Covered Bridge in West Montrose

Dimensions: 37" x 29"
Materials: #3- to #5-cut wool on cloth
Designed and hooked by Fumiyo Hachisuka, Tokyo, Japan, 2004.
Featured in: Celebration XVI

It was while attending a conference for The International Guild of Handhooking Rugmakers (TIGHR) in Toronto several years ago that Fumiyo Hachisuka and her rug hooking students ventured out in search of a landmark. The bit of history they were looking for was the West Montrose Covered Bridge located east of Elmira. Built in 1881 by brothers John and Benjamin Bear, the two-span bridge, also known as the Kissing Bridge, is Ontario's only remaining covered bridge and carries a minor road across the Grand River. "After the conference, we went sightseeing around St. Jacobs," Fumiyo recalls. "It was hard to reach, but at last we found it. It was so beautiful."

That sight inspired Fumiyo to plan a rug that would encapsulate a simpler time when horses trotted through the bridge pulling wagons and passengers to their destinations or found shelter during storms underneath its wooden roof. Fumiyo snapped many photographs from a multitude of angles so that she could plainly visualize the bridge and its surroundings once she returned home to Tokyo. She planned the colors for her original design. "I made two swatches of eight values for the wall of the covered bridge, and with dip-dyed cloth I hooked the wall," Says Fumiyo. "The roof and the fence are hooked from the cloth of a dress. The road is spot dyed."
- Fumiyo Hachisuka, Celebration Hall of Fame 2018
(Note: This rug description was taken as an excerpt from the published Celebration entry.)