Rug Artist & Colorist

My mother, back in Ohio, taught me how to hook rugs in 1948. She had me begin with the log cabin pattern and built a small frame of lath. She gave me an antique hook that had belonged to her Aunt Em. I returned home to Oregon. After the first success, I decided to learn to hook without a frame and have been doing so ever since. Aunt Em's hook wore out and my husband made a similar one by pounding a large nail into a piece of wood and then filing the hook on one end. I hooked many rugs for my own home and organized the neighbors into a rug club. We made both braided rugs and hooked rugs and taught ourselves. Unfortunately my not using a frame influenced them all. We found our material in the leftover wool scraps from our braided rugs and used yarns as well. We did not get into dyeing. I feel I do not fit into the modern methods of rug hooking but it is too late to change my ways. I have never taught anyone else besides my old neighbors to hook like I do because I know it is unorthodox.

A few decades of 'Animal Tangles'

ew animal tangle My first patterns were "Pennsylvania Dutch" or motifs that our children asked for in their readings: space items or bear claws and arrows. Then I found a geometric pattern that could be filled in with abstract colors and that became my signature pattern. I always have one on the go. The Dorset Sound traditional pattern of "Tangled Animals" caught my eye and I have used it in the last few decades. I have made Seventeen of them.

I have been braiding rugs as long as I have been hooking rugs. My days are spent combining textures and colors to create beautiful braided rugs. I use the little pieces of wool to make seat pads. My latest fun is using 5-strand braids where I can combine more color. I use the 5-strand braids in the outer part of the rug since they are too hard to incorporate in the center of the rugs.

Selling for Posterity

I enjoy selling my rugs and thinking about the happiness they give to their owners in homes all over the world.        Emma Webber, 2007



btw...
Emma has a 'coffee table picture book' of her Hooked Rugs; 'An Evolution of Design', 12" x 12" Hardcover, 244 pages, all color, $160, plus tax. It visually chronicles her developement in rughooking design and colour. These days, it's all about colour and geometrics... Emma is a colourist! She has a second smaller paper back book of her rugs, a little different arrangement; 'Evolving Design', 8x10", all colour, $55, plus tax.