Hooked on Rugs
Hooked rug with beaver, Canada, circa 1940
wool, synthetic, rayon, cotton and burlap, hooked, 23” x 39” Textile Museum of Canada
Rug hooking has a long history in Canada. Home Economics: 150 Years of Canadian Hooked Rugs, on view at the Nickle Galleries at the University of Calgary until April 8, unravels the craft's story from its humble origins in pioneer homesteads. Rug making offered women a creative outlet with designs that typically incorporated animals, flowers, landscapes and geometric patterns, while also serving a practical need by covering the floorboards in an era before central heating. Rugs were also sold, helping to sustain rural families. Initially made on linen with homespun wool, they became more widespread with the introduction of burlap in the 1850s. Women used a metal hook to pull strips of cloth through the loosely woven burlap, which was stretched across a wood hoop or frame. Even someone as notable as Emily Carr helped make ends meet by hooking rugs, often incorporating First Nations’ motifs. Rug hooking saw a resurgence in the last half of the 20th century as feminism renewed interest in traditional craft.
Yvonne Mullock with the Chinook Guild of Fibre Arts, Calgary, "Hit & Miss," 2014
recycled wool, cotton and burlap, hooked, 31” x 116”
Contemporary artists like Calgary’s Yvonne Mullock, who created Hit and Miss in 2014 with the Chinook Guild of Fibre Arts, treat rug hooking as a community-based social practice. Shauna McCabe, executive director of the Textile Museum of Canada, which organized the show, says older rugs, which were often passed down through families as valued heirlooms, illustrate social history, craft innovations and social enterprise. “Connecting past to present, these impulses continue to inform and inspire today’s artists and craftspeople whose endeavours are as tied to current local and global influences as they are to the tradition of rug hooking itself.”
Hooked rug with polar bears, Grenfell Mission, Newfoundland and Labrador, after 1916
Oval rug with dog, Ontario, early to mid-20th century
Nickle Galleries
410 University Court NW, Taylor Family Digital Library, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta T2N 1N4
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