Dryad Vertical Tapestry/Rug Loom Information

Thanks Erica, that will be great. Frank

Hi Erica. Congrats on your new Dryad loom.Thanks, and not to worry, I wouldn't be starting anything on this loom until next year. Plenty of time to gather information.Frank

Hi, I was browsing along here and saw your post.I have in my workshop an upright Harris rug/tapestry loom. its about 7 feet tall with smallish footprint.Quite often see the Dryads for sale and have seen them IRL but I think my Harris is a lot better. It is made from a good dark solid mahogany of the kind you dont find anymore, has 2 sliding horizontal shafts metal heddles, just above standing head height which are released by pulling a string just above and working the 2 foot pedals. The beater bar is released with a trigger mechanism which causes it to unhook and it drops down with the reed which is 6 dpi, it is possible to attach more weight to it but I find it more than enough on its own. Good to work at standing up, the weaving width is about 26 inches. I have used it for rugs and tapestry.My only complaint is that I have to climb, stand on a chair up to dress it at the top and now with my getting on in years find this a bit of a drag, and i now have a Macomber and a large Varpa loom which take up lots of room I am thinking of selling the Harris on at some time, anyone interested? I am in the Midlands UK.

It is really well constructed, you can place a template drawing at the back to work your tapestry from. I attach a string to release the upper pawl and use a stick to flip it back with, you then wind on with the wheel at the side. All bolted and pegged together, easy to assemble. The Dryads seem quite flimsy in comparison.

my loom has a height of 69" and a foot print of 31" deep by 42" wide.

there is 38.5" between the top and bottom bar.

the shaft holder is 13" from the top bar and is 4" tall. the bottom of the reed holder is 4" from the bottom of the shaft holder, which is in turn about 18" from the bottom bar.

the reed-holder is held up by springs on either side and slides on rails. if the loom has been sitting in a shed for a while the rails can get a little swollen and main took some oil and a bit of time in a warm room to start moving smoothly.

The warp goes over the top bar and onto the warp beam. I have banged nails into here as it makes a raddle and keeps the warp spaced during weaving.

There are about 210 heddles in total, i forget, and the reed is spaced at 3 dents per inch.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/55345518@N04

with any luck that should be a link to my photostream, i have taken some pictures of the loom, they'll be the 15 most recent assuming you access this soon enough. i've called one of them dryad, in case you don't access this post for some time.

i don't know if that link'll work. sometimes these things don't

any more information, i'll be happy to help, take measurements, whatever

Thanks, Andrew, lots of information and photo's here for me. I see you have been busy with rugs on your Dryad loom. Since I have a heavy loom for my rugs, in my German 54" Harald Marquardsen CM, I'll be building a smaller version of your Dryad for tapestry work. Thanks for taking your time for the measurements and photo's. Frank.

frank herring and sons are good, I was using them as of last year. They sell all sorts of weaving supplies. If you can't get texsolv to fit, you could always just get cotton heddle string (makes excellent ragrug warp too) and make up a wee jig to make some more heddles.

I spent half a week doing that for my other loom last year, I don't recommend it ;)

Thanks Andrew, I think woollylamb was the one looking for heddles though. Frank.

Ah-haa! now I see! Thanks all. Frank

Woollylamb, Yes Texsolv heddles will fit your Dryad. I replaced my heddles and they fit good..................Steve.

The Dryad Upright (and a horizontal I once used) are built like battletanks.

Sturdy as hell, which well they should be. The beater doesn't slide but instead is on rails and is held up by springs, you pull it down to beat the shed. If you live in an upper storey you'll drive your neighbours mad, but you could make a bunch of rugs to insulate the sound ;)

The shafts move forward and backwards rather than up and down obviously. It's a very convenient system, but if you want to make your own and wish to simplify things you could try replicating the ancient warp-weighted system, which is similar in principle to the typical tapestry system. It would slow you down a little, but you may not be as concerned with speed and rug weaving isn't the quickest process anyway.

If I wanted another loom like this, I'd probably just make a warp-weighted loom as it would save me a lot of time and pain that I'd require to get halfway decent at joinery. 

Unfortunately I sold mine as I was moving into an upper storey and had too many looms anyway. Now I'm in another country and miss it greatly, the only loom that ever made me money

Anyhow, it's simple enough, I took a bunch of pictures and measurements you can see up there. Probably easy enough to replicate if you know your joinery

The Dryad Upright (and a horizontal I once used) are built like battletanks.

Sturdy as hell, which well they should be. The beater doesn't slide but instead is on rails and is held up by springs, you pull it down to beat the shed. If you live in an upper storey you'll drive your neighbours mad, but you could make a bunch of rugs to insulate the sound ;)

The shafts move forward and backwards rather than up and down obviously. It's a very convenient system, but if you want to make your own and wish to simplify things you could try replicating the ancient warp-weighted system, which is similar in principle to the typical tapestry system. It would slow you down a little, but you may not be as concerned with speed and rug weaving isn't the quickest process anyway.

If I wanted another loom like this, I'd probably just make a warp-weighted loom as it would save me a lot of time and pain that I'd require to get halfway decent at joinery. 

Unfortunately I sold mine as I was moving into an upper storey and had too many looms anyway. Now I'm in another country and miss it greatly, the only loom that ever made me money

Anyhow, it's simple enough, I took a bunch of pictures and measurements you can see up there. Probably easy enough to replicate if you know your joinery

Made sectionals for my Dryad loom. Bought the metal loops from GlimakraUSA. Also replaced the wooden 1/2" X 1/2" guides where the reed/beater bar slides up and down with nylon I got from a woodworking show. The nylon was 1/2" thick X 4" wide X 36" long. Easily cut on my table saw and matched up the holes from the original wooden piece on the loom. Now the beater slides up and down really nice. Made some place mats that came out really nice. This loom makes tight weaving, good for rugs. I have a 36" width weave. Also replaced metal heddles with Texsolv. Steve.