Jan Henger: Hooked on her hobby

When Jan Henger describes her hobby, it grabs people’s attention.

“We use the term hooking. We are hookers,” she said.

It’s nothing risqué, though. The Vestavia Hills resident’s hobby of choice is making hooked rugs, and she and other lovers of the art form like to light-heartedly call themselves “hookers.”

Henger’s rugs have been featured in several magazines and exhibitions, from the Riverchase Loves Art show and the Southern Voices conference locally to displays across the nation. Through tiny loops of fabric and a lot of patience, Henger has created landscapes, holiday and religious scenes, animals and more in her rugs.

Henger, a retired art teacher, moved to Birmingham in 1990 and relocated to Vestavia Hills about 18 years ago. Not long after moving here, Henger’s sister taught her about rug hooking.

“You can teach someone in a few hours, and I loved it,” Henger said.

Rug hooking is an art form that’s hundreds of years old, and the rugs are created by pulling strips of dyed wool through burlap or linen to make a design. 

It’s an expensive and time-consuming hobby, Henger said. A square about the size of your palm can take two hours or more to complete, and a small rug will take about two months in total.

“Whenever you’re looking at it and thinking, ‘Boy that’s expensive,’ it’s the time and thought and finishing to it,” Henger said.

But it’s also a “peaceful” task, Henger said, as she will often work on her rugs in the evenings while listening to music or watching television. She is one of about 15 to 20 rug hookers in Birmingham who meet weekly to work on projects together.

The finished product is a rug that’s not only vibrantly patterned, but also surprisingly durable. Henger said when she has spilled food on the rugs in her kitchen, she can just toss them in the washing machine without worrying about them unraveling.

Some of Henger’s recent projects have included a recreation of a stained glass window, two multi-colored ostriches and a design based on the view from her daughter’s backyard at sunset. She also created a Santa Claus — complete with textured, fluffy fabric to represent pipe smoke — for this year’s Riverchase Loves Art show in Hoover.

“It’s evolved into a very contemporary art form,” she said.

Henger is probably best known for a colorful cow rug that she created, which has been widely exhibited. She has made four rugs with that pattern, as family and friends have asked to have one of their own.

“This is just a medium that I’ve stayed with. And I have a million more ideas of rugs I want to do,” she said.