Lottery Grant from ‘Awards for All’
On Monday 1 September 2008, members and guests of Durham Clayport Matters assembled in Clayport Library to celebrate the launch of their new project, entitled ‘The Diversity of Durham'.

The project has received funding from ‘Awards for All’ and Elsie Shaw and Gillian Appleby were photographed happily displaying a giant cheque for £9662. For Elsie, along with internationally renowned tutor, Heather Ritchie and many volunteer colleagues, it is the culmination of several years’ dedicated work, promoting mat-making in Durham and surrounding areas.

‘The Diversity of Durham’
The funding for this project will finance a comprehensive list of equipment and aids for training, leading to the enablement and personal development of the group members. The aim is to produce a piece which will represent County Durham as viewed by diverse groups. It will show the people and their history, their life at home, work and play, and illustrate the beauty of field and fell.
The project, scheduled for completion in June 2009, will take the form of a sampler 1m. square, exemplifying proggy and hooky techniques using a varied selection of materials. The finished piece will be used as a backdrop for public displays and demonstrations.
We plan to give progress reports on how the project is shaping up, so watch this space!


Progress
Since receiving the Lottery Grant, Clayport Matters have been very busy. During Autumn 2008, classes tutored by Heather Ritchie continued at Clayport Library and Bowburn Community Centre. Members have helped with work on the project and the many other Lottery activities involving local groups and organisations. Some have worked with County Durham History and Heritage Forum on the archival documents connected with the Hugh McKay Carpet Factory. Others have worked behind the scenes preparing fabrics and hessian for workshops, demonstrations and taster sessions. School visits have proved popular and successful.

Work for the wall hanging has been ongoing. Following workshops on digital camera use and the standardising of document sheets, work began in January 2009, on collating records and photographs. A visit to Durham Mining Heritage Museum resulted in a proposed collaboration with local artist, writer and ex-miner, Ron Gray, on mat-making designs.

The mat-makers are embracing with great enthusiasm the work-load which this project has entailed, and in so doing are hugely advancing their knowledge and technical expertise. Traditional mat-making and its modern variations are alive and well in County Durham.








LATEST NEWS
Clayport Matters have been invited to demonstrate mat-making at the following:-

Sedgefield Show
Saturday 8 August 2009

Beamish Agricultural Show
17 - 20 September 2009

Hooking & Progging

On Monday 8th March 2004 Elsie Shaw, on behalf of the Durham Clayport Matters Group, presented the Clayport wallhanging to Patrick Conway, Durham County Council Director of Cultural Services. It has been placed in the Library.
The wall hanging depicts all elements of the work of Durham Clayport Library and the place of the Library in County Durham. The work measuring 42" X 58" was hooked on hessian, using hand-dyed woollen blankets, tweeds, fancy fabrics, and yarns.

More about Clayport Matters
It was almost by chance that the opportunity arose for mat making classes at Durham Clayport Library. Centre Manager Geoff Pratt, who at the time was Floor Officer for the Digital Media Suite, expressed interest in a photocopy that Elsie Shaw had just made, showing her hooky wall hanging and on the strength of that he invited her to tutor some classes. This she undertook in January 2003, beginning with eighteen participants of both genders, including some adults with learning difficulties. The group learnt basic techniques of proggy and hooky, each person producing a mat, and later a joint project was started for a wall hanging to be placed in the Library.

More beginners’ classes followed in April and classes at a more advanced level began in June 2003, taken by renowned mat maker Heather Ritchie, from Reeth.(www.rugmaking.co.uk) Concentration was geared to fine realistic work for small hangings, handbags and cushions, alongside the traditional proggy and hooky mats. The outcome has been the consolidation of interest and a core group drawn from the classes - Durham Clayport Matters - who continue to meet where and when there is a call for their work, which may entail demonstrating for local Church groups or at public events around the county.

To contact Clayport Matters e.mail
durhammatgroup@yahoo.co.uk

Rug Aid in The Gambia
The April/May issue of Workbox magazine features an article about Heather Ritchie and her Rug Aid project. Heather, renowned rug maker and teacher, has many years of experience working with children and adults, and people with visual impairment. Moved by the poverty she saw when in Zanzibar back in 2004, she has been able to realise her dream of setting up Rug Aid, a non-profit making, community interest company.
With the assistance of her daughter, Chrissie, who is a rehabilitation officer for people with visual impairment, and with help from the Gambian Organisation for the Visually Impaired (GOVI), and the UK charity Friends of GOVI, plus Sightsavers International, Heather has been able to teach rug-making to blind adults and children at the GOVI Resource Centre. Linked with this is a training programme for rehabilitation workers connected with blind people throughout The Gambia.
Heather has been delighted by the response to her idea of setting up a structured learning programme that will offer a means of producing attractive and saleable goods to people who were previously forced to beg for a living. In the true, matting tradition the rugs are made from low cost, recycled materials. More detailed information can be found on www.rugaid.org

FORTHCOMING EVENT

Rug Aid Rug Rave
Saturday 21 November 2009 10am - 3pm Adm. £5
Newton Hall Community Centre
Ryelands Way, Durham
A rug-making and fund-raising day for Rug Aid
Raffle, Tombola, Bring and Buy Stall.

