RAG RUGS and the NICHOLSON Family

September 22nd - October 28th 2007

From 22 nd September Walford Mill Crafts, Wimborne, are hosting a unique exhibition of rugs "Rag Rug Revival", most of which have been designed and made by members of the Nicholson family.

The painter Winifred Nicholson was a prime instigator of England's rag rug revival in the 1930s. Along with her husband, the modernist painter Ben Nicholson, the couple designed rugs, which were then made by their neighbours in Cumberland, people such as Margaret Warwick and her daughters Janet and Mary. E.Q. Nicholson, Ben's sister-in-law, executed some of Ben's designs as well as designing and making her own rugs.

A generation later, her children Louisa Creed and Timothy Nicholson along with Hamish Nicholson (Winifred and Ben's grandson), are continuing to design and make rag rugs. Some are made in partnership with Lewis Creed and Roderic Hill.

This Dorset exhibition offers a unique opportunity to see these highly tactile and visual creations and to recognise the contribution that painters have made to a traditional English craft. Along with the rug exhibits are designs taken from Tim and Winifred Nicholson's notebooks.  

Rag Rug Revival is an exhibition that follows the journey of hand-made rugs from both public and private collections. It will include information and examples of the historical element of rag rug making alongside recent rugs. Rag Rug Revival will be on show in the Philip Goulden Gallery at Walford Mill Crafts until 28 th October.