Archives for February 2015

last days of rug hooking in Matangwe

February 20, 2015 by Birdbrain 3 Comments

Today is our ‘exhibition’ and my final day of Matangwe rug hooking. Everyone has been working very hard to get as many pieces as possible completed for today. Things have come together in this third week and I am overwhelmed by the quality of the technique and design. We had an order for 6 chairs seats and below you will see four contenders, plus one of my favourite bird mats, accurately depicting a Cordon Bleu, one of my favourite Matangwe birds. Many of the rug hookers have have progressed from copying a photo using the window as a light box, to designing scenes from their lives. We went shopping in Bondo for tshirts last week as we had run out of material for sky and grass. Turquoise is a favourite.

Uploading photos is a tedious business but I will try to do another post later today. We have over 30 pieces for the exhibiton and sale.

rug hooking in Matangwe 2015 update

February 15, 2015 by Birdbrain 3 Comments

Hello again from Kenya. I am in Kisumu with a great view of Lake Victoria from my balcony so I plan to sketch it soon. I hope to post some of my sketches of Matangwe and Kisumu later this week. But first rug hooking news.

We have now finished our second week of rug hooking. The pile of woollen worms has really shrunk and we have been to Bondo to shop for T shirts. We were expecially looking for the colours of grass and sky. I am thrilled with the work especially the larger mats and chair seats which they have drawn of local scenes. I love the way they combine tshirts, wool and the occasional nylon stocing. Here are some samples of the work so far.

I’ve been hooking along with the women, using this piece to demonstrate technique. But as you can see from the work above, they are very fast learners and have a wonderful sense of colour and design. They have been inspired by Rug Hooking magazine and the slides I’ve shown them, but these pieces all have a Matangwe lens. It’s magic to watch these wonderful women translate their environment into hooking.

rug hooking in Matangwe Kenya 2015

February 8, 2015 by Birdbrain 6 Comments

I am in Kisumu with a wifi connection, so can now do a blog post. But even with wifi, it is a long and tedious process. This post took over an hour to load. But I am not complaining–it is so much better than my first year here when I had to find a functional cyber cafe in Bondo (not at all easy) to send an email. Even in remote Matangwe now I have 3G and can connect to home every day. It makes such a difference.

We have finished our first week of rug hooking in Matangwe. There are about 16 women in the classes, some who have returned from last year and some new. We started with a small piece and then moved on to a trivet with a local bird. As I escplained last year, we hook without frames. We are hooking with a big bag of woollen strips which I brought–left over pieces from years of rug hooking. The pile has lasted us all week. Here is the group hard at work.

I brought several issues of Rug Hooking magazine and they are serving as a great source of inspiration. My hope this year is that each rug hooker will create a piece of her own design. Already some of the women have finished the first two pieces and begun an original design.