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“Back to Our Roots – Hooking with Recycled Clothing” Lecture & Demonstration with Karl & Mary Jo Gimber

Date: Afternoon - Wednesday, August 15, 2012 Time: 1:00 - 2:30 p.m. Class Fee: $25.00 / Members $23.00 Kit Fee: None Location: Founder’s Hall – Stage Left Description: Our early rug hooking ancestors went to their rag bags for scraps of fabric to be used in their hooked rugs. Today we can follow in their footsteps by hooking with wool from old garments. With the cost of new wool steadily increasing, recycled wool is a cost effective alternative. For less than a dollar a yard, you can find beautiful tweeds, plaids and herringbone wool if you know where and when to shop. Thrift shops, flea markets, rummage sales and consignments stores are well known sources for recycled wool clothing. This interactive workshop will explore how to go beyond simply “shopping” and how to maximize the value of these sources for inexpensive quality hooking wool. You will learn how to bring down your per yard cost. There is wool and there is wool, this husband and wife team will explain the difference. The quality of the wool found in clothing varies and not all is well suited for hooking rugs. How about blends? Can they be used? How can you tell if it is wool or a synthetic blend? We will explore how to identify the more suitable woolens with samples of different quality fabrics that will be available to examine. Using their own rugs, Karl and Mary Jo will illustrate how quality wool and less desirable wools appear in the finished product. After you have purchased recycled clothing, what are the next steps in getting it ready for hooking? The workshop will review the step by step process including over dyeing to achieve the colors you want in your rug.  We will also explore which are the best and least desirable garments to purchase. To complete the “going green” element of hooking with recycled clothing, we will discuss uses for the buttons, linings, zippers, and labels. The couple will have an assortment of their rugs with examples of hooking with recycled clothing for students to examine and discuss. Students will receive a handout on the topic. Level: No Experience – everyone welcome, no prior rug hooking knowledge or experience required. Students Need to Bring: Pen and paper for notes. Students may bring their own rugs in which they have hooked with recycled clothing to share with the group. Bio: Mary Jo and Karl started hooking in the fall of 2003 after taking a beginners’ workshop at the Mercer Museum in Doylestown, PA. Their interest in early American history and rug hooking converged with their current project of hooking a series of primitive rugs adapted from old tavern, trade and farm signs. Besides working on rugs together, they have traveled to historic places and museums gathering more information for their project and enjoy the hunt for “as is” wool in thrift stores, rummage sales, and flea markets. Karl retired from human resources consulting in 1997 and began pursuing his interests in the American Revolution and the decorative arts of the 18th and 19th centuries. He began carving birds in the tradition of the Pennsylvania German artisans and making small boxes with old looking finishes.  All that was set aside when he became engrossed with rug hooking. Karl is responsible for public relations for the Hunterdon County Rug Artisans Guild and its newsletter, The Loop. He also handled PR for the 2011 ATHA Biennial that was held in Lancaster, PA. Mary Jo is a former airline stewardess who has been involved with the fine arts since high school. She designs most of the rugs that she and Karl hook. Mary Jo often adapts a rug based on an old sign but prefers to design an original pattern inspired by an interesting tavern name or one with an interesting story associated with it.  Mary Jo is an accomplished printmaker and painter in watercolor, oil and pastel. The traditional arts of the Pennsylvania Germans such as tole painting, theorem painting, bird carving, grain painting and quilting are skills she has mastered. Mary Jo likes to include Waldoboro and proddy elements in her rugs.  Their rugs have been featured in Rug Hooking Magazine, the ATHA Newsletter, The Wool Street Journal, Contemporary Hooked Rugs, and Hooked Rugs Today. Together, they have done presentations and exhibits on their rug collection at The Red Mill Museum Village (Clinton, NJ), The Schwenkfelder Heritage Center (Pennsburg, PA), The David Library of the American Revolution (Washington Crossing, PA), The Heritage Center Museum of Lancaster County (Lancaster, PA), and at regional rug hooking guilds. Specialties: Tavern, trade and farm sign rugs, using recycled wool. [return to workshop listing]

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