Elsie Shaw.

This Picture of St. Oswald's Church, Durham was drawn on hessian from a photograph. Working from hand spun and hand-dyed wool, traditional hooking techniques were used with a fine steel crochet hook on a lap frame - finished size 16"x 12". Some wool was dyed in a microwave oven with Gaywool dyes. The natural coloured Manx Loughton fleece was exactly the colour for the stonework; tower and buttresses were edged in 1/2" flannel. Dyed, unspun Wensleydale fleece staples were used for the stained glass windows and brown chenille for the border.

Matmaking classes are run at Durham Clayport Library on Mondays during term time:- 10am -12noon and 1pm - 3pm. Tutor: Heather Ritchie. For further details contact the Digital Media Suite or call:- 0191 386 4003
To generate interest in this time-honoured and long established skill, members of the public are invited to come and see the work of the Group.

Rag rug-making has been practised in one form or another for centuries. The foreword to a catalogue published in 1988 at the Shipley Art Gallery, Gateshead, states that in Egypt, evidence of a pulled-up weft dates to about 2000BC, and possibly preceded the technique of knotted pile. It goes on to say that the Vikings are known to have looped raw fleece into a woven backing to imitate sheepskin, both for bed coverings and clothing, and it is likely that these adventurers brought examples with them on their voyages to Europe and parts of the New World.

Ann Macbeth, chief tutor in the Embroidery Dept. of Glasgow School of Art 1908-1920, was confident that a form of rug-making, similar to the American hooked rug, had been in existence in Scotland for several hundred years, from when the Norsemen first invaded Shetland and Orkney. It is conjectured that the early settlers in North America took with them their mat-making skills. By the mid 19th century, with the availability of jute hessian as a base material, rug-makers were producing intricate and elaborate designs. Collectors recognised early their value as a folk art form.

Mat-making, as it is called in Durham (the word rug applies more in Yorkshire and Cumbria), was an early form of recycling during times of economic depression, whence came the need to make do and mend. Many communities throughout the country were at the mercy of extreme climate and unreliable industry, and the mats, when new, were a comfort on the bed in the winter and were a popular cover for stone floors. Mats were regarded as a ‘country’ or ‘working class’ craft, the results being far too inferior for use in smart households.

The basic requirements of a frame and a hook or progger were made by the local men. The backing material was hessian – often old sacks. It should be noted that the mat was only as strong as the base material and may be why so few old examples of this craft have survived in this country. Materials used for mat-making in the past would have been old clothes, made mainly from woven woollen materials. A dark border was made reflecting the colours of the clothes being worn at the time. Simple patterns were inserted, using anything that came to hand – circles, often overlapping, were drawn around plates and saucers. A favourite design feature was a red diamond in the centre of the mat.

Today we have a wide range of materials available. Most people still use old clothes, blankets, scraps from clothing mills, tee shirts, thrums from the carpet factory, fantasy fabrics from markets, and plastic carrier bags. This is an interesting, economical, easily accessible and creative craft. As well as the continued need for practical use on the floor, mat- making techniques have become a versatile means of decoration in wall-hangings, bags, cushions and earrings.

When mat-making it is important to avoid back and wrist strain. Stop at least every twenty minutes, stretch out your arms and change activity – perhaps cut more clippings. When you are seated at the frame, the mat should be high enough to work with one arm resting naturally above the frame and one below. In order to reach the clippings underneath the hessian without any strain, you should turn the frame or move it in whatever way allows you to work comfortably.

Chris Steel
In 2005 the National Needlework Archive, in collaboration with Poems in Waiting, was arranging an exhibition of textile art and poetry which would be shown in public locations throughout Britain. Textile artists from various disciplines would produce wall hangings illustrating a poem to be chosen by the artist, and the work would be hung alongside the poem. Rug hookers were delighted to learn that rug making techniques would be welcome along with embroidery, collage, quilting etc.The resulting exhibits were shown at various venues during 2005 and 2006.
The exhibition was so successful that the works have been retained for further showings, and all the exhibits, along with their accompanying poems, have been made into a book entitled 'Poetry in Stitches'.

