HANDYMAID 1952
Sarah Hartwell, 2016

Handymaid Wool Company of Barkerend Mills, Bradford. Barkerend Mills produced the wool and the base cloth/canvas which could be ordered as complete “Handymaid” rug outfits. The face of Handymaid was their "Rug Stylist" was Beryl Bradford. The company catered for both traditional rug hooking/punching and latch-hooking/knotting. Their "Supereze" method used a "Nifty" punch needle and uncut wool on “Supereze” base cloth; a “scientifically spaced” fine-gauge pre-printed squared canvas, rather than traditional hessian. This was worked on a rug frame to hold the canvas taut and the resulting loops could either be left as loops or could be cut (in which case the rug-maker would probably have used a backing to hold the tufts in place). Alternatively, the "Simple Way" used latch-hook knotting and “Simple Way” canvas, which was ordinary latch hook canvas. The company was dissolved in 1968.

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