SOCIAL MEDIA & APPS Tuft T
Since the pandemic started, the ancient art of rug tufting has hugely grown in popularity Georgie Whitworth, Editor of Tomorrow’s Retail Floors, chatted to one creator who took th
From banana bread to knitting, social media has been filled with newfound hobbyists sharing the ways they have been keeping occupied since the lockdown restrictions first came into force back in March 2020.
Whilst baking and the occasional jigsaw has been the extent of creativity for some, others have taken it a step further and really emersed themselves in learning a new craft. One such art, which become an almost overnight sensation at the start of the pandemic on popular video-sharing platform TikTok, is that of rug tufting.
A centuries-old technique for making unique and fluffy rugs, rug tufting can either be done by hand or by using a ‘tufting gun’. The latter method is what has been trending on TikTok, with the hashtag #rugtiktok now having reached 179.6M views.
Tufting guns enable relatively quick results by shooting the yarn through fabric which is stretched onto a frame. With lockdown confining everyone to their homes, more and more people turned to the art as a way to fill their spare time.
One artist keen to pursue the technique was Madeline Ronzoni, a 21-year-old Textile Artist and student living in Los Angeles, California.
Currently studying Marketing at Bentley University in Massachusetts, Madeline started making rugs for fun towards the end of 2020. Fast-forward to now, Madeline has a TikTok following of over 297.6K and over 5.1M likes on her @happyrugs account. She now makes commissioned pieces and is known for her quirky, fashion-inspired work.
Explaining her journey, Madeline said: “I first took an interest in rug tufting after I learnt to make rugs by punch needling in late August/early September of 2020. I saw a few videos on TikTok of someone tufting with a cut-pile tufting gun. I fell in love with the texture that the tufting gun created and I immediately wanted to try it myself. After selling a few punch needle rugs, I was able to save up enough money and purchase the tufting gun. I started tufting in early October of 2020.”
Being creative has always been a trait of Madeline’s, but tufting is still a fairly new interest of hers.
“Growing up, I was always drawing, painting, and creating homemade gifts for friends and family. My mom would always set up fun crafts for me and my siblings, especially around the holidays.
“I have always considered myself an artist and I loved experimenting with different mediums. However, I never was exposed to the art of tufting. I never even realized rugs could be considered artwork and I also didn’t realize the different ways in which they were made. I assumed that most people would have the same reaction and fascination as I did so I wanted to share it with others,” Madeline explained.
20 | Tomorrow’s Retail Floors
Video: Madeline Ronzoni/TikTok/@
happy.rugs
Although Madeline wanted to share her creations with social media, she couldn’t have anticipated the level of interest she received almost immediately. In a matter of months, her recently-discovered passion gained her worldwide recognition and a stream of commissions.
Madeline continued: “I wanted to share my creations on social media because I find the art of tufting and punch needling to be so unique and interesting.
“My first TikTok video, which was a video of me making my first punch needle rug, reached over 400,000 people. I received such an overwhelmingly positive response so I started to share more videos.
“My first tufting video also went viral on TikTok and reached about two million people across the world. The video was of me
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