Floralia
By: Stephanie Rose Bird
Floralia
The first time I turned my interest to rugmaking, it was for comfort. I found myself getting homesick as a visual arts graduate student at UC San Diego in the late 1980s. My family was concentrated in southern New Jersey, and I was all the way out on the West Coast in La Jolla, California. I remembered all the different types of rugs my mother had collected, from oval braided rag rugs to Persians. I also remember going antique shopping with my mom, and to the local farmer’s market called Cowtown in Woodstown, New Jersey, and finding these heartwarming treasures. In my state of mind as a grad student, I reached to rugs once again and they provided a comforting feeling of home.