FiberME to Visit Susie Stephenson Fiber Arts
We close out our FiberME 2015 tour with a visit to rug hooking artist, Susie Stephenson’s new studio/gallery, Susie Stephenson Fiber Arts. Susie and her husband bought the abandoned 1846 one room schoolhouse across the street from their farm in 2014 and hosted the ‘official opening’ late that year. Renovating and updating the building was a labor of love requiring countless hours of ‘elbow grease’. The studio is now an ideal spot for showing off her original hooked rugs, hosting fiber groups and holding workshops. We’re ecstatic to be able to stop by for a visit during our FiberME tour.
As the author of Designing and Hooking Primitive Rugs, Susie is an authority in this realm of the fiber arts world. She is a Primitive Folk Artist who derives her designs from commonplace things around her: her kids drawings, farm animals, coastal and marine scenes. She recycles materials to create her works: 2nd hand wool sweaters, wool clothing, and yarns, many of which family and friends donate or customers ordering custom hooked designs want incorporated into their pieces. She washes, drys, and sometimes overdyes these ‘leftovers’ to create new colors. Sometimes she dyes these fabrics in her old iron pot over an open fire. After washing, drying and dyeing she cuts the fabric into strips. She also uses ‘non-conventional’ materials such as mohair locks and novelty yarns in her work. Each of her rugs is a creative expression in which she compiles these once cast-offs, now treasured materials, into a work of art. There’s no doubt her bountiful imagination and whimsical style motivates and stimulates creativity in those around her.
Related items of interest: • Rug Making Books
Susie
Do stitches get pulled out due to the gripper strips? I do rug hooking with wool but want to experiment with yarn.