Rug Making
Mountain Rug Mills
Read more about Mountain Rug MillsElsie Trivette
Read more about Elsie TrivetteElsie Trivette
Fiber artist
Avery County, NC
For well over half a century, Elsie Trivette practiced and perfected handicrafts that she learned from her mother and grandmother while growing up in the mountains of Avery County. She was skilled at making knotted bedspreads and hand-tied fringe, venerable crafts that were widely practiced in the mountain region in earlier generations. Her expertise ranged from growing, processing, and spinning flax, and carding and spinning wool, to making quilts and hooked rugs. By selling her handmade rugs and quilts, she single-handedly supported a family of seven after her husband became ill.
Read more about Elsie TrivetteLeniavell Trivette
Read more about Leniavell TrivetteEvaNell Trivette Thomas
Read more about EvaNell Trivette ThomasMary Ann Dotson
Read more about Mary Ann DotsonEvanell Trivette Thomas
Rug hooker and quilter
Zionville, NC (Watauga County)
"What I do best is the rug hooking," says Evanell Trivette Thomas. Evanell grew up in the Beech Mountain community of Watauga and Avery Counties, and she has been involved with traditional crafts since she was a young girl. "I've been doing this more than sixty years," she says.
Read more about Evanell Trivette ThomasMary Ann Dotson Silvey
Rug braider
Lake Lure, NC (Rutherford County)
Mary Ann Dotson Silvey braided her first rug in 1980, when her aunt Virginia Boone offered to provide her with wool if she would come to Virginia's rug making class at Haywood Community College to learn how to braid rugs. "When I braided that first rug, I never dreamed I would continue," says Mary Ann.
Read more about Mary Ann Dotson SilveyVirginia Boone
Rug braider
Asheville, NC (Buncombe County)
Virginia Boone braided rugs in Western North Carolina for more than sixty years, continuing to make them in her Asheville home until her late nineties. Although she had no idea how many rugs she made over the years, she did know that her rugs are in each one of the 50 states and at least seven foreign countries.
Read more about Virginia BooneMountain Rug Mills
Rug makers
Hendersonville, NC (Henderson County)
Founded in Fletcher in 1952 by the Boss family, Mountain Rug Mills has undergone a few changes over the years-it is now located in Hendersonville, for instance, and owned by the Morgan family-but its tradition of producing beautiful handmade rugs is intact. Making old-time braided yarn rugs and hooked rugs with elaborate pictorial designs, the more than forty artisans employed at Mountain Rug Mills use centuries-old techniques to create wares that will be admired for centuries to come.
Read more about Mountain Rug Mills
