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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.27
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