A woman quit her job to make rugs – after teaching herself to create them by watching YouTube tutorials. <br /><br />Rach Silcock, 22, got creative during lockdown and tried out painting and punch needling before giving tufting ago – a type of textile manufacturing. <br /><br />She taught herself to make rugs by watching YouTube videos and started selling her rugs in 2022. <br /><br />Rach was working two jobs as a bartender and in a café but was able to quit them and go full time with her rug business - Tuff Luv - in January 2023.<br /><br />She makes bespoke rugs such as trainers, a pink tiger and cartoon characters – selling the larger rugs for £350 each. <br /><br />She makes seven to eight rugs and says it takes eight weeks to make them.<br /><br />Rach, a rug dealer, from Burnley, Lancashire, said: “I started off with really small ones.<br /><br />“I was so bad at the beginning.<br /><br />“I self-taught myself through YouTube.<br /><br />“It’s great.<br /><br />“I love working for myself it’s really fun.”<br /><br />Rach started getting creative when she was put on furlough during the pandemic and tried selling paintings and punch needle art before getting a tufting gun in summer 2021.<br /><br />Her designs took off after she made a shoe rug for a shop in her town and the video they posted of it went viral.<br /><br />She said: “They ordered four more.<br /><br />“That’s why it’s gone into the shoe realm.”<br /><br />Rach is now fully booked for the summer with orders and makes seven to eight rugs in one go – which takes her six to eight weeks from start to finish.<br /><br />She finds “therapeutic” and loves seeing her rugs in people’s homes.<br /><br />Rach has rented a studio since May 2022 and pays herself £800-a-month.<br /><br />One of her favourite rugs are the rainbow rugs she creates.<br /><br />She is also hoping to share her wisdom with others and hold tufting workshops in her studio.<br /><br />Rach said: “My work has an illustrative, playful nature - the rugs are usually bold, fun and vibrant in colour.”
