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How to poke a mat
1980
Placentia West Region, Newfoundland

Credits:
PWDA

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How to hook a mat
1980
Placentia West Region, Newfoundland

Credits:
PWDA

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Poking a mat
2010
Placentia West Region, Newfoundland

Credits:
Elizabeth Murphy

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Poking a mat
2005
Placentia West Region, Newfoundland

Credits:
Photo by Amanda Walters

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A completed poked mat
2005
Placentia West Region, Newfoundland

Credits:
Una Smith

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Trimming the mat
2005
Placentia West Region, Newfoundland

Credits:
Una Smith

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Finishing the mat
2005
Placentia West Region, Newfoundland

Credits:
Una Smith

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A completed mat in frame
2005
Placentia West Region, Newfoundland

Credits:
Una Smith

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The hooking process
2005
Placentia West Region, Newfoundland

Credits:
Una Smith

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Strips cut for hooked mat
2005
Placentia West Region, Newfoundland

Credits:
Una Smith

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Tools for hooking and poking mats
2005
Placentia West Region, Newfoundland

Credits:
Una Smith

25

Parts of a mat frame
2005
Placentia West Region, Newfoundland

Credits:
Una Smith

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Skilled matmakers have been making mats in Placentia West for as long as anyone remembers. In the late 1970's the local development coordinator, Lois Saunders, recognized the potentialof these skilled women and the Placentia West Matmakers group was formed Over the years, producers in the Placentia West Matmakers have come and gone. Many of the original group have passed on and are sadly missed. These elderly ladies were the people who taught others how to produce these fine mats along with other crafts. They were the ladies who in their youth hooked and poked mats out of necessity. Almost all young girls and some boys were expected to do their share of the work when it came to the production of mats. When an old shirt, trousers, coat or other article was no longer suitable to wear, it would be cut into strips and hooked or poked into a piece of brin (burlap) taken from an old sack that potatoes or other items had been purchased in.

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