Free up some four hours to attend Tuft Club's rug-making workshop ($195). And it's best to come with a design in mind – everything from freeform motifs to adorable characters will work. Friendly trainers will teach the basics of working a tufting gun, before you embark on a colourful yarn-painting adventure. Tuft Club will put the finishing touches on the rug (cleaning up, apply an anti-slip backing) and ship the end product to your doorstep in two weeks. Bookings can be placed at tuftclub.com.
Stand firm and face the target squarely. With bated breath, place a finger on the trigger. Ready, aim, fire. Who would have thought that tufting can be so exhilarating?
This is Tuft Club, the first of its kind in Singapore that specialises in the art of textile weaving. Through the use of a gun or handheld tufting machine, fluffy yarn-based works of art can be made. Rugs are the most common result of the process; one which studio founders Carl Teh, Izac Tan, and Zoey Soh are eager to share through the rug-making workshops that they conduct.
“Tufting is very versatile,” shares Carl on what first drew them to the technique. “It’s like painting with yarn.”
But setting up a tufting studio in Singapore wasn’t easy. Without similar players in the country they could reference, the trio had to start from scratch, and take cues from international and professional rug makers. They experimented with thread types, and had to build their own canvas frames. “There weren’t many resources,” says Izac.
Their perseverance paid off. In February this year, Tuft Club moved into a two-storey shophouse along Circular Road, where wooly pieces of art can be created in a bright, comfortable setting.
A stretched monk cloth acts as the canvas; some might get to work right away, creating organic shapes and freehand designs, while others might trace a pattern with the help of a projector before getting started. A wall of colourful threads helps translate the drafts into fuzzy reality. “That’s the beauty of tufting: you can do anything,” adds Carl.
Luckily, talent isn’t a prerequisite required to excel in a rug-making class (good news for those who aren’t artistically inclined). Time is. “No matter how good you are at the craft, you still need to have patience,” explains Izac. This is why the four-hour session might zoom by quickly; it allows participants to tune out and focus on filling the canvas – almost like a paint-by-numbers adventure, only with colourful threads.
“That’s the beauty of tufting: you can do anything.”
Yarn and memories are interwoven in the final product. Carl shares that for the people that step through the doors, rug-making is a deeply “conscious craft” – many attach meaning to their works, like creating a ring for a proposal, or a piece dedicated to their newborn child. “The act of crafting is one thing. There is also the act of bringing the rug home, and making it part of the living space,” says Carl.
“It’s a labour of love.”
