Loretta Bluher-Moore — Hooked On Hooking
by Sally Hansen
How sweet it is when we finally find what we’ve been searching for our whole lives. It’s not surprising that Loretta Bluher-Moore didn’t know that she wanted to be a hooker. It isn’t something that immediately springs to mind, even when you know you love fabric art. Almost every town of any respectable size offers resources for knitters, quilters, crocheters, cross-stitchers and other aficionados of textile arts. Although she had tried all of these, it took a chance encounter with a scarce rug hooking kit purchased in New Hampshire to get Loretta started down her true path to artistic fulfillment.
Loretta’s face lit up like a golfer who’s just shot a hole-in-one when she described the night she attended her first rug hooking class thirteen years ago. She vividly remembers the hour of torture she endured as her Montreal instructor Tony Latham initiated the class in the history of traditional rug hooking (as opposed to latch hooking) before letting them touch a piece of wool. “My students are hooking within the first ten minutes!” she assures me. She credits Latham with teaching her how to dye wool, and apologizes in retrospect for “dyeing his entire kitchen” in the process. Loretta loves creating exactly the right hues to execute her original designs. “When you can control the colours, it opens up so many possibilities!”
Within a few years, Loretta and two fellow rug hookers were invited to exhibit and demonstrate traditional rug hooking at a show in Roxham, Québec, in a lovely old farmhouse. They sold dyed wool, and were besieged by people asking for lessons and kits, so Loretta created her first rug hooking kit — a pumpkin design with a checkerboard border. She still gets requests for it.
At her spectacular home nestled on the edge of Wolfe Lake about 15 kilometres from Westport, her earth-toned hooked pieces are the perfect complement to a fabulous décor that successfully blends modern functional elegance with country comfort. Her specially designed studio is brimming with the tools of her craft. The wool fabrics she imports from the States are soft and gorgeous to the touch as well as to the eye. In addition to creating unique pieces for herself and to sell, Loretta has developed a number of kits for hooked wall hangings, seat covers, runners, rugs and purses. She also enjoys the artistic challenge of designing specialty items on commission. She recently completed a portrait of a “funky” dog with “lots of character, and a long lolling tongue”.
Bluher-Moore started teaching traditional rug hooking at the Country Quilter store in Richmond. She still teaches there, at Creative Styling in Westport, and at The Perfect Stitch in Kingston, as well as at her home workshop. She has an industrial-strength “dyeing kitchen” and also teaches wool dyeing. Loretta will be featured in the fall issue of A Needle Pulling Thread, a Canadian fibre arts magazine, along with one of her traditional hooked patterns.
Hooked by the Scenery
Born in Trail, B.C., Loretta moved to Bancroft where her dad worked in the uranium mines. She earned a degree in translation (English-French-German) at Laurentian University, but realised she really didn’t want to be a translator. After graduation she took a job in Waterloo with Mutual Life of Canada, and worked in Toronto, Halifax, North Bay and other cities. She met Gord when she moved to the office in Montreal, and they married in 1981, where they both continued to work as insurance agents.
One day Gord was meeting with a client in Westport who recommended that they drop in on the Fine Art Show held annually in August in Westport. While staying at a lodge on Wolfe Lake, the couple was so impressed with the friendliness of the residents and the natural beauty of the area that they decided to look for property. They purchased their lot in 2000, started building in 2004, and Loretta moved in full-time this past December. Gord still commutes regularly to work in Montreal.
Hooked on Studio Tours
In 2005 Loretta was invited to be a guest artist at three different studio tours in the Westport area. In 2008 she is participating in eleven. Coming up on Labour Day Weekend, Aug. 30–Sept. 1, Loretta will be one of 15 artists showing their work at the Sundance Studio Tour at 1047 Zealand Rd. in Maberly.
This Thanksgiving Weekend (Oct. 11–13) will mark the fifth time her home studio, LBM Creations, at 66 Stoneridge Lane about 15 kilometres west of Westport, will be a hosting artist studio during the 19th annual Westport Area Fall Colours Studio Tour. LBM Creations will host five other guest artists, including Donna Code, a folk art wood carver who collaborates with Loretta on some wonderful whimsical pieces. Brochures are available; the website is www.artatwork.ca/westport_studiotours. There is a map on the website that clearly shows the route to LBM Creations. Loretta’s phone number is 273–8347; her email is lbmc@videotron.ca.
On Halloween weekend (Fri. Oct. 31–Sun. Nov 2) Loretta will be participating in the 28th Exhibition and Sale of the Ottawa Valley Weavers and Spinners Guild at the Glebe Community Centre in Ottawa. For more information, just give Loretta a call, or enjoy a fabulous drive through some of the most beautiful scenery in Canada to meet her and see her work at the Sundance and/or Westport Area Fall Colours Studio Tours.