STUDENTS NEED TO BRING:  Basic hooking supplies: a frame, scissors, cutter, cutter blades (# 2 - 6), & hook.

BIO:  Mariah Krauss, a fifth-generation rug hooker with an artistic and creatively encouraging mother, has learned to put her own spin on four generations of rug hooking. She consistently tries to push herself to create new techniques, develop new ideas, and pioneer different styles of rug hooking.

Her first piece of note, Aries Woman, took basic swatch dyeing and shading techniques and amplified the processes to create a captivating product through which she has been able to connect with many viewers. She believes strongly that art is a language and as such is her outlet for emotions; with every piece she attempts to weave into the fabric a message. She loves to use color, contrast, and play with composition to achieve the desired result.

Aries Woman won her first Viewer's Choice Award as well as Museum Choice Award at the Hooked in the Mountains Exhibit in Shelburne, Vermont, and was her first submission to Celebration of Hand-Hooked Rugs appearing in the XXII issue and winning Viewer's Choice Award for best original design. Since then she has refined and improved her pattern making, shading, and dyeing techniques and hopes to further her ideas in the future while capturing the moments that mean the most.

Mariah is a board member of Green Mountain Rug School, is a member of the Green Mountain Rug Hooking Guild in Vermont, teaches high school physics, chemistry, and special education at Westbrook High School in Westbrook, Maine and coaches soccer in her free time.