Thank you for visiting Curly Willow
Rugs!
Sharing our passion for something, whether it be cooking, gardening, books, art, etc. is a way to inspire others and it's how we learn from one another. I am always inspired by seeing other crafters' design spaces, creativity, and methods. I decided to create this blog as an extension of my own creative space, namely my rug hooking room, in our home in the mountains of Virginia.I learned the art of rug hooking from a dear friend back in 2016 just after my mom passed away. Mom had been living with us for only eight months when she died and it left a sorrow and a void of untold aspects in my heart. A few weeks after her passing I went to dinner at a friend's home. She lives in a little house in town that was originally built in the 1700's as a tiny (by today's standards) log structure. Her home is filled with a lifelong collection of primitive antiques. Beautiful hand hooked rugs hang on her walls and lay on her floor creating a warm and homey atmosphere. That evening I shared my loss and the fact that I now had wide open amounts of free time that I hadn't expected to have when caring for my mom. My friend invited me to a gathering the next day to learn about making hooked rugs. I went and it was the beginning of something wonderful and new.
Several years prior to that, a neighbor gave me the tiniest slip of a corkscrew willow tree to plant in our garden. I transplanted it out in front of our home where it has grown and thrived. I see it every day from the window where I sit and hook and its wild, free-form shape makes me smile. It is a happy addition to our hand-me-down garden. (The best gardens are those whose plants have been shared and passed along among friends, are they not?) This happy little tree was the inspiration behind the title of my shop.
I have in mind to design a rug with our saltbox house and that wild little curly willow planted out in front of it. However, each time I begin to draw the design I get sidetracked by thoughts that the wild rabbits should be drawn on there too, along with the deer, birds, bears, horses, cows... and there begins my problem. In 2018 I hooked a rug depicting the land and wildlife around here when I hooked Karen Kahle's rug titled, "Vermont". It is pictured under the sidebar tab, "Creating a Hand Hooked Rug". The rows of hooking in the rug look just like the rows on our hills after the farmer has mowed the long grass and bound it into hay bales. The deer run across those hills each morning and evening, just as in the rug. It remains one of my favorite rugs and Karen's whimsical designs are my all time favorites.
I enjoy creating rugs for my home and for my daughters, friends, and family. However, as I continue to explore the craft and try out different dyes and techniques, I create more rugs than I can reasonably display. I decided to offer some of these completed rugs for sale. In reality, I will never have dozens of rugs to offer up for sale at any one time because I create them out of joy and satisfaction and not as an automaton. My hope is that they will bring warmth and joy to someone's home. When properly cared for, they will last for generations.
The rug pictured above is another design by Karen Kahle called, "An Abundant Towne Garden". In March of this year, many hookers began Covid 19 projects in order to pass the time during our isolation. I hadn't intended this to be a Covid 19 rug, but, as it happened, I hooked it during these past two months and I finished the hooking just as the stay-at-home orders begin to lift in our state. It is a happy,colorful rug and it has been a joy to work on during these troublesome times. It will hang in the dining area of our kitchen/sitting room during the spring and summer months. The photo shows it ready for binding, which I will work on during these next few days. After such a large project I am ready to hook some fun, smaller pieces!
