STAFF at Kidderminster’s Museum of Carpet are calling on crafty residents to add a stitch to their commemorative First World War poppy rug.

The rug is being completed as part of the museum’s In the Firing Line exhibition which is currently running until December 19.

A team of volunteers, led by Jill Edwards, are making additions to the rug each day the exhibition is open, and visitors are being invited to make a contribution to the rug by adding one of the prepared wool tufts to the poppy image.

There are more than 10,000 tufts to be added to the rug which is hoped to be completed by the time the exhibition ends.

Jodie Edwards, museum manager, said: “During the 19th and 20th century, designs for hooked rugs often commemorated great events, such as a royal birth.

“So when we were planning our new temporary exhibition about Kidderminster during World War One, it was only fitting that carpets played a central role.

“What better way than to create a rug to commemorate the sacrifice made by so many townspeople, and when we found a poppy design in the archives, we knew that we had to use this.”

The inspiration for the poppy design came from an item in the Tomkinson’s Design Cupboard which is now held at the museum.

In the 1980s and 90s, the various carpet manufacturers around the town began to go out of business and their archives were handed over to the museum.

Among the various papers, books and records relating to the business, there were a wide range of design papers and inspiration sheets.

The poppy design from the Decorative Flower Studies series, were floral prints by Glaswegian Art Nouveau artist, Jeannie Foord, who produced it in 1901.

She drew two separate collections and these were used in a wide range of products such as fabric, stained glass and carpets.

Part of the Arts and Craft movement, Foord produced the inspiration drawings to give design students an accurate representation of flora, which they were unlikely to obtain first hand.

The designs were printed using the pochoir technique – a method of colouring prints using a stencil made of thin sheets of copper, zinc or aluminium that leaves part of the colour exposed.

Single layers of colour were then added to the lithograph by hand using a brush called a pompom.

The image was translated for the rug design by Mick Lowe, a former carpet designer, who is currently a volunteer at the museum.

The wool for the project was also donated to the museum, making use of the museum’s resources to commemorate the First World War.

For more information about the exhibition visit museumofcarpet.org