hanseling

 

There used to be a little ritual in this country known as 'hanseling', in which the youngest member of the family would have the treat of being 'first on the rug', rolling head over heels on the new rag rug that was laid by the hearth in time for Christmas.

 

 

'Hanseling' is a word found in Old English and Old Norse, meaning:

• A gift to express good wishes at the beginning of a new year or enterprise. 
• To launch with a ceremonial gesture or gift.
• To do or use for the first time.

 

Since the youngest member of my household is now 21, 6ft 4ins and has size 11s, I thought I would 'borrow' my neighbour's gorgeous baby to do the honours instead. Little Imogen showed off her best hanseling/rolling skills:

 

     Imogen: first to roll on the new rug

 

 and furthermore, appraised the hooked pile with her tiny fingers.

 

      Imogen: Quality Control Inspector

 

 

Personally speaking, it seemed important for me to observe the hanseling tradition this Christmas. For not only is this particular rug officially 'launched', but the New Year sees me launch my rag rug career on a full-time basis!

the listening days



http://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/128817097/1-vintage-carpet-beater-from-england?ref=market

 

Thank you to members of the Wellington Tangent Club for sharing their wonderful memories last night when I went to give them a talk: 'Underfoot Folk Art: the History and Art of Rag Rugs'. Rag and Bone men, washing coppers, rug beaters and hearth and home. Memories stretching back 74 years for one person...to the listening days, of wireless set and gramophone.

'slack kind of folk in housekeeping ways'

  Finished!

Rose with buds (Rag rug)

 

I love this exert from a letter written by a Nova Scotian rag rug maker in the 1920s:

 

"When I finish [a rug] I feel as relieved as if I had had a baby!!! When I am doing one I feel something akin to an artist because I look just as untidy as Rosa Bonheufs [sic] pictures, to say nothing of the state the house is in, and I ease my conscience by thinking 'We are an easy going slack kind of folk in house keeping ways but the fires of genius must burn.' "

Stella Surette, Pomeroy Ridge, N.B., 16 March 1924.
 (Nineteenth-century French artist, Rosa Bonheur (1822-1899), was famous for her animal paintings and eccentric lifestyle which included "manly" dress and a menagerie of exotic pets).

From:

"As the Locusts in Egypt Gathered Crops":

Hooked Mat Mania and Cross-Border Shopping in the Early Twentieth Century

Sharon M. MacDonald

Material Culture Review. Volume 54, Fall/Automne 2001

http://journals.hil.unb.ca/index.php/MCR/article/view/17903/22068#no16

My house has been in a pretty pickle too, while I've been finishing the rug. Can't say my that conscience needs any "easing" 'tho!

invisible mending and a sense of the hearth

I've been musing about invisible mending; the skill it takes to leave no trace.
And the extraordinary grit of one invisible mender I know; her vivid life.
Then I came across this 'web'site:

http:/www.ninakatchadourian.com/uninvitedcollaborations/spiderwebs

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mended Spiderweb #14 (Spoon Patch)
Cibachrome, 20 x 30 inches, 1998

Nina Katchadourian

Using differently coloured thread is what textile conservators sometimes do, to differentiate their own interventions from the historic stitching. Personally I'm not surprised Arachne disposed of the red thread and left it in little piles under the trees.What an imposition!

Every rug I make brings a sense of hearth to my home that has no fireplace.
A sense of coming home, where thoughts are quickened by my hands'
complete distractedness. I'm braiding the edge of the rug now. It's off the frame
at last and I'm working with it on my lap. It's good to be holding it in my hands at last.
A final intimacy before it's relegated to the floor.

new rug almost ready to be released from the frame







 

 

It's exciting working from alternate sides of the rug frame and critiquing your design from different viewpoints. I find this way of working becomes almost compulsive as I near the completion of a rug. A rug maker labours over a design that will ultimately be stepped on and walked over. This potentially humbling fact, can charge the design with a vitality that puts a veritable spring in the step (particularly if it's the tread of a bare foot). The rug, released from the frame and viewed from the biped's changing perspective, begins to gain a new energy...  









seen from the reverse







orange getting zesty in the artificial light!

It's interesting working in the evening's artificial light and seeing colours change and vibrate. Viewing the rug again in the morning light, I try to discern it's 'true colours'. But which are its true colours? I'm not sure. For hearth rugs, associated as they are with the embers of the day, seem best appreciated by flickering firelight. I'm not in the slightest bit tempted to use daylight bulbs. I think of rug makers in the 1930s, working by gas light. In keeping with the seasonal tradition of starting a new rug after harvesting, and completing it in time for Christmas, this rug was begun in a timely fashion. But, I'm way ahead of myself! It'll be finished before November (looking forward to the hanseling ceremony 'tho).