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What Looms Ahead for me in Fabric Arts?

My plans to learn a lot about weaving this summer changed when I realized that I can make custom weaving tools myself for pennies on the dollar compared to what weaving shops charge and that I like working with wood even more than I like weaving, although it is close to a tie.

So I have been making a lot of small tools out of wood such as threaders, needles, wands, shuttles, and even a few small looms of different shapes and sizes.  But to make tools, I needed to buy tools, so that was a learning curve, too.   Yes, summer is almost over, it is true that I have learned a lot, but not so much about using my tools as about making them.

I needed to make something small to test the functionality of my tools.

So I made a little bag to hold my cell phone on a hook on the wall, as it keeps falling off the table.  

  1. Barb since it is just a test to check if the heddle works right, I used yarn to make the fabric for this tiny bag, but normally I would weave with strips of cloth repurposed from old clothes. Uh, you-know-who’s old clothes. That man was a shopaholic.

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A collage summarizing what I have been doing.

Weaving equipment is really expensive, but custom made tools are not only more expensive but often unavailable, so I am very excited when I attempt something like this and it works.  

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This is the heddle by itself.

This device lifts up alternate warp thread so that a shuttle can be passed through in one gesture.

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Ready to try out.

This is what the whole loom looks like clamped to a craft stand.

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The Heddle is 2nd from the top

This photo shows how a rotating heddle works on a tapestry loom.

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What do you think?

14 Points

Written by Ann Hartley

36 Comments

  1. As you can see Ann we all can seee how talented you are. Make a lot of great weaving things. I am into yarning, but this looks interesting as well.

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  2. WOW!! Such talent!!
    I can never really do such things… lol
    I tried making something with ice cream sticks and then it just falls apart :/

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  3. I can see your always active mind will never allow you to be bored. I admire the way you keep learning new skills as you see how useful they will be to you. That should protect your mind as you get older, too, since you never stop using it to learn.

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        • And kindle books are not heavy, and are easy to read in bed, rflol. I have the Kindle Unlimited subscription from Amazon. Love it! They even have some magazines now.

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          • I don’t always find a Kindle First book I like either and I skip it some months. But I do read fiction to escape when I’m tired of the real world. I have quite a collection of nonfiction filling my overflowing bookcases when I want to read that, and many of my Kindle selections are also nonfiction. Sometimes I even buy one. I’ve also discovered good ebooks books I can borrow through the library or through my Prime membership, but I don’t find too many I want to read in the Prime selection. I’m actually trying to decide if I can afford a luscious looking field guide I saw in the gift shop at the botanical gardens. I just may scrape my nickels together when we go back and buy it. I’ll check first to see if it has that beautiful but dangerous flower we’ve been discussing.

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  4. Wow Anna!! I am amazed that you made the loom yourself. You did a great job. I have always wanted to learn how to use one. But, like you said, they can be costly. I never thought about making a loom.

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    • It surely is a lifelong learning thing. My grandmum taught me some sewing when I was 6, but I only recently took an interest in weaving which is sometimes to simple and other times really hard.