West Island Blog / The Guild In The News

-

West Island Logo

Rug Hookers celebrate 40 years of hooking

by Rhonda Massad
West Island Blog / Community News


Lorayne, Rhonda, Denise M and Lois
From left to right: Lorayne Charenko, Rhonda, Massad Denise Morissette and Lois Morris

What used to be a survival craft to provide warmth, rug hooking,  is now an art form.  Beaconsfield Hooking Crafters Guild held a vernissage last Friday night, to show off 40 years of craftsmanship as well as art. 

“The pieces are beautiful. Many people think of these works as rugs and not works of art,” Beaconsfield city councillor Karen Messier said, “These are truly works of art.”

Beaconsfield rug hookers celebrated their 40th anniversary of the group’s inception at Centennial Hall in Beaconsfield by lining the wall with rugs that could have been mistaken for oil paintings. 

“The rugs are too beautiful to be stepped on,” said Volunteer West Island’s outreach coordinator, Shelley Hayden, “even though some of these are used that way.”

According to Linda Henderson, vice president of the guild, several of the members, who have been meeting each Monday since 1975, still producing hooked pieces, are into their nineties.  While at the other end of the scale, hooking classes are taught to enthusiastic grade five students at Sherwood.
 Forest school in Beaconsfield. 

“We started out with five course a week to 40 years of creativity shown in this room made by people who did not think they had talent.” Lois Morris, founder of the guild, explained. “I think we broke some of those notions.”

Jacques Lepage
Jacques Lepage demonstrating the technique


“I had no idea the group would be around 40 years later,” said Morris, “I am very proud of the group.  I commute from Rawden (sic) to come and teach the girls each Monday.”


Link: http://www.westislandblog.com/rug-hookers-celebrate-40-years-of-hooking/

Popular posts from this blog

Show & Tell / Sally Perodeau

-
Image
In Memory of Sally Perodeau (October 10, 1933 to October 3, 2024) Respectfully submitted by Emmy Maten Sally Perodeau (1933-2024) We are saddened by the recent passing of one of our founding members, Sally Perodeau. In 1978, she joined the Guild which was just three years in existence at the time. Sally was keen to learn how to rug hook after being inspired by seeing a friend’s rug. She became a skilled rug hooker and made many fine and beautiful rugs, usually using narrow cuts of wool which allows more precision and detail. Sally was a wonderful organizer and was generous with her time and energy. She was the Guild President twice, from 1984-86 and again from 1997-98 and remained an active member until about 7 years ago. Our Guild member Jacqueline Bouchard helped Sally with her garden and has memories to share. “My precious memories of Sally are her culture, great family values and her love for beauty. Her garden was especially a source of joy to her every day, through the window whe...
Read more

Show & Tell / Nancy Thompson

-
Image
In memory of Nancy (Farnam) Thompson (1947 - 2024)  Respectfully submitted by Emmy Maten Nancy Thompson (1947-2024) The guild was saddened to learn of the recent loss of Nancy Thompson, member of our guild since the early 2000’s. Our guild member Cathy was a good sailing friend of Nancy’s and introduced Nancy to rug hooking and the Beaconsfield guild. Judith became her rug hooking teacher and helped her with most of her rugs. Nancy is remembered as generous, caring, giving, discreet, upbeat and happy. She had a good sense of humour. From 2019 to 2022, Nancy was an excellent secretary for the Beaconsfield Guild. Yet she preferred rug hooking to naming and dating her rugs; In her daughter Katie’s words “she would tell you that the rugs were finished long after they were started”. Katie continues “She loved rug hooking and the camaraderie of your group; I know she missed it when she became sick.” Judith reflects “Nancy was a dear friend - she had a great sense of humour and was the sa...
Read more

St Valentine

-
Image
February 12, 2024. Red Day Valentine’s Day - a day to celebrate love of all kinds! For us today, we celebrated the love of our craft and our community, and we each wore something red to prove it. Our Sell and Swap sale drew in some members we had not seen for a while, which is always a treat, as friendships grow deep over the years. Standing: Brenda, Judith, Claire, Kitt. Sitting: Denise, Karen, Harold. Hearts and Chocolate! Liz chooses this hoop at our Sell and Swap sale. Jacques, Gaétan, Mayumi, and Isabelle.    Sue, Joanne, Ann, and Helen. Jacqueline is one of the lucky door prize winners!
Read more

Rug Hooking Designs

-
Image
Shelly Atkinson  is a self-taught visual artist and crafter from Nova-Scotia, Canada. She loves experimenting with styles, colours, textures and techniques in her paintings and illustrations. Shelly offers rug hooking patterns of animals, flowers, people, the four seasons, etc. She can create custom drawings of your pet or family and even revise her patterns, if requested. Her work can be found on greeting cards, journals, prints, rug hooking patterns, coasters. needlepoint patterns, calendars, posters, and a child's book. Go to  http://users.eastlink.ca/~shellyatkinson/rughooking/rughooking.html http://shellyatkinson.blogspot.ca/ Music Is Good For The Soul A Good Book Dog & 2 Birds Old Woman Who Lived In A Shoe
Read more

Marianick & Gaétan / In The News

-
Image
Jeu de mémoire / Exhibition     Marianick Viatour and Gaétan Berthiaume are visual artists specialising in wood sculpture. They joined our Beaconsfield Hooking Crafters Guild in September 2023, after having visited our rug exhibition in April 2023. They are having a vernissage and exhibition in Gatineau from Wednesday, January 31 through March 28. 12 sculptures will be presented, including one hooked piece, along with a short film of 28 minutes. Wonderful news! Congratulations! For more information, follow this link: Jeu de mémoire  (In French) Picture source: Viatour-Berthiaume Info-letter (with the artists permission).
Read more