I entered this piece of work and chose to illustrate part of a poem by Wendy Cope, entitled 'Prize County Pigs'. My wall hanging shows the Staffordshire Tamworth Red, a pig which Wendy Cope regards as eminently suitable to take on holiday; sadly, other pigs, by virtue of their complexions, may burn, need sun-hats, or use up all the holiday sun cream. The finished piece is 61 x 61cms and is worked in hooky technique on a hessian backing, using strips of wool, synthetic fleece, T-shirt material and woollen yarn. Some of the materials are home dyed.

Colin Wake
I had always liked West Highland Terriers and for years had wanted one. Then for Christmas 2001 I received a present, all carefully wrapped up, which when opened revealed a tiny six week old puppy - Pip. She came as a complete surprise and has,of course, become very special to me.
In 2002 I became interested in rug-making but really knew very little about it. Then, looking through a book on rag rugs I saw a picture of a Scottie dog standing on its own rug, and this gave me the inspiration for - my Pip rug!
I found that a rug-making class was starting in early 2003 and went along to see if my idea was feasible. Tutor Elsie Shaw gave me some material that I thought was just right. I completed the rug during the first course and became even more interested in all types of rug-making, especially clippy mats.............

In February 2004, Pip had her first litter and I have kept one of the puppies - Abby, hence the rug showing mother and daughter!

Gillian Appleby. Nov 2006.
This rug was hooked on a hessian background using a mixture of manufactured and hand-spun yarn. It is the first picture I have attempted and only the second rug.
The inspiration came to me during a morning walk along the riverbanks in Durham, and I wondered if it was possible that a novice like myself could achieve such a feat - it loomed as large as the Cathedral itself.
I began rug-making after being intrigued by an article written by Elsie Shaw which appeared in St Oswald's Parish Magazine. After contacting Elsie I enrolled in a class at the Durham Clayport Library, and so my career as a Matter began.

Rug: Inspiration: A floor pattern in North Elmham Church, Norfolk, made using carpet thums, Aran knitting wool.
Measures 12 inches x 16 inches.

Star rug: Inspiration: Starry Night by Van Gogh - Directional Hooking and Stars, floor patterns from Durham Cathedral High Alter.
Made from carpet thrums and Aran Knitting yarn.
Measures 23 inches x 32 inches.

Transporter Bridge (City and Guild piece)
Inspiration: Transporter Bridge at Middlesbrough at night.
Made from dyed wool blanket, fleece fabric and sequinned material.
Measures: 23 inches x 35 inches.

Rainbow: Inspiration: Art Deco Sunburst and a picture of the Cruxifiction in St Lawrences Church, South Anston in Derbyshire.
Made using hand-dyed woollen blanket.
Measures: 9 inches x 11 inches.

Margaret Thompson’s interest in textile art and her long-term adherence to recycling coincided nicely when she joined the mat-makers at Clayport Library. Initially her intention was to develop and pass on these skills in her work with people with learning difficulties, but she became totally fascinated by the craft and was so inspired by Heather Ritchie, that, along with some of her fellow class members, she has now gained a City & Guilds qualification.


At Clayport Matters’ recent ‘Awards for All’ presentation many of Margaret’s pieces were on display, showing that she has cast around widely for design sources. One table runner in lots of bright colours gave a passing nod to Kaffe Fassett, and on some cushions Margaret had applied Heather’s innovative decorative techniques using felt and beads. A wall-hanging depicting a very fine cockerel was hooked with strips of hand-dyed wool, carpet thrums and knitting wool.

For a wedding present sent to her sister-in-law in Barbados, Margaret’s creative power was ignited by a tapestry advertisement in the style of Klimt. Her interpretation used brightly dyed strips of wool, surrounded by a border of motifs and flags to suit the occasion.
Her work has a joyous quality that reflects the pleasure that she so obviously derives from its production. Margaret says she learns something new with each project that she tackles and plans that her next mat-making design will feature water and fish.

For a wedding present sent to her sister-in-law in Barbados, Margaret’s creative power was ignited by a tapestry advertisement in the style of Klimt. Her interpretation used brightly dyed strips of wool, surrounded by a border of motifs and flags to suit the occasion.
Her work has a joyous quality that reflects the pleasure that she so obviously derives from its production. Margaret says she learns something new with each project that she tackles and plans that her next mat-making design will feature water and fish.

For her first piece of work, Mal Carson has taken an idea from 'Balamory' on CBBs, which she says is a favourite of her grandson, Louie. These pretty, colour-washed houses hooked in wool, have been fashioned into a welcoming front door mat for Mal's daughter. The mat won First Prize in a local craft competition.

Updated 22 July 2009