Divine inspiration for historic hooky mat project
Mar 21 2008 by Tony Henderson, The Journal
HOOKY mat makers have turned to the pages of the Lindisfarne Gospels for inspiration.
The Belford Rag Rug Group are three-quarters of the way through a hooky mat representation of a carpet page from the Gospels.
The 6ft by 4ft creation is one of the many community projects in the Golden Age of Northumbria project, which launched a seven-month festival yesterday based on the Anglo-Saxon history and early Christian history of Northumberland.
And the mat made its first public appearance at the event at the Lindisfarne Heritage Centre on Holy Island.
The Rag Rug Group meets at the Belle View resource centre in Belford to work on the old North East tradition of making proggy and hooky mats, which is based on recycling pieces of various materials.
For the Golden Age of Northumbria Project, members looked to a highly illustrated and intricate page of the Gospels.
Group member Margaret Kenny, who lives in Lowick, said: “The colours on the page are lovely and there is the suggestion of a cross.
“It is a complex design and we have to had to simplify it.”
The group has been working on the mat for six months, with people donating materials.
They also visited the shore at Holy Island to collect different coloured fishermen’s twine, small round fossils called St Cuthbert’s Beads and shells to work into the mat.
It is hoped that the mat will be finished in time for the festival’s weekend devoted to St Bede and arts and crafts at Ford and Etal on May 24-26.
For previous stories on the Lindisfarne Gospels, click the links below or the links on the right of this story:
Gospel truth is treasures CAN be loaned out
British Library emails show resistance to return Lindisfarne Gospels
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