Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Rag rug artists use skills for good cause

Julia M. Dendinger News-Bulletin Staff Writer; jdendinger@news-bulletin.com

Belen As we enter the age of green, everyone is looking for ways to cut back on waste in their day-to-day lives. We are reducing, reusing and recycling on many levels, and a group of Belen women have found a way to take that concept and turn it into profitable artwork.

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For several years, former Belen Art League president Lorraine Doty has wanted to begin a group of rag rug makers in the county. Doty said she spoke with Frida Arth, with the New Mexico Women's Federation, who has been working to establish rag rug groups all over the sate.

"During my visit with her, I was talking about how great that would be in Belen," Doty said. "And since I stepped down as president of the Art League, I had the time to work on this project."

So the project Doty has been waiting to start sprung to life.

"I recruited several teachers," she said. "I found interested students — a lot of them at the Belen Area Food Bank."

Instructor Heidi Craig said it was Doty's idea to put a little money into local families pockets during hard times.

"This is a cottage industry," Doty said. "It comes from a time when women used everything they had, and nothing went to waste."

Using inexpensive lumber and hardware, the group made their own looms and got started. The warp of the rugs is from old bed sheets.

"They are nice and long and tear easily into long strips," Craig said. "For the weft, just about anything will work — old towels, shirts, denim."

The "almost anything" is aptly demonstrated when staff from the office of the Valencia Shelter for Victims of Domestic Violence, located next door to the gallery, brings in several boxes of fabric and clothing for the rug makers

Craig begins looking through the boxes and holds up a bright red sweater. "Sweaters are not good — too much stretch," she says, pulling the garment to demonstrate. Several of the rug makers are taken by a bolt of eggplant purple burnt velvet, but Craig warns about the perils of pretty, but not so practical fabric.

"It stretches and rolls up into these little tubes," she says, pointing at her own rug in progress. "It is very difficult to work with. Maybe only use a little bit."

The shelter is just one of the partners supporting the rag rug classes, Doty said. "They get a lot of donations, and some of what they can't use, they pass on to us," she said.

As soon as the rug makers get several finished pieces amassed, they will sell them at both the Los Lunas and Belen growers' markets, and will do demonstrations of the rag rug techniques. The rugs will be sold at the Belen Art League Gallery and at the Harvey House.

The Belen Art League has donated many of the supplies and space at its gallery for the classes. The Belen Area Food Pantry allowed Doty to come in and recruit rug makers.

"I think I will go back, and I would like to take a finished rug with me to show the people there what a finished piece looks like," she said.

But the four Belen residents who signed up for the class didn't even need to see a completed piece to be interested in learning a new craft.

Sarah Williams identified herself as "a crafter," but this was new to her. "I like finding and trying new things," she said. "I'm making a bath mat, so I'm using old towels."

She has learned a few tricks along the way.

"Cut off the flat edges because they don't lay flat," Williams said. "If you make a mistake and have to pull it back out, God help you." She rubs a thumb along the edge of the cut towel, shedding pieces of fabric onto her lap.

"It's kind a mess," she laughs.

Dell Washington used a computer to design a pattern and color scheme for her rug, working primarily in pinks and florals. Because she has to sit to weave her rug, due to a heart condition, Washington holds her loom across her lap and braces it against a chair.

"It doesn't look like I've been working on it much, but I tore my strips a bit too thin and it's taking forever," she said. "But I still like it."

Tina Lujan says she has always wanted to make rugs and learn to weave.

"I was at the pantry when Lorraine came through looking for interested people," she said. "She wasn't even to me before I was saying, 'Me, me!'"

Lujan is preparing to move to Albuquerque and is loom-less right now. "A friend is helping me pack and took my loom up already," she said. "I'm kind of having withdrawals. It's very soothing; it's creative and making something practical at the same time."

The looms are very basic frames, made from square lengths of wood. Rows of nails along the top and bottom crossbars allow the weaver to adjust the width of the rug.

Nuts and bolts hold the cross arms to the uprights, and holes drilled along the long bars let the women adjust the length. Small removable steel bars on the sides are woven over to keep the rugs square and prevent the sides from bowing in, creating an hour-glass shape in the finished piece.

The weavers say the trick for nice thick rows and good colors is to keep the strips flat as you weave. After several rows push the weft is pushed tight towards the top of the piece and the strips fold and bunch on their own.

Craig said at first, the group was weaving the rugs like you would on a traditional loom, but that produced a rug with an exposed warp that would be walked on, thus making the rugs less durable.

One of the students, Linda Arellin, actually had a book on making rag rugs. The technique described in the out-of-print tome resulted in a rug with the weft as the walking surface.

"These things will outlive all of us," laughed Craig.

Fellow instructor Barbara Price said this process has really built self-confidence in the participants.

"This is something that not only is creative and practical, but it also recycles things that would normally be thrown away," she said.

Lujan agreed, calling the rugs durable, useful and beautiful. Doty commented to the four students, "The more of these you make, the more artistic you will get."

Linda Arellin said making the rugs has been relaxing and "kind of addicting" for her.

"I have a lot of interest in, I guess what you would call, 'horse and buggy time,'" she said. "I love knowing I can sit down and do the same thing those women did. It gives me a good sense of accomplishment."

And also a sense of excitement. "When I'm working on one color, I'm thinking about which one I'll use next," Arellin said. "Now that this one is done, I'm thinking about the pattern and colors for the next rug."

Arellin is the first of the four to finish a rug, and she has also made her first sale. "My brother has already bought this one for $55," she said. "He said it was hard to let it go. He's going to use it as a wall hanging."

Her finished rug used two sheets for the warp and uncountable T-shirts for the weft andwas two-and-a-half feet wide and four feet long.

Craig's finished rug came in at 32 inches by 41 inches.

"It was supposed to be 40 inches," she says with a shrug. "It's not an exact science."

In addition to Craig and Price, Doty said, many local artisans volunteered as instructors for the new program.

"There were some scheduling conflicts, but it was so thrilling that there were so many people who wanted to help," she said. "I can't thank them enough. When we do another class, and I get more students, I know we can use the help again."

Other instructors who helped with the classes were Jo Phillips, Laura Anderson, Ros Ogawa, Pamela Jones and Monika Martin.

Donations of clean fabric, either remnants or clothing, can be made to the to the rug makers for future projects, Doty said.

"The pieces need to be clean," she emphasized. "And we especially need sheets."

Anyone interested in making rag rugs can call the Belen Art League Gallery at 861-0217 to sign up for the class.

Donations of fabric can also be brought to the gallery at 509 Becker Ave. in Belen.

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