By Lin Stone

Traditional crafts such as rug hooking were born of humble practical beginnings and materials: it was not the embroidery and textile arts of women who came from privileged means. Poor women cut grain bags and raggedy homespun clothing into small strips and hooked them into bed rugs to keep warm at night; women of modest means made calico quilts for their beds, and women of wealth embroidered. But as the centuries tumbled forward, the need to be practical did not exclude the desire to be creative and surround oneself with useful things of beauty: art.

Today’s rug hookers have created their own aesthetic standards and are experimenting with new fabrics, hand painting and dyeing wool, making individually-designed color wheels, and drawing their unique designs on linen backings. The results are wooly, wild, and wonderful: bathing suit spandex and silk threads are woven amidst torn tweed jackets and hand-dyed sheep’s wool. It is a skilled and practical craft that has traveled well across the centuries and transcended its plain and simple beginnings to become a beautiful and useful art form.

Vermont craft enthusiasts are fortunate to be home to the Green Mountain Rug Hooking Guild (GMRHG), the largest and likely most active rug-hooking guild in the nation. It recently held its annual exhibit "Hooked in the Mountains" at the Shelburne Museum, and offered one of the most comprehensive displays of hooked rugs in the country. More than four hundred rugs were in this year’s show. Initially, local Guild shows were held at the round barn in Waitsfield, but membership and entries expanded to merit its present and prestigious exhibition space at the Shelburne Museum. According to Jen Lavoie, Guild member and show chair, GMRHG’s membership has grown exponentially in the last fifteen years. "The quality of the entries is always phenomenal," she commented. "One of the many things that make this annual show so inspiring and unique is its quality and the incredible range of styles and expression. Many exhibitors are masters using traditional patterns and wool, some are newcomers exhibiting their first rug, and more and more are artists and innovators doing freehand work using surprising new fibers. After our first year at the Shelburne Museum, one member made a fabulous book of the show—growth was then exponential," she explained. The Guild’s membership burst the state’s seams, and now encompasses five hundred rug-hooking members from around the globe—from the Green Mountain state to Yorkshire, England and the further reaches of Japan.

Rae Harrell of Hinesburg and her mother Gloria Reynolds are both members of the Guild. Harrell’s mother taught her to paint when she was young and Harrell has introduced Reynolds the joy of fiber arts. Harrell is a painter and sculptor, as well as a fiber artist. However, she says she is particularly drawn to rug hooking. "I like the sensate qualities of the soft fibers and the fact that the wool absorbs color so well. You literally get to put your hands right in the middle of the work and feel very connected. For me, this is even more pleasing than color dabbled on the end of a paintbrush." Harrell also sang the praises of the Shelburne Museum annual exhibit, stating "The women in the show are dedicated and very talented artists, but they are people not generally honored at other art events—your grandmother, your neighbor, your aunt—but they are indeed artists producing exciting new work in their own right."

In addition to the annual exhibit, workshops, and "hook-ins," Green Mountain Guild members often meet regularly in small groups across the country in church basements, homes, schools, or libraries. They share their knowledge and skills, newcomers and old-timers, passing the craft down from warm hand to warm hand, generation to generation. And yes… Guild members also delight in sharing the jokes about being called hookers too.

To learn more about the Green Mountain Rug Hookers Guild, and to find other opportunities to learn the craft and "hook-up" with rug-hookers across the country, visit www.gmrhg.org.