Hooked Rug Show Returning To Reed School For Fourth Presentation On November 5

Rae Harrell will be the featured speaker during the 4th Annual Newtown Hooked Rug Show when it returns to Reed Intermediate School on Saturday, November 5.

The show will run from 9:30 am to 3 pm. The largest annual hooked rug show between Boston and New York, the Newtown show will feature rug displays, 35 vendors from ten states, hooking demonstrations, lunch, a workshop, raffle and the guest speaker.

Admission is $7. All show proceeds will benefit Newtown Meeting House.

Rae Harrell, a nationally-recognized hooking artist, will offer a presentation on “Faces,” highlighting their use in rug hooking.  A resident of Hinesburg, Vt., Ms Harrell has been an artist all her life, working in a variety of media.

In the 1970s, she graduated from Robertson School of Design in Los Angeles, and began working in fine art, interior design and antiques. During 32 years as an antiques dealer, Ms Harrell has developed a fine eye for balance, form and color, which she brings to her current specialty, rug hooking.

It became her focus in the early 1980s, and continues to be her primary medium. Her work has been featured in many publications including Hooked Rugs: Unrolling the Secrets by Jesse Turbayne; Hooked Rugs Today (her piece, “The Piano,” is the cover photo) by Amy Oxford; and Rug Hooking Magazine.

Ms Harrell’s fiber work has hung in shows and galleries throughout the United States, including the Montpelier Cultural Arts Center in Laurel, Md.; Shelburne Art Gallery, Jeffersonville, Vt., and the Warren Kimble Gallery in Brandon, Vermont.

She will show and discuss sample pieces from Nine Lives, A Hooked Rug Show, which included her work as well as that of Burma Cassidy, Molly Dye, Barbara Held, Diane Kelly, Anne-Marie Littenberg, Diane Phillips, Jule Marie Smith and the late Patty Yoder, all cutting-edge hooking artists who constantly work at refining aspects of the human form.

Currently, the rug hooking world has been looking seriously at portraiture as a main theme. Interestingly, as rug hookers move toward art rugs, the ability to include the human figure and face has become necessary. Faces have historically been our visual history and thus fiber artists, using hooking as their medium, have been working to perfect the human form.

Traditionally, rug hookers have used antique and “folky” subject matter to fill their canvasses; today rug hookers are using their medium as a profound expression of the human experience. This is a radical change, and has rallied artists in all media to recognize rug hooking as a legitimate expression of a true art form.

In 2006, Ms Harrell will begin serving her third term as co-chairperson of Hooked in the Mountains, at The Shelburne Museum in Vermont, the largest annual hooked rug event in the country. She will also teach a master class in patterning and placement, advocating the careful use of patterning, abstraction, colorful whimsies and imagination.

Additional Attractions

Jackye Hansen, the country’s foremost teacher of the Waldoboro Method, will offer a 2½-hour workshop for advanced artists on “The Wardoboro Method” of rug hooking. The workshop is currently full, but a wait list of applications is being created.

The Waldoboro Method, originally developed by the women of Waldoboro, Me., in the 1830s, takes the technical aspect of hooking to the next step, allowing the artist to vary the texture of the rug’s surface and produce an intensely soft, sculpted three-dimensional effect.

Ms Hansen has revived the traditional art of Waldoboro rug hooking and now teaches at seminars and workshops throughout the United States. Her design catalog is currently in its seventh printing and features over 475 designs. Custom coloring and personalized pattern work are also offered.

Amy Oxford will sell and/or sign copies of her latest book, Rug Hooking Today.

This year for the first time, appraisals on contemporary hand hooked rugs will be offered. Janet Lennon and Mary Lou Bleakeley, of MLB/JML Contemporary Hand Hooked Rug Appraisers, will make appraisals of recently created hand hooked rugs for replacement value.

Ms Lennon and Ms Bleakeley are graduates of Unified Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice, a course given by the American Society of Appraisers.

Clients will receive a certified written appraisal with a description of the piece and a numeric value for replacement. MLB/JML maintains a work file containing digital photos and slides which justify the replacement cost. A photo record and a copy of the appraisal are retained for a minimum of five years.

Appraisals are made only by viewing the actual piece.

Ms Lennon and Ms Bleakeley will be at the show on Saturday, and also available in the area on Friday, November 4, and Sunday, November 6. Each appraisal requires 30 to 45 minutes, and appointments are required.

To make an appointment or for further information, call 410-956-5105 or send email to janet@rugsJML.com.

Members of the Nutmeg Chapter of ATHA will be rug hooking throughout the day, giving visitors a first-hand look at how pieces are made.

The Show Favorite, with voting invited by all show attendees, will also return. Each show visitor will receive a paper ballot, enabling him or her to vote for their favorite display entry.

At 12:30 pm, all votes will be counted and a Show Favorite ribbon will be awarded to the piece with the most votes.

The vendor area this year will feature 35 vendors from ten states, offering all kinds of rug hooking supplies. Shoppers may browse through quantities of accessories, backing fabrics, books, braiding supplies, cutters, dyeing instruction, lap frames, hooking utensils, patterns, wool (both hand-dyed pieces and bolt fabrics), and more.

Finally, attendees are also urged to bring their pieces to display. This is not a juried show and there are no specific categories. A special section will be set up where visitors may offer their contemporary hooked rugs for sale. A small percentage of  proceeds from  sales will benefit the Newtown Meeting House.

Reed Intermediate School is on Trades Lane in Newtown, off Wasserman Way. Plenty of free parking will be available.

For additional show information contact Sherry Paisley at 270-8293.