You may have been browsing my online gallery and wondering how to care for and clean your new rug hooking art pieces. With a little bit of care, your rug hooking and other fibre art items will stay beautiful for a long time. I’ll talk about each type of item separately: hooked rugs, framed pieces, wet felted or mixed media pieces.
Hooked rugs
My hooked rugs (such as Wild Woman Standing Tall) can be placed on the floor or hung on the wall. They can be shaken out and/or vacuumed lightly with the floor attachment (not the super strong rug beater attachment – this is too powerful and may pull out some of the loops). A fun way to clean hooked rugs is to place them outside after a fresh snowfall. Lay the rug lightly in the snow, turn over and sweep with a broom. The snow will lift the dirt and debris from the rug surface.
When not in use, hooked rugs should be rolled, with the hooked side on the outside. Never fold a hooked rug, as these folds can create a weakness in the rug, leading to tears over time.
Framed hooked and mixed media pieces
A simple light vacuum or using the blow dryer on cool should be enough to keep your framed fibre artwork (such as Boundaries 1) fresh and clean. You can also try the fresh snowfall idea, making sure to brush the snow away gently.
Unframed wet felted and mixed media (wet felting and rug hooking) pieces
Similar to hooked rugs, pieces with wet felting (such as The Door is Open) or entirely wet felted can be shaken to dislodge dust. I would suggest not using a vacuum on the wet felted areas, as some of the surface fibres may be more easily dislodged. If you use the snow method, I would suggest rather than sweeping the wet felted areas, I would shake the piece out after placing it gently in the snow.
Most of my mixed media pieces can be loosely rolled with the hooked and felted side on the outside. Again, be sure not to fold as this will create areas of weakness.
Place fibre art out of direct sun
Hooked rugs and fibre art will fade if placed in direct sun for extended periods of time.
If you are interested in any of my artwork but are not sure how to place or care for it, contact me. I’m happy to answer questions about the care of your rug hooking artwork.
