While taking a break from weaving on the Draw Loom last month, I walked around the room and learned a few things.
- The first thing I noticed was a warp-separating-paper hung from the back beam by a long dowel tied with a soft half-inch wide piece of fabric. This kept the roll of paper neatly out of the way and off the floor. No more paper getting underneath the treadles and no more bending over to reroll and pull it away from the loom. I went home to my studio and immediately tied up my warp- separating-paper.
- The second thing I saw was a colorful chained-warp ready to be warped and realized that it was intended to be tied onto an existing identical warp that was too short to weave another towel (in this case). Then I noticed this will be the second tie-on. A time saver for sure if you are continuing to weave the same pattern. I did see this technic several years ago at Fiber Etc. in Tacoma WA., Roberta Lower wove many colorful and textured shawls and I saw five ties-ons on her loom.
- The third was the rug being woven on the semi-automatic rug loom. The rug was being woven with cotton strips of colors that seemed random, possible because the warp was multi-colored. It was outstanding due to what I felt was a very sturdy colorful floor-cloth
- The forth observation was all the looms had hanging bags attached to their sides with tools needed to warp and weave, including the instructions for the weaving in progress. This seemed like an obvious solution to my time wasted looking for almost anything I need for weaving.
It struck me that even though I’ve been weaving since 1970, I still have lots to learn. Observing these time saving, back saving, design ideas are certainly an inspiring walk around DFA Weaving Studio.
