We were unfortunate when we visited the Alue Silk Village because the silk tourist display was closed for the day because of a monk's funeral and most of the village was at the funeral. However we did see a few interesting looms. Many of the houses had looms beside or under them. Most were sitting unused at the moment. This does not mean abandoned -just that the owner does not have a project on the go. One very friendly weaver shoewd us her looms,

Most of the looms had an almost cubic frame of square  iron tubing painted blue, around six feet high, long, and wide. The top side beams had a series of square welded tabs which maintain the alignment of the beater to the cloth beam.

This picture shows the overall structure of the looms.

. I would call her looms “two horse counterbalanced “

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This is what her cloth looked like.

 

 

This loom has a set of heddles hanging from the top of the loom with programming sticks threaded through the heddles. The loom has just been set up and was ready for a weaver to start weaving. It would have been interesting to see the loom being used , I doubt that it took six people to operate the loom.

 

 

 

 The owner of these two looms did not seem to be home so I could only take pictures from outside his property. One loom has a flying shuttle and is presently unused. The other loom is being used is similar to many other Thai looms.

Comments

Sue in VT

Dear Warped Loomster,  I enjoyed these pictures!  I travel regularly to SEA and am always humbled by the intricate and precise cloth I see being woven on inventive, home-made looms with supplemental warps that turn plain weave into stunning artwork. Even repurposed bike tires spinning silk into cloth!  

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