After taking a wide range of arts and crafts courses, Heather found her niche when she took her first rug hooking class in Ontario in 1976 from the legendary Jeanne Field, an expert hooker and a leader in the resurrection of the craft. She hooked with the Ontario Hooking Craft Guild for 7 years, acquiring a wide range of skills through workshops with Jeanne and several other OHCG instructors.
When Heather took an early retirement in 2002 and moved from Halifax to Mahone Bay, she began to study regional rug hooking styles, joined the Rug Hooking Guild of Nova Scotia and served as Director for the South Shore Region. She has taken and taught numerous courses at RHGNS rug schools.
In 2007, she joined the Rug Hooking Guild of Newfoundland and Labrador and has attended RHGNL summer rug camp ever since. Heather is especially interested in learning traditional Newfoundland hooking styles. In 2012 she became a certified RHGNL teacher.
In addition to demonstrating traditional Maritime hooking at the Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic in Lunenburg, she teaches workshops, designs original pieces and enjoys hooking with a number of local groups. She has participated in many group shows in Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and PEI. Several of her pieces have been featured in guild publications and in Rug Hooking Magazine. Heather tries to hook at least one piece in every new style she discovers and loves to add new techniques to her repertoire of hooking skills. Her 2010 solo show, Expanding Horizons, at the Black Duck Gallery in Lunenburg was designed to illustrate a dozen different rug hooking styles, documenting the evolution of rug hooking from a necessary domestic task to an art form. As a heritage artisan, she stresses the importance of preserving traditional techniques and materials. As a contemporary fibre artist, she designs and creates colourful innovative multi-fibre pieces in her studio on the beautiful South Shore of Nova Scotia.
Memberships
• Rug Hooking Guild of Newfoundland and Labrador, Teacher Certification 2012
• Rug Hooking Guild of Nova Scotia
• ATHA, the Association of Traditional Hooking Artists
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