Walking into the Wendell Free Library and taking a left will bring you to a wall-mounted selection of publications that includes at least five copies of Rug Hooking magazine, which contains photographs and articles about the art and craft.

But pop in to the adjacent Herrick Room and you’ll have the opportunity to see and touch actual items created through the centuries-old process.

“Loop by Loop” is an exhibit of traditional and contemporary rug hooking set to run through the end of the month. The works on display were crafted by members of two regional rug hooking groups – the Quabbin Rug Hookers Guild and Brattleboro Area Rug Social in Vermont.

“When it first started out, rug hooking was … to make rugs out of recycled materials,” said Phyllis Lawrence, who co-chairs the library trustees’ art exhibition committee and, as a member of both involved groups, has a few works on display. “A lot of rugs are knotted or woven or whatever, but these are made by pulling up loops from the underneath of the background, up. That’s why I called it ‘Loop by Loop.’”

A hooked rug’s stiff woven base is usually burlap, linen or yarn. The loops are pulled through the backing material using a mounted-in handle for leverage.

This month’s exhibition consists of 13 rugs hung in the Herrick Room and some items (including a fabric cutter, rug hooks of various sizes and designs, a hooked pillow and some other pieces that wouldn’t hang well) in a glass case outside the room.

“There are a lot of people who are known for their designs, and so you can just buy the fabric, the backing foundation material with the design already on it,” Lawrence said inside the Herrick Room this week. “But then you decide all the coloration and everything, so the same design can look totally different.”

Some of the pieces – such as “Cowgirl” by Lynda Faye, of Amherst, were designed and hooked by the same person, but Pennilee Redfern, of Westfield, cannot take credit for her rug, “The Starry Night,” based off the famous painting by Vincent van Gogh.

Cindy Baehr, of Putney, Vermont, created “Wish Upon A Star,” which depicts a horse surrounded by big, bright stars.

“I’ve always wanted a horse, since I was a little girl,” she said. “And every time I wished upon a star, it was always for a horse. And now I own the horse that’s in that rug.”

Baehr, a member of the Brattleboro Area Rug Social, said she has been hooking rugs “for the better part of 20 years.” She learned the craft from a friend. She said she started making “Wish Upon A Star” for a hooked rug show two years ago. 

Tricia Miller, of Alstead, New Hampshire, is also a Brattleboro Area Rug Social member and one of her rugs, “Birds of Bonclarken,” hangs in the Herrick Room this month. She got involved with rug hooking in 1983 and said it took roughly six months to create “Birds of Bonclarken” – including dying the wool – when she made it 15 or 16 years ago.

“You can’t hurry and do this,” Miller explained. “So it takes a tremendous amount of time to hook a piece.”

She mentioned she thought the piece was perfect for “Loop by Loop” because it was already framed.

Lawrence’s hanging pieces are “Water Garden, Homage to Dale Chihuly,” based on Judy Jewett’s photograph of glass artist Dale Chihuly’s work, and “Sea Tag,” an image of four children playing on a beach. This came from a photograph she took of her grandchildren in Maine some years ago. One of the kids sports a “Batman” baseball cap. Jewett, of New Salem, also has a piece, “Garden Visitor,” in the exhibition.

Lawrence started rug hooking after retiring as a teacher at Swift River School in 2011.

“Several of my cohorts had already retired and had tried it out,” she said. “So that’s how I learned about it.”

She mentioned a person can hook a piece about the size of their hand in three or four hours.

“I don’t do it full time,” she said. “Partly because at one point I was excited about a piece I was working on and I worked all day for like two days and I wrecked my hand. I couldn’t hook for like six months.

“People do sell them, but because they take a long time, a lot of people, they get attached or they give them to family or friends,” she added. “I mean, that’s what I’ve done.”

The exhibition is available when the library is open: Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Tuesday from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m., Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Fridays from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

The Quabbin Rug Hookers Guild, which pays the subscription for the Rug Hooking magazines available at the library, typically meets the third Sunday of the month, while Lawrence said Brattleboro Area Rug Social holds meetings every two weeks. More information is available at www.quabbinrughooking.org and gmrhg.org.

Reach Domenic Poli at: dpoli@recorder.com or 413-930-4120.

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