Christine Crofts

'Landscapes'

Christine is in the Tearoom Gallery from

23rd April 2009

YOU could never pull one of Christine Crofts’ rugs from under your feet....

Rightly considered works of art, collectors only ever buy them to hang on their walls.

“I’d actually be quite shocked if you bought one and then laid it at the front door to wipe your feet,” said the artist from Matterdale in the Lake District.

Since studying design crafts at the former Cumbria Institute of the Arts - now the University of Cumbria - Christine, 66, has established a reputation as one of the region’s premier decorative rug makers.

Her latest collection depicting stunning Lakeland scenes is showing at High Head Sculpture Valley, Ivegill, near Penrith.

A member of the Wool Clip co-operative - which specialises in adding value to local fell wool - Christine’s admirers extend far beyond the county boundary.

“An American woman visiting Cumbria bought one of my rugs,” explained Christine, who lives at Bald How End.

“I then received a telephone call from her asking me the best way of packing it up safely as she wanted to post it to her home in the states.”

Christine takes several days to produce each rug.

“It takes a tremendous amount of concentration and I usually find two hours at a time is the limit,” she said.

“Each time I change colour I have to rethread the tufting gun.”

A 3D effect - often used on her rugs to add depth behind dry-stone walls - is creating by carefully brushing and cutting the wool.

One piece of work in the exhibition depicts Mell Fell which is near her home.

“I actually wove that from a photograph I took from the south last Christmas morning,” she explained.

“I never work from other people’s photographs. This particular morning the light was just so fantastic that I had to capture it.”

Christine, a former infant school teacher, has seven rugs in the High Head exhibition ranging in price from £100 to £500.