When Winifred Nicholson and her husband walked into the Cumbrian farmhouse of their neighbor Margaret Warwick, they saw something that changed their way of seeing art forever. Margaret was using a hook and long thin strips of wool to make pictures of farm animals which she surrounded with multicolored striped borders.
Winifred and Ben had seen their first rag rug. It was a series of chessboard squares of light and dark colors and other squares dedicated to farm animals.
Ben left the animal choices and animal designs up to Mary. Winifred continued to design, make, and commission rag rugs throughout her life. She was a champion of the rugs and their makers wherever she went, and she even taught her children, grandchildren, and great-nieces to make rug drawings directly on hessian.
So many rugs connected to Winifred have been lost to time and use. They were, after all, mainly made to be used on floors. As many of you will know, rag rugs come in many forms across myriad cultures from woven to braided to knotted to clipped or looped. T-shirts, yarn, saris, and jeans—practically anything can find its way into a rag rug. In Britain, there are two prominent forms of rag rug making. The bottom of the rug will be covered in bumps, the top will be shaggy with a pile determined by the length and width of your cut strips.
Usually, these types of rugs are better for waves of color or multi-color designs, but not so much for making pictures. This is only because their shaggy, fat pile makes images indistinct. But what Margaret was making is another type of rag rug less common in Britain and more common in the U.
