Jenni's Rag-Rugs

Makers’ Market Tuesdays in August
The ‘Ludlow Makers Markets’ are back! On all four Tuesdays throughout August. The plan is to make the most of the busy summer month, when Ludlow is buzzing with visitors that come for their holidays or day trips.
New this year includes Anne’s Art Club, who will be running family friendly ‘Makers Sessions’ from 10am on the market square, on the theme of ‘Love Ludlow’, these sessions are free for all participants, sponsored by Ludlow Chamber of Trade and Commerce. Ann plans to make a large collage our of old ‘Ludlow Guides’ over the 4 weeks. The market square will be full of artists, crafts people and artisans all selling their wares in person. The Chamber will invite musicians to play and there will also be hot food vendors including the Pizza Girls.

I will be demonstrating rag rug making

I repaired a rug I made for his mother decades ago. Quite challenging to match the colours and I used shorter pieces of fabric then, when I started making rag rugs. It is 5 feet in diameter and was well worn.

Come for a relaxed, creative day of upcycling old clothes into decorative and useful items. Explore your creativity and meet new friends.

Plenty of interest in the Golden Valley - I hope to offer more Heritage Skills Taster Days days also with other members of Creative Breaks.
It was fun.

I will have a stand at this. Last year it was very good.

Why not join us? Discounts available.

Rose Tinted Rags is next to the Country Bus Station and a short walk from the Hereford train station.

I will be demonstrating rag rug making on the Creative Breaks stand at this fabulous event.

Rose Tinted Rags is next to the Country Bus Station and a short walk from the Hereford train station.

This is a cat called Twitter on her progged rug made in one of my workshops near Birmingham. She lives in Cairo.

Demonstrating at Malvern. It sure was hot there but I chatted with lots of nice people.

RHS Malvern 9-12 May 2024. Lots to see.
I will demonstrate rag rug making in the Worcestershire Guild area in Wye Hall. Come and see all the amazing crafts.

Spring Plant Fair - 24 April 2024 from 10am
With over 30 exhibitors, fantastic food and a stunning garden to explore this is a day out not to be missed.Spring Plant Fair this Wednesday:
https://www.thecartshed.co.uk/
Broxwood Court, HR6 9JJ
Creative Breaks members will demonstrate their crafts.

Woodland wellbeing Herefordshire | The Cart Shed | England At The Cart Shed we use enriching and engaging woodland activities to help people self-manage their mental and physical health in a sustainable way.

Hellens Manor is a fascinating venue with fabulous gardens. I will demonstrate my waste to wonder craft with other members of Creative Breaks. We will have a stand in the gardens with many other exhibitors.

Contact Jenni for more info or to book. Warning: this craft can be addictive!

Looks like fun. The whole town was dedicated to carpet manufacture in the past.

We will be co-hosting an Artisan Bazaar on Saturday 6th April 10am-4pm, with free entry to the museum and many artisan stalls to explore, please share with your friends and family!

Also at Rose Tinted Rags, Hereford on June 20th.
Warning - this craft can be addictive.

A portrait of her sister's cat, as a birthday present. It's 50cm x 75cm. I feel like I know the cat quite well after making it - tabby was quite hard to reproduce from old jumpers.

Our Lady of Unassailable Well-being (2015) by African American textile artist, Ruth Miller (born in 1950).
Hand-stitched embroidery, wool on fabric
48 x 53 cm, 19 x 21 in approx
Ruth Miller cares as much about the narratives of her work as she does the actual images themselves. She’s committed to telling stories about the joys and challenges of daily life, especially for those living in African American communities.
To say her pieces are remarkable is an understatement - they’re also entirely handstitched with tapestry yarns. Her ability to blend and merge fibre is unmatched. Upon close inspection, the viewer is amazed at the intricacy of layer upon layer of colour and stitch. The fact a single piece can take at least a year to create becomes readily apparent when viewed up close.
Ruth’s unabashed sharing of her artistic journey is fascinating. You’ll learn as much about the influence of politics and race on her work as you will her stitching techniques and colour theory.
Source: Textile Artist Org and a celebration of female artists page.
Charla Sky

More hats are heading off to their new home today, and these four provide quite a good overview of the types of evidence I draw on when developing my patterns.

This particular order includes two Monmouth labourer's caps in undyed 'sheep black' (very dark brown) and undyed dark charcoal grey. These are based on a surviving cap in the Nelson Museum in Monmouth which was one of the very first museum hats I had the chance to get out of the case and inspect in detail, and it's as stitch-by-stitch accurate to the original as I can make it. The surviving hat is a fairly similar brown to one of mine.

Going with it is a 'Florentine' cap in a cheerful warm red, this one isn't based on a surviving cap, but similar shapes are seen in late medieval illustrations, and I extrapolated a pattern that gives the shape and styling. The name is arbitrary, but a lot of these hats appear in illustrations in places like Florence and Venice, so it was as good a choice as any.

Finally there is a silk nightcap in dark indigo and gold silk. This one is a slightly simplified pattern modelled on a surviving embroidered nightcap in the V&A, and my version lacks the embroidery and uses slightly less fine silk, but it is otherwise faithful to the proportions and stripe placement of the original.

For every hat that is preserved in a museum collection today there would have been thousands of similar but varied versions that haven't survived the centuries. Some of my hats aim to be as close a copy as possible, others aim to fit what we know about materials, construction and proportions but are adapted to use materials available today, others are interpretations of styles known to have been in use but which may have been made in any of several ways.

It's always a lot of fun to add a little more to the jigsaw of information that I draw on for this type of work, and I try and regularly get access to extant hats to help me continually improve both the range of hats and techniques that I use to make them.

PISCES from exhibition with .
Recycled woollens.

Great idea (rough on the skin though).

After realizing that poor women were using the flour sacks to make clothing for their children some flour mills started using flowered fabric for their sacks, 1939.

My friend Sally Pointer

Every single one of these skeins of yarn came out of just three dye baths over one weekend, plus a little undyed wool!

This photo was taken a few years ago at a heritage day demonstration of natural dyes known to have been used across a very wide date-range. The event itself was Iron Age, so I keyed my display and costume to that, but most of these can be seen right into recent history.

I set up dye pots for Woad (Isatis tinctoria), Weld (Reseda luteola) and Madder (Rubia tinctorum), and used a mix of unmordanted yarn and some with alum, copper, iron or oak gall tannin. Pots were either pottery (the woad), or copper alloy.

I love arrangements like this that helps us show just what is possible with just a very few classic dyes. Next time I do this I'll be aiming for some good deep reds to go in the middle too!

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Lots of different stitches explored today in our Introduction to Nalbinding course Berrycroft Hub . I worked everyone really hard but by the end of the day five different stitches had been tried in a mix of plant and animal fibres.

13 Strand Braid Belt Instructions This is an 'instructions only' version of a full kit that is available on my website (www.sallypointer.com). Several people have asked for this version so they can use their own cordage and belt loop. Instructions are both written and in ph...

17 February 10 – 4 DAY WORKSHOP at ROSE TINTED RAGS, Hereford HR1 2EP. (near bus and train stations). Try two vintage upcycling techniques in a day. You can start a progged, shaggy seat mat and try hooking, used to show pictorial detail. A seat mat can be finished quickly so it is a good first project. You can make it a sampler for both techniques, if you like. £75 includes some hessian,some rags, drinks, biscuits. Email for info & bookings : [email protected]