Rugs and Roots on the Farm

Augusta, West Virginia

The Ruckman Mill Farm business recipe mixes traditional roots with contemporary times. Blending the historic American craft of rug hooking with wild plant harvesting and flower and herb gardens, this 29 acre farm in Augusta, West Virginia, provides a palette for the husband-wife team of Susan Feller and Jim Lilly to craft a creative livelihood as they transition from New Jersey suburban life to full-time farmers and rural entrepreneurs in Appalachia.

Since purchasing the farm in 1999, Susan and Jim have balanced running their gallery and framing shop, Church Door Gallery, in Califon, New Jersey, with growing Susan’s rug hooking business and agricultural operations of Ruckman Mill Farm. “We drew a three-hour driving radius around the gallery in New Jersey and started plotting our escape from suburbia to a place where we could breath fresh air and see stars which ended up being about five hours away,” explains Susan about their decision to relocate on the eastern side of West Virginia.

Today, Susan commutes 270 one-way to run Church Door Gallery in Hunterdon County, New Jersey from Wednesday to Saturday, returning to the farm Sunday through Tuesday. Church Door Gallery caters to area suburban upscale clientele with an “edgy” mix of American crafts, local fine art fiber arts and Susan’s hooked rug pieces. “We’re aiming to be on the farm full-time in about two years and are slowly building the fiber and farm business areas to create enough income so we won’t have to take on other off-farm jobs,” Susan adds. Susan manages the rug hooking side while Jim looks after the gardens and is building the couple’s log home. The husband and wife team co-manage the gallery.

A traditional American home craft since pioneer times, rug-hooking originally stemmed from necessity: creating rugs out of worn clothing. “Today, many of these historic crafts are making a come back, but with contemporary twists,” Susan comments. “Rug hooking lends itself to a variety of design patterns and styles, kind of like painting with wool, creating primitive designs that can have a modern, contemporary feel.”

Susan exemplifies finding one’s artistic niche at mid-life. She started to actively teach herself rug-hooking in the mid-1990s when she was in her early 40s. Today her work has earned her inclusion in the Early American Life Magazine’s Directory of Traditional Craftsmen for her historical dedication to the fiber craft of rug hooking as well as a range of juried exhibits. Strategic to her long-term plan of living and working full-time from the farm, Susan created her artisan identity from the West Virginia base, associating with Appalachia galleries and art shows and developing connections with other area artists.

Rug hooking is a relatively simple process. First, recycled wool, often thrift shop clothing, and some new bolted wool are cut into 1/4 inch wide strips which are then pulled through a backing of backing of cotton or linen following a pre-drawn pattern and using a modified crochet needle as the hook. When the design is finished, each end of the strips is snipped flush on the surface. There are no knots. Susan creates the rug patterns herself and contracts with local Appalachian women to do the hooking after which she finishes each piece. Susan’s work can be found in various folk art galleries. She also takes on commissioned work, such as personalized rugs for baby nurseries. Given the labor involved (ranging from seven to hundreds of hours), these rugs sell from eighty-five to thousands of dollars. In addition to the rugs, Susan sells her design patterns on-line, sews custom jackets and tote bags from the hand dyed wool, and writes freelance articles for various fiber arts publications. She is the marketing director for Art Rugs, an international fiber exhibit which is traveling through 2009 to various museums.

Diversifying the farm’s income mix, Susan and Jim started growing flowers and herbs for the wholesale market. “Wholesaling made sense for us right now since we are not consistently on the farm enough to build a retail market for the flowers and herbs,” explains Susan. “I harvest the night before I drive my trusty Volvo to the New Jersey gallery and have several stops along the way at different florists, restaurants and bakeries that I’ve developed relationships with. These tend to be upscale businesses looking for more unusual items and willing to pay a premium.” Building the farming side of the business provides additional financial incentives: Farms in West Virginia that gross over one thousand dollars in agricultural sales are reassessed at a lower agricultural rate for tax purposes.

Growing organically on raised beds on three quarters of an acre, Ruckman Mill Farm has earned a reputation for unique sunflowers, letting the sunflowers naturally propagate. Susan hand-collect sunflower seeds from each season’s unique blooms, thus creating a vast variety of distinct colors and petal shapes with each passing season. Culinary herbs also lean toward distinct and different, such as lavender, lovage garlic chives.

“Wildcrafting,” the harvesting of wild plants off the farm’s ten acres in pasture and nineteen in woodland, provide additional unusual varieties for florists. “Florists love Goldenrod, Rose Hips and Fragrant Everlasting because they don’t see it often. I’ve even sold old bee hives, empty of course,” Susan adds with a smile. Jim only mows the field once at the end of the growing season, providing ample opportunity for growth and regeneration.

“The farm fuels my creativity as ideas bounce back and forth,” explains Susan. “I may be in the garden and a flower suggests a new rug design or color plan to me or I may dream up new planting visions while rug hooking. Everything feels right and comfortable when I’m on the farm. I’m rooted, connected and a part of something bigger than just me.”