Hugs with her rugs

For more than 20 years, Claudia Mills wove her color-drenched fabric and leather rugs in a carriage-house studio behind her home in a Boston suburb. There, she employed two full-time weaving assistants and four enormous wooden floor looms.

So why would Mills - whose crisp, contemporary take on the venerable rag rug has attracted a sizable custom clientele and earned her notice in such decor magazines as Architectural Digest and Metropolitan Home - pack it all up and move to Philadelphia at this stage in her career?

"I moved here for a guy," says Mills, 58, laughing heartily at the thought.

That guy would be artist Eric Berg, whose bronze animal sculptures can be found at colleges, zoos and museums across the country. (Local examples include Mario the Dragon on the Drexel University campus and Philbert the Pig at the Reading Terminal Market.)

Mills and Berg knew each other for more than a decade, but it wasn't until 21/2 years ago that romance finally blossomed. Weary of the commuting relationship, Mills sold the house in which she raised her two children, now adults, and made the move to Philadelphia in June.

"We thought, 'We're not getting any younger, why not be together,' " says Mills, slim and stylish, with long gray hair that frames her face with a fringe of bangs.

Making the complicated relocation simpler was a bit of real estate good fortune. Berg happened to own a building just around the corner from his own Powelton Village studio, which he renovated for Mills' use as a studio.

Also making the move easier was the fact that one of Mills' studio assistants, Sondra Hamnquist, opted to come along. The textile major and recent University of Massachusetts grad found an apartment in South Philadelphia and was back at the loom before summer was out.

(Mills herself was a decade out of art school in 1985 when she took a class in rug weaving and found herself captivated by the craft.)

"I really do like my job, and it's very difficult to find a job in the textile field. Especially one that doesn't involve sitting in front of a computer," Hamnquist says. "Besides, I'm young, and this is a good time for me to do something like this."

Not that standing in front of a floor loom all day is a breeze. It's seriously physical work, requiring frequent breaks to fend off repetitive-motion injuries.

Setting up the warp on a loom takes a full day, though one "weave," as it is called, can spawn up to 20 rugs, separated by woven strips that later are cut apart and hemmed.

It takes an hour to weave just one linear foot of a 2-foot-wide rug, and a full day to weave one 2-by-6 rug. That helps explain the prices fetched by Mills' vibrant creations, which get some of their intriguing effects from the patterned fabrics she incorporates into the weave and the different-color yarns she uses in the warp.

Prices start at $195 for a 2-by-3-foot cotton rug. A 2-by-8-foot runner is $1,040 - about $65 a square foot. Leather rugs cost more.

But you won't find Mills' wares in many retail shops - none locally, actually. She sells directly to the public, through various venues.

"It's tough to sell them wholesale when you can buy a rag rug for $10 or $15," she says. "But my rugs will last a long, long time. I've put cotton rugs as large as a 4-by-12 into the washing machine, and they've come out fine." (The leather rugs can't be washed, and Mills generally recommends them only for low-traffic areas.)

Though she has found reliable sales through the retail Web site www.guild.com, which specializes in artisan-made products, most of Mills' business is custom, with rugs commissioned by individual clients or interior designers. Such projects have ranged from a house on Martha's Vineyard featuring 14 of her rugs, all in different sizes, to one rug 4½ feet wide by 50 feet long, woven out of strips of white leather for a condo hallway in Boston.

"I did runners for a boat that has traveled 25,000 miles," Mills says. "And I just got an e-mail from the owner from Polynesia."

She professes to love the give and take of custom projects, for which she frequently makes house calls.

"There is a lot of psychology that goes into custom projects," Mills says. "Some clients want a lot of input, some don't. You need to know where to step in and when to back off."

Though Mills can make almost any size rug, runners are what she has come to specialize in.

"I've always loved that long, linear format," she says. "And they're easy to place in a house. Every home has a hallway or bathroom that needs some color."

Mills, who stocks more than 50 shades of cotton and leather at her studio, cut into 1½-inch strips and wound onto spools, finds her custom clients mostly through craft shows.

She's done all the major ones, and she'll be exhibiting at the Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show Nov. 8 to 11 - the fifth time she's been selected for the juried show.

Her intricate, geometric designs are a far cry from the homely rag rugs whose basic weaving techniques she employs. Yet something about a woven rug resonates with people, Mills says.

"Rag rugs are one of the oldest recycling techniques around. Every time I do a craft show, all kinds of people come up to me and tell me, 'I remember making rag rugs with my grandmother.' Or, 'I remember helping my aunt tear old sheets into strips for rugs.' "

So, does the Delancey Street carriage house she now shares with Berg feature her creations as part of the decor?

"Eric keeps saying, 'Bring in some of the rugs,' but the house is done, it's modern.

"He wants to put them on the wall. But I'm such a functional person. My rugs belong on the floor."

Claudia Mills sells her rugs and runners through craft shows, the Web site www.guild.com, and custom orders.

For information, go to www.claudiamills.com, e-mail her at info@claudiamills.com, or call 215-386-2347.

EndText