials can be used, and one with unlimited opportunities for experimentation and self-expression.