For this years Wool Week, a group of volunteers took it upon themselves to create a hooked rug inspired by the poppy motif which features heavily in our World War One exhibition ‘In the Firing Line‘.
Hooked rugs were often used to commemorate an event and, with 2014 being the Centenary year of the start of the First World War, we thought it would make a fitting tribute to all those from Kidderminster who lost their lives.
The original poppy design, selected by volunteers Sandra and Heather, was created by Jeannie Foord in 1901 as part of a “Decorative Flower Studies’ series which would have been used by carpet designers for design inspiration. The full series of ‘Decorative Flower Studies’ is housed within the museum’s collections, and this seemed an ideal opportunity to find inspiration from them once again!
The original design was re-worked by ex-carpet designer Mick Lowe into a simpler motif which was then ‘gridded out’ to create a chart which dictated which colour of tuft went where within the rug. All the tufts were then cut and inserted into the rug by hand by Jill and Graham, with many visitors and family groups being encouraged to add their own tufts into the carpet.
Approximately 12,000 individual tufts were put into the rug in total…and we’re sure you’ll agree, the results are pretty spectacular!
We plan to raffle off the finished rug in the New Year, with a percentage of the takings being donated to the Royal British Legion. Details of the raffle will be announced in January, so keep checking back and you could be in with the chancing of taking it home!
Museum of Carpet 