ARTIST STATEMENT

In 1997 my husband, Jan, and I decided to move from the fast track of Miami, Florida to Asheville to raise our two kids. My business was interior design with a retail store. Jan was a tax attorney. We realized when our son Taylor was 6 and daughter Chelsea was 3, that the nanny was raising the kids. We were just working those “billable hours” of life. About the same time, Jan decided he did not want to be a lawyer any more. We picked Asheville to move to, bought Harry’s Body and Fender Service on Smokey Park Highway in West Asheville. The best decisions of our lives! All the credit for the 2 fine adults we have raised goes to us, not the nanny. While I work at the shop on a part time basis, my love is rug hooking. My creative ideas come together as a fiber artist.

My grandmother Verna taught me to hook. The memories of her collecting wool clothing, taking the skirt or jacket apart, washing the pieces and hanging each piece of the garment to dry still goes thru my mind when I am doing the same thing, except that I use a clothes dryer rather than a clothes line. After she passed away, I continued learning different techniques from many McGowan-Certified teachers in rug hooking. I try to attend a couple of workshops each year, finding that each teacher has her/his own approach to hooking, that offers something new and different.

Playing in the dye pots is one of my favorite parts of creating a project. I learned how to dye wool at the Pro Chemical and Dye plant in Massachusetts, using the acid dyes. Have taken many dye classes from various teachers along the way and still can’t get enough of it

MEMBERSHIPS

Association Of Traditional Hooking Artists (ATHA)
Handmade In America
Southeast Animal Fiber Fair (SAFF)
Fiber Arts Alliance
Heritage Weavers And Fiber Artists
Historic Johnson Farm

ASID

MOUNTAIN WOOL
RUG HOOKING BY SARA-BETH BLACK
FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA
sarabeth@mountainwool.com

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