A Brief Guide To Hand Weaving Looms
A Brief Guide To Hand Weaving Looms
A Brief Guide To Hand Weaving Looms
What is a loom? It is essentially a device enabling lengthways warp yarns to be kept in order, and
under tension, while crossways weft yarns are inserted.
Looms come in many shapes and sizes, your choice will depend upon the type of weaving you
wish to do, your available space, budget and inclination - a simple style loom does not necessarily
preclude complex weaving, and a more complex loom can equally be used for working simple
weave structures. However, it is fair to say that certain types of loom lend themselves more readily
to different purposes and particular styles of weaving.
• Cardboard looms: unsurprisingly are cut from strong cardboard, they come in several shapes
usually with notches or slits cut along opposing edges to hold the warp yarn in place. Weft yarns
are normally woven into the warp with a tapestry/weaving needle.
• Inkle loom: consisting of an open framework with strong pegs, an inkle loom
is designed for weaving narrow braids or trims which are usually warp-faced.
Alternate warp threads are captured in string heddles which keep them from
moving. Weaving takes place by raising or lowering the un-heddled threads
by hand to open a space in front of the heddles for the weft to pass through.
© Handweavers studio
Cloth weaving covers an enormous range of weaving styles. Woven cloth can be patterned,
textured, artistic - or a combination of all three; it may be functional or purely decorative. The hand
weaving looms used to make cloth form a very large family - they range from basic (a few sticks
and string) to complex electronic constructions.
• Rigid Heddle loom: one of the simplest styles of loom to use and understand. Its key
component, the rigid heddle reed, which raises and lowers the warp threads, is also used to beat
the weft yarn into place. By default it produces basic plain weave, however with the use of
pattern pick-up sticks, or by the use of multiple heddle reeds, many interesting techniques can
be woven. As indicated by its name, the placement of the heddles (in this case vertical strips of
plastic with a central hole) are fixed/rigid, so warp densities cannot be varied without changing
the heddle reed; this is simple to do and a good range of sizes are sold. A rigid heddle loom is
very fast to set up using the direct warping method. Once measured out, the long length of warp
is neatly wound around a roller at the rear of the loom, and the warp threads arranged to pass
through the rigid heddle’s alternate slots and
holes. The warp ends are then tied to a stick
which is connected to a roller at the front of the
loom, where the woven web will be stored as the
weaving proceeds.
• Shaft looms: Available as table or floor standing versions, they have various styles of
mechanism for manipulating the movement of warp threads. The density of the warp threads
can be infinitely varied as a shaft loom’s patterning ability and cloth density are controlled by
separate parts of the loom.
Shafts are the frames within a loom that carry the free moving
wire or string heddles (cotton or polyester) - there can be
anything between two and forty shafts on a loom, although
today many looms come with eight shafts as standard.
On table looms levers attached to individual shafts are moved to raise and lower the required
shafts. This style of loom is great for sampling as any shaft combination is available to the weaver
at any moment, so encourages experimentation.
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A four shaft loom has 14 possible shaft combinations, but well over 200 ways of sequencing them
to obtain different woven interlacements!! So, just imagine what you can do with an eight (or more)
shaft loom.
A floor loom moves the shafts by means of foot pedals/treadles. Each treadle
can be connected to a combination of shafts via a series of cords and bars/
lams, allowing the weaver to get into a weaving rhythm as they no longer
have to put down their shuttle (carrying the weft) to manipulate hand levers.
Just one tread of a pedal will open the complete shed!
Floor looms move their shafts in a variety of ways, the most common being
jack, counter balance and countermarch/e. Floor looms with lots of shafts
tend to use a dobby mechanism.
Dobby looms also come in electronic versions; here a computer with loom driver software
replaces the peg and bar mechanism for shaft selection. Loom manufacturers have come up with
various clever ways to achieve this, but the main principle can be described as follows;
The weaver designs their cloth interlacement, and inputs it to weave software having the capacity
to connect to their loom. With weave mode active, when they tread on the loom’s foot treadle the
computer sends the desired shaft combination to the loom. Solenoids push hooks for the chosen
shafts forward so the knife can raise the shafts. The shed closes when the weaver releases the
treadle and the next combination is lifted when they tread again. If the loom also has an e-lift
facility the effort of continually lifting multiple shafts is taken by the loom - a great boon for knees
and production hand weavers!
• Drawlooms in various forms have existed for centuries, and enabled exquisitely complex
figured cloth to be woven. Before Drawlooms were ‘improved’ and could be operated by a lone
weaver, an assistant known as the draw-boy, sat atop the loom (or at the side) and drew
preselected cords to raise the required warps. These looms have two (or
more) systems for raising the warps (ground and pattern); one group of shafts
weave the ground cloth warp and are most usually operated via a foot pedal
by the weaver (like in a normal shaft loom), whereas the second warp,
operating in concert with the first, is raised on multiple shafts or in single
units. The weaving carried out on these looms show off beautiful yarns and
the weaver’s skill. There are some hand weavers today for whom this type of
loom holds a fascination and a challenge they cannot resist!
© Handweavers studio
As the industrial revolution progressed the race was on to mechanise
complex weaving ability. In the early 1800’s the inventor to come out at the
front of the race was Joseph Marie Jacquard, his loom became known as
the Jacquard loom. The selection of warps to be lifted was determined by
whether a hole was punched in a special card at a specific position (think
Pianola) for a corresponding hook to pass through (or not). Hooks passing
through the holes were caught and lifted by a knife/metal bar. From the
hook cords, more cords fanned out to connect the heddles of individual
yarns in repeat across the cloth. By this means, when a hook was lifted all
warps connected to it would lift across the cloth.
A card was produced for every single warp lifting sequence! The many
cards necessary to produce a woven design were skilfully prepared and
sequentially laced together; these were steadily rotated through Jacquard’s mechanism as the
weaver progressed from one weft shot to the next by means of a foot
operated treadle which advanced the punch card chain. With each
heddle weighted individually, and a warp consisting of many fine
threads held under considerable tension, a weaver needed strength
and stamina to weave for the long hours required by his job (yes, the
weavers were mainly male, although lady weavers were not unknown).
Few hand weavers today have access to (or the room) to house an old
hand Jacquard loom with its tall frame and ancillary items like the
essential dedicated card cutter, but for the few that do their looms are
not just a historical wonder but a living artistic tool.
It is an interesting phenomena that as soon as weavers have access to a loom with more capability
they start inventing new ways to stretch that ability… on this basis future weaving will never be
boring!
© Handweavers studio