Historic Sauder Village

Retreat Instructors & Class Descriptions

Once again we welcome very accomplished and highly respected rug hooking instructors for the 2009 Retreat. Enjoy four days of rug hooking study with a select instructor. You will work with your teacher in advance to prepare for class and plan your project. See the following for information on each teacher. Register early, as these classes fill quickly!!

Instructors for this year’s Annual Rug Hooking Retreat include...

Diane Phillips – Fairport, NY... rugsdp@rochester.rr.com
"Exploring Unusual Color in Living Things "...
Heritage Inn...Gathering Room A Min 10 / Max 15
Tuesday – Friday, August 11 – 14, 2009 49:00 AM – 4:00 PM

Recently Diane has had occasion to search the internet for ideas on various projects and saw many soul mates! All around us is a world of free thinking artists who make flowers with striped leaves and leopards with purples and aquas strategically hidden in their spots. Color experimentation with images has always been her passion with human and dog faces, so why not play with beautifully created many-colored wools in even more ways. Let's depict nature, (leaves, faces, wolves, eggplants, trees... the list is endless) in a lovely array of colors. Diane encourages you to choose a large motif so you have room to maneuver. You can play in your preferred style and your preferred cut. Or you can try another. She usually uses a #6-8 cut, but will cut smaller if the rug needs it. Diane likes brighter colors for herself, but is in awe of those who can find wonderful contrast in softer colors. You can do a study piece 15" x 15" or so, or start a full sized rug. Any advance help you need will be provided. Brave or busy souls will just show up and surprise us all with spontaneous brilliance. Any living image is fair game, including people. Diane will have lots of exciting wools and you can bring your own to trade and share. This style of hooking lends itself to on-the-spot choices and lots of experimentation, so careful planning is not required. Diane will send you an "idea" letter with activities to get you in the right mood prior to class. Hey, why can't the leopard be eating the eggplant?? More opportunities for color!

Creating hand-hooked art has been Diane's passion for 13 years. She has taught workshops throughout the U.S. and Canada, specializing in Unusual Uses of Color and Hooking Faces, both people and animals. Eyes, expression, skin tones, wrinkles, and highlights, all conspire to tell a story to the viewer. Hand-dyed wool produces a depth and texture unlike any other medium. Her work has appeared in shows and museums in the Northeast as well as in several books and magazines. After 7 years of directing the Hooked in the Mountains Rug School, for the Green Mountain Rug Hooking Guild (at the Shelburne Museum in Vermont), she recently retired to pursue other rug hooking adventures.

Jule Marie Smith - Ballston Spa, NY... ris4rug@aol.com
"My Own Folk Art"
Heritage Inn...Gathering Room B Min 10 / Max 15
Tuesday – Friday, August 11 – 14, 2009 49:00 AM – 4:00 PM

What is the "heart" of rug hooking for you? Who are you and what do you love most about your own artistry in making rugs? What are you drawn to and what colors MUST you use? Each of us has our own style that comes from within. Some of us draw our own rugs, others love patterns. Some of us love early primitives, others love contemporary folk art. All of us love the colors of wool, while some are drawn to bright colors and some to soft colors. Some love textures, and some love marbleized wool. We all create for different reasons, yet we must create. Bring your creative spirit and a rug that excites you. Play with color! Dare to draw your own pattern! Play and Explore with an idea that has been sitting in the back of your mind. Any topic, any size. This is YOUR folk art. This is a class for people who enjoy wide cut and adventures.

Jule Marie's strengths include color play, original drawings, rugs with borders, and rugs that tell stories. She has taught for over 20 years in both the United States and Canada. As an artist, her work has been exhibited in many galleries; in 2004 she was the featured artist at the Green Mountain Rug Hooking Guild's exhibit at the Shelburne Museum in Vermont. Her work can be seen in Amy Oxford's Hooked Rugs Today, 2005 edition, as well as in other publications.

Ingrid Hieronimus - Ontario, Canada... raggtyme@rughookinghome.com
www.rughookinghome.com
"SHADING; Made Fun & Easy"
Heritage Inn...Homestead B Min 10 / Max 15
Tuesday – Friday, August 11 – 14, 2009 49:00 AM – 4:00 PM

The focus of this class will be to make shading easy, enjoyable and take the fear out of shading, whether it is fine cut or wide cut. Many different methods and techniques, such as finger shading, mock shading, double swatch, shading using textures and leftovers, a painterly approach and dip dye, will be discussed and demonstrated. Shading will be done using fine cut, wide cut, and textures. There will be demonstrations in the dye kitchen and students will be able to use different dye techniques in their rugs such as swatches, dip dye, over dyed textures and textures as is. Patterns will be available or the student may use a commercial or self designed pattern.

Ingrid is the owner of Ragg Tyme Studio in Mannheim (Kitchener), Ontario, Canada. She is an Ontario Hooking Craft Guild certified teacher, a certified McGown teacher, and has her certificate in Fibre Arts – Traditional Rug Hooking from St. Lawrence College in Brockville, Ontario. She has been featured in Celebration of Hand-Hooked Rugs and is internationally known for her teaching, dyeing and rug hooking. She is the author of three dye books – "Primary Fusion", "Multiple Fusion", and the most recent "Primary Fusion Spots" and enjoys creating new and exciting colors in the dye pot using only the three primaries and black.

Heather Ritchie – North Yorkshire, England... ragrug@rugmaker1.fsnet.co.uk www.rugmaker.co.uk
"Creating Landscapes with Mixed Textures"...
Heritage Inn...Homestead A Min 10 / Max 15
Tuesday – Friday, August 11 – 14, 2009 49:00 AM – 4:00 PM

Heather will demonstrate the mixed texture work for which she is well known and will inspire students to create their own landscape rugs using those same techniques. She will show students how to use various techniques of proddy and hooky (English for hooking) which can be incorporated into a pictorial. You will learn how to do shaped and regular proddy using varying widths of fabrics. Heather will provide design guidance, however, students will be encouraged to design their own work. This will be a fun class, forgetting all the rules, to be as free and creative as you wish.

Heather Ritchie is one of Britain's most experienced rug makers and teachers of rug making. Over 35 years ago she made her first utilitarian mats to cover the bare stone floors of her home. Since then she has developed the craft way beyond the ordinary and her fine-hooked richly detailed pictorial work has been called 'painting with fabric'. Heather's work, with its beautiful landscapes and expressive faces created using mixed textures, is known worldwide. Her unrivalled understanding of rug making in all its techniques, forms and applications has enabled Heather to teach in Europe, Australia, the U.S. and Canada.

Students should bring a piece of open-weave fabric for the backing (linen or burlap would be ideal but Monk's Cloth is not suitable for proddy work) and bring a wide variety of wools and materials including bits of fancy glitzy evening garments, lengths of yarn of all thickness, printed cottons, pieces of blanket, shrunk/felted fine-knit sweaters, tartan kilts, plastic bags - anything that won't shred when cut into the little bits needed for proddy work. Heather will not be able to bring large amounts of supplies with her for the retreat (that's why she asks students to bring their own backing fabric) since she's coming from England. However, she will bring hooky and proddy tools in all sizes (made by her husband, Les Ritchie) as well as English Wenslydale fleece, both natural and dyed in a wide range of colors, which will be for sale. Wool, backing and supplies will also be available for purchase from vendors and other teachers.