A tufting teen
Caleb McNeil (15) is already running a business, Rug Ruff, based on his creative endeavors. He has made countless rugs in just a year and a half.
Caleb McNeil, a freshman at Rock Canyon High School, has been hard at work crafting one-of-a-kind textiles in his basement studio. The Village at Castle Pines resident first began making rugs for his business, Rug Ruff, a year and a half ago.
Inspired by Dmitrii Suldin, a well-known rug-tufting artist who has amassed hundreds of thousands of followers on Instagram because of his designs, Caleb admired the creativity that could be explored in rug making. “It looked really cool and creative so I thought I could try it myself,” stated Caleb.
Caleb’s designs range from recreating album covers, to popular cartoon characters and superheroes, although he prefers to create the designs himself. “I’ve made a lot of rugs I’ve liked, but my favorite are the more creative and abstract ones where I get to experiment with design,” he stated.
Caleb’s love for skating and music are apparent in his designs, with rugs in the shape of sneakers and album art inspired from artists like pop band TV Girl and rapper Travis Scott.
Each of Caleb’s rugs takes him at least 60 hours to finish, longer for detailed designs. The process involves punching yarn with a tufting gun through a canvas-like material on a large loom, gluing a backing to hold it in place, and then a long, 15-hour process of shaving and carving the yarn. Caleb stated that a necessary step is to shave an indent at the color transitions so each color really pops.
With all of the hard work that goes into the tufting process, it is no wonder his rugs sell for $50 to $200, depending on the size and complexity of the piece.
Outside of tufting, Caleb enjoys video games and video editing, and the latter is clear from his social media posts. Caleb’s Rug Ruff Instagram account, the platform Caleb mainly uses to run his business, is full of creative videos showing the process and displaying the final product. To see more of his rugs and his editing skills, check out @rugruff on Instagram. Caleb also has a rug-making playlist and a YouTube channel at linktr.ee/RugRuff.
Caleb makes rugs featuring classic characters like Spiderman and album art for artists such as pop band TV Girl, which is the bottom rug pictured here.
The tufting process involves a large loom, a tufting gun and a lot of hands-on work.
By Marly Holsman; photos courtesy of Caleb McNeil
