Rug Tufting has arrived at Lark in Cardiff!

 

Let’s Tuft!

At Lark Design Make, we provide teenager and adult-learning classes for tufting, so book a session with us and learn how to make a rug! We’re located in Cathays, just outside the Cardiff city centre in South Wales.

Or to find out more about tufting keep reading ;-)

What is tufting?

The term “tufting” means “decorated with tufts,” and refers to a process of creating three-dimensional textile surfaces, originating from the old European craftsmanship of embroidering rugs. Nowadays we will be using fun automatic tufting guns and acrylic yarn to make practical rugs and home decor.

Is tufting difficult?

Tufting is a repeatative process and is not an inherently difficult craft. The main thing to note is that the gun weighs about 1kg and will be used non stop for 3.5hours. You also need to apply pressure to each row so will feel like you’ve had a work out the day after.

What do I need to prepare in advance for a tufting workshop?

Although both workshops include all materials such as a tufting frame and a gun, you must come prepared with a rug design as we will get started straight away, please read over the following to ensure you choose something suitable.

We have made a short video with a few top tips HERE

Click HERE for a Pinterest board with some nice ideas

Here's a a bunch of posts from our previous workshops so you can be inspired by what others have made at Lark - post 1, post 2, post 3, post 4, post 5, post 6,

You also may enjoy checking out some other places that do tufting like TadaTaft, Made for Monday, Zeyu Studio

We strongly recommend choosing a simple design for your first tufting experience, something that will be forgiving if you go out of the lines, please also note that the gun moves quickly so you creating small details is difficult.

  • With this in mind please avoid thin lines, precise details and adding text. Organic & fluid shapes or simple & bold characters all work a treat!

  • Your make can be any shape, we have templates for circles, squares and rectangles but you can do a random outline if you prefer e.g a mushroom shape

  • Please bring your idea with you, it could be on your phone, printed out or a sketch (some clever people have stuck a few sheets of paper together (max 50cmx50cm) and done a scale drawing in sharpie, this is good as we can tape it to your frame and you can simply trace it!)

  • At the start of the session you will be given time to sketch your idea onto the backing fabric in chalk then in pen, I will be on hand to help

  • You choose your colours on the day, I try to keep the entire stock of 50+ colours of 'Stylecraft Special Chunky' here for you so feel free to choose your colours in advance.

Gemma & the Lark team hope to see you at one of Lark’s craft workshops in Cardiff soon!