tapestry loom

The Little Guy Grows!

The Little Guy Grows!

I wrote a blog post last year about loom length and how it impacts tapestry weaving. The post is called Questions from the Book: Ease of Weaving and Loom Length. In that post I advocated for longer looms and more free warp because it really makes weaving easier no matter what loom you’re using. See the post for details about why I feel this way.

Since that post, the one Mirrix loom that I have struggled with a bit because it felt like the warp was too short has had an upgrade. (Admittedly this is just my preference and the original Little Guy loom works just perfectly as it is!) You can now get the Little Guy loom in the Tall Guy version. The new loom adds inches to both the threaded rod and the copper pipe making the overall maximum height of the loom 5 inches longer.

Tapestry looms: Matching loom choice to what you want to weave

Tapestry looms: Matching loom choice to what you want to weave

The American Tapestry Alliance’s media tour kicks off today. This year they’re holding it on Instagram and I am kicking off the week with a day of posts about tapestry looms. You can see the posts on my Instagram feed HERE. You do not have to have an Instagram account to go there and look at them. All the information about the next days of the tour is in those posts and also at the end of this email with links.

I wanted to talk some about choosing a tapestry loom. Most people who jump into tapestry outside of a university fiber art program start with small tapestry looms. I’ve written articles on this blog about looms (three of them are HERE, HERE, and HERE) which focus on what looms are out there and why some are better than others for tapestry weaving.

Today is my day on the tour and I wanted to use this blog post to provide more information and links. The video in this post is one I did for the Instagram stories today.

Tapestry yarns! Which are good and why?

Tapestry yarns! Which are good and why?

If you’re a tapestry weaver, finding just the right yarn might seem like a difficult proposition. Through my students and my own testing of various yarns, I’ve found a few sweet spots in tapestry yarns over the years and I hope these ideas are helpful for you, dear tapestry friend. I’ll briefly tell you what makes a good tapestry yarn and then I’ll tell you which ones are my current favorites and where to get them.

If you’re just starting out, it is helpful to pick one yarn and sett to learn on. I always recommend starting with just one yarn. Learning tapestry is tricky enough without having to learn to manage the way different yarns behave. A teacher can help you with this information but this post should help get you started. Notice as you use that yarn at the sett recommended, what you think about it. How does the yarn serve your design ideas? Does it come in colors you like? Is it easy to work with? I have a few possible combinations at the end of this post, but there are many other possibilities. I also cover this topic in my online course, Warp and Weft: Learning the Structure of Tapestry.

My very first loom: Union Loom

My very first loom: Union Loom

The very first loom I ever owned was a piece of junk. Literally. Judge for yourself.

This loom was found in a my partner's family barn in New England where I suspect it had been for about 100 years. I can hardly believe Uncle Les paid shipping to send this to Nevada, but there it was. It was missing a lot of parts but it was clear it used to be a two-harness counterbalance loom.

What do you need to get started with tapestry weaving?

What do you need to get started with tapestry weaving?

I get a lot of pretty great email, but this one really made me smile. 

" My 10-year-old grandson was given a loom for Christmas last year and there it stood on the piano as they couldn't fathom how a large ball of wool was supposed to go through narrow slots...."

It goes on from there. In this post I talk about what you need to get started with tapestry weaving. And it isn't much!

It's the DIY season, so let's make a loom!

It's the DIY season, so let's make a loom!

Halloween is bearing down on us like a freight train. Even if I never left the house, the Pinterest-y projects would tell me this was the case. I love Pinterest because it is a nice way to tag interesting things I find on the internet to return to later. Mostly I am looking for tapestry-related content. 

But I can't help but laugh at the blog and Facebook posts that start this time of year with titles like, "Nailed it!"

... Today I am going to tackle one of the final projects for the upcoming Tapestry Weaving on Little Looms online class. I'm making a new copper pipe loom. I expect it to be so much fun that I'll run right down to the corner hardware store for more pipe.

Textiles in the hardware store

Textiles in the hardware store

I headed to the big orange box hardware store on Saturday to purchase the materials for another copper pipe loom. The first one I made using the push-on copper elbows. That meant I made the loom in about 10 minutes, but it also meant that the loom "racked" or twisted all the time. This being immensely frustrating, I wanted to make another and I wanted to solder it.

As I was standing in the check-out of that big orange box store, a gentleman came running up to me and said, "THIS isn't a textile store!" and ran off. I was wearing the pictured T-shirt. However, he is clearly wrong. Archie Brennan says all the time that you can buy looms at the hardware store. They just aren't labeled as such.