Posted: 5/30/06
Caledonia woman brings rags to life
Rug weaving a source of joy for Selma Voight
By David Heiller
Argus News Editor
Selma Voight can weave magic, and sheís not bad with rugs either.
The magic part might be the imagination of this reporter, but how else do you explain it?
Selma stands at her floor loom, and passes a shuttle wrapped with a strip of cloth beneath two layers of thread or warp.
Ka-chunk. Ka-chunk. She moves her feet, pulls at a wooden bar, and snugs the narrow cloth into place.
She passes the shuttle back again the other direction, and bangs the next layer into place.
Itís a timeless motion, and not necessarily an easy one, although Selma will not complain.
ìThatís good for you,î she said of the physical work. ìIt keeps oneís muscles going.î
Itís complicated too. A loom has a lot of moving parts, like treadles and pedals and beams and legs. Not to mention those 336 strands of warp, all threaded just right, with no kinks.
But what emerges is worth that magical effort in the basement of Selmaís Caledonia home: a woven rug, rags to riches if you will.
The riches part might not be accurate in the monetary sense. Selma doesnít make a lot for her effort, though I was cautioned not to make a fuss over that point in this story. Selma is not one to complain about those things either.
But some people would see a hand-made rug from Selma Voight as valuable in another sense, priceless even, a connection to the past and to the person that made it.
It took me about five months to get Selma to consent to this story. She had written a little piece for The Argus in December about her Christmas tradition. She said that was enough Selma Voight for a while.
But she finally relented. When I arrived on May 17, she handed me some papers that she had written, and figured that was also quite enough for the Argus, thank you.
It is good writing too. Selma, 86, talks about remembering watching her mother, Hattie Goetzinger, sew rags for carpet strips to use on the wood floors of those days. They would be put in spots like in front of beds and in hallways.
Anna Vodraska was another rug weaver who was a good role model for Selma. There is a related story on page two that has Selmaís description of ìGrandma Vodraska.î
Here is more of that Selma wrote for The Argus about her hobby: ìAnother reason [is] I have always enjoyed sewing. So when retirement age came, I began to think more about weaving, thinking if a person had a loom one must be able to weave. After several attempts to buy a used loom to no avail, I purchased a new Orco loom from a company in Ohio. It came all crated up. My family helped move it into my basement and get it set up.
ìIt had a few yards of warp threaded into the loom and so was ready to weave. I thought this will be a breeze.
ìAll went well until I needed to put warp on the loom and thread it. Then is when the rubber meets the road. All 336 strands of warp must be properly threaded, no mistakes, no errors and no twists in the strands of warp. For the most part I learned from my mistakes.
ìAnother reason [that I weave], I feel a person should develop some sort of a hobby, so when retirement comes there is something to do to keep active.
ìI like cotton fabric the best to work with, but most any cloth can be used. I always get a thrill when I take the finished rug off the loom to see what it looks like. No two rugs will ever look alike, unless the rags used would be all alike in each rug.
ìIn summer I like to enjoy my garden and flowers and be outdoors. But as colder weather sets in, Iím happy to go to the basement and weave. Yes, I enjoy my loom.î
Something to fall back on
Selma moved into the city of Caledonia in 1982 after the death of her husband, Walter. Thatís when her weaving idea solidified. ìI always had my mind on this weaving, that [it] was something to fall back on,î she said.
At first she did if for family members. Then word spread and people started asking her to make rugs.
Sometimes people will bring her rags, and sometimes she gathers them herself.
Sheíll sometime find fabric at a rummage sale. Draperies work well too. Occasionally sheíll buy some too, to match the color request of a customer. She had such a piece of fabric on her kitchen table when we visited. It matched the lavender, pink, blue, and white colors of a rug she was making.
She cuts the fabric into strips, then sews them together on a sewing machine. Then she rolls them into balls a little bigger than a softball. She likes to fold the edges in so that there are no fuzzy edges on her rugs. Think of it as a rope, Selma said. She likes a narrow strip too. It takes longer to make a rug, but they last longer, she said, because less warp is exposed. ëThe first thing thatís going to wear out in your rug is the warp,î she said. ìif itís narrower, it cushions the warp.î
The rags are then transferred to the shuttles so that they can be passed easily through the loom.
Her rugs are not expensive. She brought out a small one that had a price on it. I glanced at it, thinking it said $90. I was surprised to see it was $9. ìMy family sometimes says I should raise my prices,î Selma said. But she often sells to elderly people who give the rugs as gifts, so she keeps the price low for them.
Selma likes a tight rug. Thatís why she bangs the rags into place on her loom.
ìIíve got work till Christmas,î Selma said. She has orders for 16 rugs.
There thereís the garden, which is full of plants already, and the yard and the house. Selma Voigt keeps busy, and the rug-lovers of Caledonia are glad of that.
By David Heiller
Argus News Editor
Selma Voight likes to stay connected with the past when it comes to rug making.
She wrote the following article about one rug that she still has.
ìA well made rug has a long life. Pictured here [far right] is a part of the carpet rug that covered the living room board floor of my husbandís parentsí new home, 1906.
ìIt would be interesting to know where all the rags came from to make this rug. Did a weaver of that time have a storehouse of rags on hand? Did the parents of the couple to be married save rags for years to make these large rugs?
ìI am about to donate this rug to the historical society to display in the log cabin at the fair grounds. A 100-year-old rug.î
Selma, 86, brought out another rug during a visit with this reporter on May 17. It was made by Anna Vodraska, Brownsville. Selma said Mrs. Vodraska was a role model and influenced her to become a weaver too.
Selma describes Mrs. Vodraska in the following written words:
ìThen there was a dear lady in the neighborhood who did a marvelous job of turning cast-off clothing into rugs, ëGrandma Vodraska,í as most people in the Brownsville and Freeburg area knew her. She had very little of this worldís goods, but she had a loom and a lot of rags. People gave her their cast off clothing and she made carpet strips from the useful parts. At that time Social Security was unheard of, so she made a little extra money and always seemed pretty much content to accept life as it came.î
Caledonia Argus
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