The hand tool returns: hobby tufting and poke-poke

On 14 November 2022 the Southern Metropolis Daily (南方都市报) ran a story headed “帆板、露营之后，年轻人又开始戳戳秀了”: after paddleboarding and camping, young people turn to poke-poke.¹1“The tufting gun came back to mainland China as a TikTok trend: 戳戳秀, ‘poke-poke’”, c. 2021, research note. Record 戳戳秀, also written 戳戳绣, “poke-poke”, was the name under which tufting with a hand gun became a craze in mainland China. According to the 2022 press, tufting studios opened first in Hangzhou, then in Guangzhou, where one shop opened in September 2021, and by early 2022 in Hefei and Jinan. The press, so far read only in search-result summaries, credits overseas social media (Instagram, also TikTok and Xiaohongshu) and the artist Tim Eads, with the year 2018, as sparks of the trend.²2“The tufting gun came back to mainland China as a TikTok trend: 戳戳秀, ‘poke-poke’”, c. 2021, research note. Record Eads is the author of this book, and the attribution is the press’s, not a measured influence.³3“Tuft the World”, founded 2018, Tuft the World. Record

Hand tools before the gun

Hand tools for punching pile into a backing are much older than the hobby. A “Jewel” rug-hooking tool, which Auckland Museum describes as a semi-automated tool for punching pile through backing, patented in the United States in 1886, was picked up in Auckland in 1930.⁴4““Jewel” rug-hooking tool, patented 1886 (Auckland Museum 1932.212.1)”, by 1930 (patent 1886, per the museum's record), Auckland War Memorial Museum (via Wikimedia Commons), 1932.212.1. Record The “Susan Burr” was a boxed hand rug machine with printed instructions, of a type dated to the 1920s: two wooden handles, a needle in one and a gauge in the other, worked alternately.⁵5“Ye ‘Susan Burr’ Hooked Rug Machine”, c. 1920s–1930s, Tuft the World (own collection). Record

In 1975 Ronco sold a “Speed-Tufting Kit” on television for $9.95. It held a moulded-plastic tool worked by a needle handle and a looper handle in turn, a printed burlap backing, a fabric shredder for cutting old clothes, sheets or blankets into strips to tuft with, and an order sheet for patterns by mail.⁶6“Ronco ‘Speed-Tufting Kit’ (#1500), 1975”, © 1975, Tuft the World (own collection), Ronco #1500. Record The patent very likely behind it, filed by John S. Doyel in October 1975, was titled “Rug-tufting device suitable for home use by hobyists”.⁷7John S. Doyel, “Rug-tufting device suitable for home use by hobyists” (US3968757A), filed 31 Oct 1975, granted 13 July 1976. Record “Ronco ‘Speed-Tufting Kit’ (#1500), 1975”, © 1975, Tuft the World (own collection), Ronco #1500. Record

These were manual tools. The powered gun has a separate history, told in chapter 9: according to the Hong Kong Heritage Project, Tai Ping fitted the tufting gun with a motor and reduced its weight in 1973, though other sources give other dates.⁸8“1973: Tai Ping motorises the tufting gun”, 1973, research note. Record The other records gathered for this book find the gun in workshops and mills rather than homes. Kramis in Switzerland makes bespoke rugs with single-needle tufting guns, and Shaw’s design team told Eads in conversation that hand guns still mend broadloom at final inspection.⁹9“Kramis Teppich Design”, founded 1987, Kramis Teppich Design. Record “Hand tufting guns are still used to mend broadloom at final inspection”, 2026 (conversation), Shaw Industries (design team, in conversation). Record

The gun goes home

Tuft the World was founded in 2018 by Tiernan Alexander and Tim Eads, artists who live and work in West Philadelphia. It sells tufting tools and materials and runs workshops.¹⁰10“Tuft the World”, founded 2018, Tuft the World. Record In March 2024 it gave a lecture and workshop at The Fabric Workshop and Museum.¹¹11“Tuft the World”, founded 2018, Tuft the World. Record The next month Chronicle Books published the founders’ illustrated manual for tufting with a hand gun, Tuft the World: An Illustrated Manual to Tufting Gorgeous Rugs, Decor, and More.¹²12Tiernan Alexander, Tuft the World: An Illustrated Manual to Tufting Gorgeous Rugs, Decor, and More, 2024 (published 16 April 2024). Record

Social media carried studios as well as hobbyists. An Instagram tufting video in 2022 brought the Swiss studio Kramis, founded in 1987, international attention (chapter 11).¹³13“Kramis Teppich Design”, founded 1987, Kramis Teppich Design. Record How many people took up the hobby is not yet known: no sales or user figures have been found.

Who makes the guns

Some of the tools come from India. Sheru Bros Engineering Works of Meerut, established in 1965 according to its own listing (another directory says fourteen years), advertises electric hand tufting guns on IndiaMART, one at about ₹9,000, and says it exports them to Egypt and South Africa. Every one of those details is the seller’s own.¹⁴14“India now exports tufting guns: Sheru Brothers, Meerut (est. 1965)”. Record Manual tools with the same two-part alternating action are still sold new in Mirzapur: Naksh Enterprises offers one for cut and loop pile up to 45 mm, at around ₹1,500.¹⁵15“Manual speed-tufting tools are still sold new in Mirzapur, India”, research note. Record Chapter 10 follows the Indian industry.

Back on the machine

The same years put the gun back on machines. In June 2020 the Yangxin Ruixin Group, a Shandong carpet company, filed for a “pneumatic multifunctional carpet tufting gun for an intelligent gun-tufted carpet robot”, published that September.¹⁶16Yangxin Ruixin Group, “Pneumatic multifunctional carpet tufting gun for an intelligent gun-tufted carpet robot” (CN111705448A), filed 30 Jun 2020; published 25 Sep 2020. Record It is one of a cluster of Chinese filings for automated gun-tufting: a yarn-feeding and tensioning device for a gun-tufting machine, filed in January 2019, and a “fully automatic carpet gun-tufting machine head”, published in November 2020, both known so far only from search summaries.¹⁷17“Stable yarn-feeding and tensioning equipment for a carpet gun-tufting machine” (CN111441143A), filed 17 Jan 2019 (per search summary). Record “Fully automatic carpet gun-tufting machine head and its working method” (CN111876919A), priority 11 Aug 2020; published 3 Nov 2020. Record

In 2023 Tuft the World showed editioned rugs made on a large robotic tufting machine at Paradigm Gallery in Philadelphia.¹⁸18“TTW Editions at Paradigm Gallery: rugs made by a large robotic tufting machine (2023)”, 2023, Paradigm Gallery + Studio. Record Chapter 12 follows the machines.

This chapter argues that after 2018 the hand tufting gun, which the other records gathered here place in workshops and mills, became a home pastime, carried by social media according to the Chinese press, and reached mainland China as poke-poke by 2021, while in the same years the gun was being mounted on machines again.