Hi, my name is Louise Riley and I am a Textile Artist. I have been working mostly with embroidery for over 20 years, but found rug-making during lockdown, I wanted to try something new, to have that fresh feeling I had lost with embroidery, due to only working commissions for a long time and no longer being with a gallery (my gallery in New Orleans unfortunately shut, so I no longer had that support to push at the edges!).
Well it worked, I loved it, and as I had been working with kids a lot, in the local youth club and running free workshops for a pair of brothers that couldn’t go to school over lockdown, I realised I really liked working with young people also.
I was asked by a friend to run a workshop for her 13 year old son to do the creative element of his Bronze Duke or Edinburgh Award. I offered him a variety of ideas, but he was very sure he wanted to make a rug. We had such a good time and I realised that I liked teaching it, just as much, if not more than doing it myself!
That was when I began to think about setting up the Bridport Rug Lab. Since then, I have run several more free workshops for young teenagers and paid ones for adults and groups of two, but because I had very limited space and equipment, I could only have maximum two and i couldn’t make rugs myself!
A stroke of luck happened when my neighbouring studio mate was making some changes to her life and moving from the studio, meaning that I could take over that space that adjoined mine and could really set up the Lab!
There is a lot to do and acquire, BUT with this crowdfunder, I will be able to have up to 8 people making rugs at a time! Wonderful! To be able to make it more of a business allows me to be able to offer free elements to young people.
I would like it to be free to use for under 25’s, with training provided both in rug making and running workshops too, in exchange for volunteering.
Unfortunately I have Long Covid, boring I know, which means I have limited energy and need to manage it carefully. So to have a functioning studio, I will need help and this is how I intend to do it. I will run 3 workshops a month and do the 1-2-1’s, but the young people will be present for the membership options, where people that have made a rug and want to make more, can have either a 1,6 or 12 month pass to be able to use the studio for their own work, with all equipment and expertise on hand, a place to store their work and a place to sell it, both online on the website, a market stall and regular members shows.
Making rugs with the gun is a really magical journey, full of vitality. It is quite quick, so you really do get quite instant results and much more generous than drawing and painting can be. The legacy is an heirloom piece to warm your toes and always remind you that you can do something radical! It is simply full of joy
My plan is to do this crowdfunder and create the space over mid January to mid February, acquire all the equipment, set up the website, which will be a complicated one, as it will have many dimensions, but I am working with a local marketing firm, Flax Marketing, who will create this, also will be working with local carpenters, the bits I cannot do myself, to make adjustable frames and storage for rugs, wool, equipment and looms.
Most of the crowdfunder is to sell courses that will happen when it’s all set up, some other creative workshops, but there will also be an option to donate cash which will go to supporting the under 25’s in their journey, as lockdown was very hard on this group. Bridport is a wonderful town, but difficult to find jobs and income that isn’t service based, which not every young person is suitable for. So this element will also be kept separate and will support them.
Thanks for reading my book!