The first photograph is self explanitory. It is a two shaft counterbalance loom. The roller is piece of bamboo hung from a frame by a couple of loops of rope. The beater is hung from the rollers by a couple of pieces of rope. The breast  - cloth beam is a square timber with a hole on each end that fits over a verical peg. Tto advance the cloth the weaver loosens the warp and lifts beam. She then winds some finished cloth onto the beam and replaces the beam over the pegs. the pedals are a pieces of bamboo. 

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This picture shows the warp end of the loom. It is about thirty feet long. Before advancing the cloth the weaver must release the warp, when she has advanced the cloth she must retension the warp.

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 This picture  shows the cloth the weaver was making. the pattern is the resuli of a verigated weft. you can see how the beater is held together. The heddles consist of two threads, one looped around the top shaft and the other arounp the bottom shaft. The top and bottom loops intersect each other..

 

Comments

Sara von Tresckow

I am currently working on a similar loom in Fond du Lac, WI. Don't discount the "different" appearance here. Clasped heddles - the ones consisting of two interconnected loops are a marvelous invention - very old, they allow the weaver to thread a heddle in one of three ways. If you put the thread in the upper l oop it can only rise. If put in the bottom loop it can only sink. If put between both loops the thread rises AND sinks. Since it is difficult to thread the clasped heddles through both loops, the weaving assemblies are sold threaded with a dummy warp and tied on from behind. Clasped heddles are knitted to the shaft frame in a set density so you need one set of shafts for 30 epi and another for 40 epi.

The long stretched warp is a variation of the warp extender that Peter Collingwood designed for the Harrisville rug loom. If the warp is extended under even tension and not rolled on a beam, that even tension remains undisturbed for the length of the weaving. As the weaver lets up on the warp at the back, it advances evenly every time at the front of the loom.

The weft is not "variegated" but speciallly dyed in an Ikat technique. Ikat can be used in both warp and weft.

If used carefully, the little reed/beater is wonderful on fine fabrics - they need only a gentle tap.

Working on such a device is quiet, delicate and a reall joy.

warped loomster

Sara

Thanks for correcting my terminology. After googling ikat I realize why the weaver seemed painfully slow. She was carefully lining the warp colors with each throw.

She was beating each warp thread twice, her beater looks like a bamboo beater which would have almost no weight.

I should have mentioned that as the fell line advanced the weaver can move the move the beater-harness assembly forward which reduces the number of times the warp has to be advanced.

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