Decking The Halls At MERA

Dec 18, 2013

On Nov. 28 at the MERA Christmas Fair in McDonalds Corners, over 200 holiday shoppers had a plethora of hand-crafted gift items to help them shorten their gift lists, thanks to the close to 20 artisans who took part in the event. The annual fundraiser fair has been going on for over a decade and Marilyn Barnett, chair of the MERA board of directors, said it continues to gain in popularity.

The entire schoolhouse was filled with artisan displays that included pottery, woven items, jewelry, chocolates, body products, paintings, home-made jams and jellies, candles, knit ware, felted items, wooden cutting boards and much more. Shoppers also could snack on a selection of yummy treats and beverages courtesy of Michael Barnett, who runs MERA's Wizards Cafe.

New this year were raffles for an award-winning quilt, which was won by Conner Gabriel, and a rug made by famed MERA maven Ankaret Dean, won by Michael Park. Every artist also donated an item of their making to a special MERA gift bag raffle, which shoppers gobbled up for the price of a $2 ticket. The MERA weavers and potters also donated the proceeds from their creations to the MERA pot and the potters also donated their bowls to the annual Empty Bowls fundraiser.

New to the show this year was rug hooker Wendy Milne from Killaloe, Ontario who was selling rugs and wall hangings, most done in landscape motifs or geometric patterns. Milne's landscape rugs are inspired by the nature that surrounds her home in Killaloe and pieces like “Up the Opeongo Line”, a richly colored and beautifully composed landscape, is based on the old colonization road, where her home is located.

Milne also makes unique decorative pieces, the newest of which are smaller hooked pieces that depict leaves, flowers, trees and animals. She mounts them in ceramic frames that she makes herself at a friend's pottery studio.

Milne uses primarily recycled wool from old clothing and blankets that she buys at thrift stores and some of which she hand dyes herself. The red jacket she was wearing at the show was one she said she would eventually use in one of her creations, if she found herself in need of a bright red. Milne does not limit herself to wool alone and her line of scarves, which she calls Scruffies, were inspired by the idea that if “my mother and Keith Richards ever got together to produce a line of scarves- these would be them.” The scarves are made from recycled cotton t-shirts which Milne cuts into strips, weaves and then knits together.

Milne said she enjoys the tactile nature of rug hooking and initially took it up as a way to de-stress. She also loves the fact that she can take her work with her where she goes. Milne, who used to teach Environmental and Women's Studies at Trent University, now divides her time between rug hooking and writing and she is currently in the process of writing a book about rug hooking. “It's not a how-to book but more a book about why people love to hook rugs.”