NPR

'Renegade' Rug Makers Create Community, Tufting On TikTok

With industrial metal tufting guns, fiber artists can make colorful, textured designs — Pokémon characters, candy wrappers, portraiture — worthy of walls, floors or social media feeds.
Source: Trish Andersen

While Justin Clarke was scrolling through his TikTok feed last summer, a tufting video came across his screen. He was hooked.

In these TikTok videos, tufters draw with an industrial metal tool, making textured zig zags and bright curves on a blank canvas. Their tufting guns shoot out yarn in shaggy lines of color.

"I need to try that," the 19-year-old multimedia artist remembers thinking. "I'll try any project, even if

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