Teacher will contact students prior to class: Yes
Level: Basic – students must have basic rug hooking or punch needle knowledge & experience - depending on your project choice.
Supply fee description: Depending which project you select: HOOKING: ($60) 9 1/2” x 7 1/2” pumpkin pattern on linen, hand-dyed spotted pumpkin orange wool, 2 x ¾” strips of hand dyed olive branch wool for the stem, glue, & 10-quart painted bucket. PUNCH NEEDLE: ($45) 4 1/2” x 3 1/2” pumpkin pattern on weavers cloth, Valdani (#8 Pearl Cotton) for the pumpkin, hand-dyed floss for the stem, glue, & 2-quart painted bucket. Both projects include instructional hand-out with methods and recipes.
Students Need to Bring: Depending which project you select: HOOKING: small gripper frame for rug hooking, scissors (for cutting linen & snipping wool), & hook. PUNCH NEEDLE: small 11” – 12” gripper frame, scissors (for embroidery & fabric), Ultra Punch Needle with Medium tip, & needle threaders. (Teachers will provide resources for these supplies, when they contact you.)
Bio: Jenny Smallridge was intrigued by Ali Strebel’s booth at Yellow Springs Wool Festival, about 20 years ago. Jenny bought supplies, drew up a pumpkin pattern, and hooked every night until it was done. She learned how to finish it from a book by Pat Cross. After the pumpkin, she designed rugs with a steer head, sunflower and rooster.
She didn't pick up hooking again until about 5 years ago, when she took a class from Ali Strebel. Jenny’s passion was reignited and she hasn’t laid down her hook since. During that class, she also learned about the Miami Valley Rug Hooking Guild and became a member. The group was very welcoming, and she enjoyed seeing the gorgeous rugs that the members created. So, she started her journey to make beautiful rugs by spending the last few years taking in as much information about rug hooking as she could absorb.
During the Pandemic, Jenny started a business called The Wooly Horse, which offers her patterns for both hooking and punch needle. The studio and online business have become an all-consuming passion. She loves every step of the process, starting with design, followed by color planning and punching or hooking, with the end result – a piece of fiber art with a personality of its own.
Jenny enjoys mixing rustic, country and primitive styles all into one project. She hooks in wide cuts #8.5 and up, to hand-torn, but has also hooked in a #3 cut.
Jo Wick has always had a creative mind and is one who is never idle. There is always some handiwork in her hands, beginning in her early teens when her mother taught her hand sewing and embroidery. After a counted cross stitch and quilting phase in the 70s & 80s, she visited the local Kindred Spirits shop (of Ali Strebel & Sally Korte) and began rug hooking. To this day, rug hooking remains her passion and she has attended workshops, classes and retreats with nationally known teachers.
In 2014, Jo became fascinated with another hand art, punch needle. She was looking for a creative outlet that would be more portable, for traveling. The onset of Valdani floss sparked her interest and she loved the hand-dyed look without the need to separate and blend floss. Jo still uses DMC floss and obtains a hand-dyed look by spraying with walnut stain when finished. She has punched all sizes of patterns, with a runner that is 9” x 19” being her largest project. When she realized her house was overflowing with punch needle projects, she began collecting small antiques, on which she could mount her finished punch needle projects. After suggestions from friends, she began selling these items at her local rug hooking guild and other craft retreats. Her love for antiques and punch needle are now blended together as her newest punch needle designs are adaptations of antique hooked rugs. Now punch needle joins her favorite past times of rug hooking, wool appliqué, and natural plant dyeing of wool that she uses in her projects.
Jo is a member of the ATHA Chapter 98 - Miami Valley Rug Hooking Guild, and has taught classes in rug hooking and punch needle to her co-members and friends. Her business is called Jo's Folk Art Fibers, she designs and sells patterns as well as finished fiber art.