Sue Taylor: Hand-Knotted Rugs

Sue Taylor has been making playful, labor-intensive rugs since the 1970s. Trained as an artist in university, she turned from painting to textiles while raising her children. Taylor hand-weaves her rug backing on a loom, then loosely sketches a design. Using a large needle, she draws colored yarn through just two linear threads at a time and knots it. One knot at a time—leaving a loop that later will be clipped into a high, soft pile. Her rug-making style derives from Spain and Portugal and her designs are inspired by whatever catches her eye; from local landscape to ancient Chinese tapestries. Taylor has been a resident of coastal Marin since 1968 and was featured in the 1974 book Native Funk and Flash.