e-mail: paula_shiatsu@yahoo.co.uk
< Durham, UK >
Paula Bolton: creator of Elemental Rugs
I live in a village near Durham City in the North East of England, a few miles from the beautiful, wide-open moorlands of Weardale. This is a landscape for curlews and lapwings - and sheep. I have a deep love of the natural world and respect for the forces that form it - the Elements. With Elemental Rugs I bring you the kindest, most benign of them all: the Wool Element!
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Apart from working at my peg loom, I am a sound therapist and shiatsu practitioner. The name Elemental Rugs ties in with my sound therapy identity: Elemental Sounds (please take a look at my website: www.elementalsounds.co.uk.)
The story of Elemental Rugs: how I discovered the Wool Element
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I made my first rug one fine summer’s day in August 2012. It was at a delightful workshop held at a smallholding near my home in Co.Durham, where they grow organic vegetables and run courses on permaculture and rustic crafts.
I found the workshop totally absorbing and relaxing. It was a wonderful day and I was proud to go home with a very attractive and practical rug.
After that I was hooked. My first fleeces came from friends who have a herd of Welsh Black sheep and who run an organic food shop in the village a couple of miles away. My first few rugs now live on either side of each bed in my house, appreciated every night and morning by bare toes.
As time passed I became eager to experiment with fleeces from different sheep breeds. I was fortunate to be offered several large sackfuls by a friend with an organic farm a few miles from my home. His sheep are mainly Texel and Jacob’s sheep; their wool comes in beautiful, subtle shades of brown and grey. Perfect!
Gradually, I was running out of corners in the house to keep all my rugs, even after giving away several to friends. So, last December 2014 I opened a shop on Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/ElementalRugs
So many of the mass-produced goods that surround us in our society cause pollution in their production and distribution and misery to the workers who produce them. In contrast, I know where the wool for my rugs comes from - sheep that are well cared for and live happily on to provide fleeces year after year. As such, my rugs are locally sourced, sustainably produced and sheep-friendly. What’s more, I enjoy making them! I’d love to share these natural wool Elemental Rugs with you.
How I make Elemental Rugs: step by step
* Selecting a fleece. Fleeces from different sheep breeds provide a whole range of natural colours, from white to brown to black, and textures, from smooth to curly-tasseled.
* Setting up the loom. A peg loom consists of a long wooden base that is drilled to hold moveable wooden pegs. Each peg is threaded with a length of jute or cotton twine, so forming the warp threads of the rug.
* Weaving. Wool from the raw sheep's fleece is woven round the pegs. By using different colours of wool from a single fleece or combining wool from two or more fleeces you can create a variety of patterns.
* Finishing. Once the rug is the required length the warp threads are cut loose from the pegs and tied firmly at either end of the rug, forming fringes.
* Washing. The completed rug is washed in a bath of tepid water, using mild washing liquid such as Ecover. It is then rinsed several times in cool water.
* Drying. The rug is hung out to dry on the washing line on a breezy, sunny day.
* And finally... When the rug is dry the warp threads are tied off and trimmed to length.
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