Eileen Bedoukian Hampshire was born and educated in Lancashire England. She emigrated to Canada where she married. Following 35 years of involvement in a second generation Oriental rug business, she founded Art To Walk On, inc. in 1988 in Montreal, Quebec.  She completed her formal education in 1988 when she received her BFA in Art History from Concordia University. The focus of her studies was the Art History of the Carpet Weaving Areas of the Ancient Near East. The subject of her dissertation; Oriental Carpets in Venetian Renaissance Paintings.

Mrs. Hampshire has a particularly keen interest in the identity, construction and restoration of hand knotted textiles. She has studied and written articles on dyeing wool with natural vegetable dyes; learned and taught the various techniques used to identify and repair antique hand knotted textiles; and is a guest lecturer on all aspects of antique and modern Oriental carpets.

Eileen has been a member of:

• The International Society of Fine Arts Appraiser's
• The Twistle Guild of hand spinners and weavers
• The Montreal Carpet Appreciation Society (past president)
• The Armenian Rugs Society (past president)
• Sarasota Chamber of Commerce Trustee

She has presented papers at International conferences:

• La Maison Armenienne De La Jeunesse et de la Culture, Marseille, France, 1988
• The VII International Conference on Oriental Carpets, Hamburg, and Berlin, Germany, 1993
• The X International Conference on Oriental Carpets, Washington, D.C., 2003