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Living in Chester County Pennsylvania,
I am surrounded by beautiful scenery that lifts my spirits. My surroundings have
brought me closer to nature and the history of the area has enhanced my
appreciation of earlier times and customs. It is the inspiration for my love of
antiques, folk art and primitive pastimes. In my past 20 years as an antique
dealer ,
I had amassed a large collection of
spinning wheels and parts and an amazing array of rug hooks and punch needles
but had never managed to spin or make a hooked or punched rug. Just
enjoying and handling the pieces gave me a connection with the earlier times
that I loved. But, of course, that had to change! When I finally
took a class in rug hooking, there was no turning back. I found myself
totally engrossed in the process--usually hooking feverishly well into the
night. As a self taught artist, the one thing that was difficult for me
was to hook other peoples designs--when I had so many of my own swimming around
in my head--so I designed my own rugs and then designed patterns for others as
well.
I especially like using recycled woolens for my creations--I feel that the early
rugs would have been made of cast offs and I try to keep with that tradition.
That brought me to dying my own wool. I needed to get just the right
colors to perfectly fit my design and also to give the appearance that the rug
had been around for generations. Along with all this, I have shared my
new
interests with anyone who would listen -willing or not--and from that arose a
wonderful opportunity with a long time friend who had a few sheep--and there I
was with fleeces!! And now instead of just admiring my collection of
vintage wool working items, I actually get to use them . It is very
rewarding to wash the fleeces and card the wool and spin(a little)
just as it was done in earlier times. This website is dedicated to sharing
my love of these traditional crafts and all things wool. I live in
Eagle, PA with my wonderfully patient husband who really has no interest
whatsoever in wool but is extremely tolerant of the wool dust, wool worms,
unfinished projects, piles of wool, bags of roving, pictures of sheep, patterns
doodled on anything stationary, and everything else wool related that has oozed
out of the studio and tries to quietly take over our home. He has learned
to use my trusty Rigby and has come to truly believe that snippets on the floor
are not really dirt. Soul mates are like that-and I am eternally grateful for
his support and encouragement.