Earlier this year, tufting became a trend across China. Before I noticed it, all of the handcrafting workshops have jumped onboard and added "tufting experience" into their services. Anyone could join a workshop for as around 100~200 Chinese Yuan (roughly 12~25 British Pounds), and be able to walk away with a finished rug after a few hours of guided tufting experience.
So obviously I was sold.
STEP 1. DESIGN
I already had an idea in mind, of a rug design: I had once caught my cat Winnie sitting upright on the sofa, almost like a middle-aged man (left). I found it so hilarious yet adorable at the same time, that I made a simplified drawing of it (right).
STEP 2. SETTING UP CANVAS
I bought myself a tufting experience with a Woo-L Studio in Xiamen, and when I arrived a canvas (tufting frame & a cloth stretched over it) was already set up for me, so I could get down to work immediately.
STEP 3. PROJECTING & TRACING
A projector was used to project the digital image I had designed onto the canvas, for me to trace using a marker. Note that the image is flipped horizontally here, because the side that we are working on is the backside of the finished rug.
STEP 4. TUFTING: MAIN COLOURS
After having selected cones of yarn that matched the colours of my design, the staff showed me how to thread the tufting gun using a latch hook. And then it was time to tuft!
I was told to fill the bigger colour blocks first (in this case, the cream colour of the cat's body), in a upward vertical tufting motion, and making sure the distance between each line is consistent throughout.
STEP 5. TUFTING: DETAILS
Adding the outline and details was the tougher part, as these details often had curves that was more difficult to create using the tufting gun. Luckily, if I made any mistakes I could just manually pull out the yarn from the canvas and redo the line.
I was told to double my lines (by tufting lines much closer together) for the details, but little did I know, that the parts that had denser lines would push against it's neighbouring lines and double in size on the font side. So when I finished tufting and took my FIRST look at the front side of the canvas, I was dumbfounded...
The cat's eyes were gigantic!
Lessons learned: Make sure to check the front side of the canvas throughout the tufting process, and run your hand across the rug to check for any stiff or 'bald' spots. You can always pull out the threads or add more lines, before you go into the next step. I decided not to touch my rug at this point, because I found this goofy, warped result to be quite unexpectedly adorable, almost having a style of its own.
STEP 6. APPLYING GLUE
At this stage, a carpet glue is applied to the backside of the rug, then dried with a hairdryer.
STEP 7. HEMMING THE RUG
Cut the rug off the canvas, leaving about 1~2cms of extra cloth around the rug, which is then folded in and glued using a glue gun.
STEP 8. ADDING A RUG BACKING
Some studios use latex rug backing, but the one I went to used a felt material. The staff helped me glue the felt backing onto the back of my rug using glue gun, and then trimmed the front of the rug using a trimmer. And lastly, the backing was also trimmed using a pair of scissors.
FINAL RESULT:
To conclude, tufting a rug to look identical to the intended design is difficult, however, its 'manmade' quality makes it all the more special.
I am leaving China soon and will not be able to bring Winnie with me, so I have entrusted him to my family to look after. I know I will miss him dearly, and this rug will always remind me of him and his goofy moments.
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