x80981_SYM_p2_vw_x80981_SYM_p2_vw 29/09/2009 Tuesday, 29 September 2009 10:01 Page 26
SY | ART / HOMES
Not content with her international recognition as a leading traditional hooky mat artist, Heather Ritchie is teaching blind people in Africa to make a living through the sale of their own rugs, as Rosie McGlade discovers hen Heather Ritchie was only six, her father lost his sight. One of her beautifully-crafted hooky rugs depicts the story in coloured strips of cloth; little Heather leading her father along a gas-lit street in Sunderland. “I was like his guide dog,” she says, her Wearside accent strong still after 40 years in the beautiful North Yorkshire valley of Swaledale. On another rug, there’s an old bus leaving the dales, taking her mother home to Sunderland after the war, surrounded by purple heather (after which Heather was named) at the end of summer. Both Heather’s parents were evacuated to the area, and throughout every summer holiday during her childhood the family would work on a farm there, falling further in love with the countryside and the dales people. At 25, Heather settled in Swaledale permanently, learning rug making from a neighbouring farmer’s wife so she could furnish her home. That was 40 years ago, and she is now an internationally renowned rug making artist, while her husband, a retired Naval engineer, makes her beautifully turned hooks himself, with a variety of lovely polished wood handles. “When we first moved here, I was painting my floorboards, trying to make things nicer, and a local farmer’s wife asked me if I wanted some rugs, and she taught
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me to make them,” remembers Heather. “In every house up here they made rugs; great huge ones that filled the kitchens.” She mixes her styles - wild and wonderful flowers burst out of some, while many also tell stories, the images creating a charming world full of place and meaning. Now one of the UK’s leading traditional rug-making artists, Heather is in huge demand, particularly in the States, where she regularly teaches and speaks at specialist events. “In the States once, someone said to me, ‘Heather, your voice matches your rugs’. Maybe that’s one of the things that draws people there to me,” she says. Her work embodies the history, charm and feel of the dales in a uniquely direct and tactile way. Women here have always made rugs to keep their homes warm and clean and Heather’s home in Reeth, which looks out onto steep hillsides and sheep, is full of beautiful handmade rugs, quilts and patchwork. Even the mat on the kitchen table is quirky; a big chequered pad with a rescued jeans pocket on one side. You can put your hand inside and use it as an oven glove. The kitchen curtains are a patchwork of pretty blues and yellows with little flowers, made from Heather’s daughters’ childhood dresses. We’re familiar here with proggy or clippy mats and for some, Heather says, they bring back cosy, homely feelings, while for others, they are reminders of poor, hard times. You may have other names for them – clippy seems fairly standard, describing the slightly finer rugs with the loop from each strip of cloth showing on the surface side. The shaggier versions, with the cloth ends on the surface, are the proggy or proddy mats; Heather has so far counted 20 different names for them, depending on where you come from. But there’s another story about Heather, aside from her work, which started three years ago with an article in her local weekly paper. >>
“IN THE STATES ONCE, SOMEONE SAID TO ME, ‘ YOUR VOICE MATCHES YOUR RUGS’. MAYBE THAT’S ONE OF THE THINGS THAT DRAWS PEOPLE OVER THERE TO MY WORK 26 | the collection