Amy Oxford, Cornwall, VT
Dates: Evening – Thursday, August 17, 2017
Time: 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
Class Fee: $60.00 / Sauder Village Members 50.00
Supply Fee: $10.00 - payable to teacher at the beginning of class
Location: Founder's Hall - Stage Right
Teacher’s Website: amyoxford.com
Description:
Did you know that The Oxford Punch Needle can be used to punch on wool rug hooking fabric? It turns out that the fabric makes a great backing for the punch! The tool glides easily through the fabric and creates a lovely effect.
The short 1/8” punched yarn loops make a delicate pile that’s great for pieces such as pillows, stockings, and wall hangings. The real beauty of this method is that you don’t have to punch any background - the wool fabric itself becomes the background! With all the gorgeous spot dyed wools available today the background options can be really exciting and will enhance and compliment the punched design. Now add luscious wool knitting yarns and the results can be gorgeous. You’ll love the effect of this “wool on wool” combo! Embroidered Japanese knots and the stem stitch will be used to embellish the piece.
We’ll use the #14 fine “Mini” Oxford Punch Needle and worsted weight knitting yarn to create a small sampler that will allow you to learn the technique. There will be many folk art designs to choose from or design your own.
Bio:
Amy Oxford has been making punch needle style hooked rugs since 1982 when she worked as an at-home rug puncher for McAdoo Rugs, an esteemed cottage industry in North Bennington, Vermont. An internationally renowned instructor, Oxford has loved teaching the craft since 1986. She has been licensed by the Shelburne Museum to make adaptations of their antique rugs, and has helped catalog the museum’s collection of over 400 hooked rugs. She is the past president of The Vermont Crafts Council and past vice president of The Green Mountain Rug Hooking Guild.
Amy is the inventor and manufacturer of The Oxford Punch Needle, an ergonomically designed tool sold all around the world. She is the author of five books including Punch Needle Rug Hooking and Volumes I-IV of Hooked Rugs Today, which feature rugs from the Green Mountain Rug Hooking Guild’s exhibitions at Shelburne Museum. Amy has made everything from dollhouse rugs to a room sized rug and stair runner and her work has been exhibited throughout New England.
When McAdoo Rugs closed in 2010 Oxford purchased all of their rug designs and considers this collection of over 1000 patterns, photographs, and artwork to be a national treasure. The patterns are now being digitally archived to make them available to the public. Amy is also the owner of Violet Jane, a yarn dyeing business specializing in one of a kind skeins of variegated rug yarns. In 2013 she started The Oxford Rug Hooking School in a beautiful 1816 Colonial farmhouse in Cornwall, Vermont where she offers classes year-round for all skill levels including teacher certification. Her interest in the history of punch needle rug making has spurred the collection of over 150 antique punches.
Specialties: Punch needle rug hooking, innovative punching techniques, inventing and book writing.
BIO: Susan L. Feller designs patterns for Ruckman Mill Farm and is a juried Fine Craftsman at Tamarack in Beckley, West Virginia. Included in three Celebration of Hand-Hooked Rugs issues and a judge, her work has been juried into several contemporary Hooked Art collections. Author of Design Basics for Rug Hookers, Stackpole Books 2011 her advice has helped many create their own “Great rug.” Her blog provides lessons on process along with product.
Involved in promoting the traditions carried on by artistic contemporaries, Susan teaches and lectures worldwide, and is a member of TIGHR, McGown and Surface Design.
SPECIALTIES: Rug pattern designing and fiber manipulating techniques including hooked, punched, needle felted, and dimensional collage, and picture framer.
WEDNESDAY