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Drawloom Weaving - Introduction

How do you become interested in working with a drawloom?

Weaving is most versatile on a “generic” loom - in my case, favoring 8-shaft traditional countermarche looms with overhead beaters. From simple rugs of thick handspun weft to the finest linens, it is only necessary to design a warp to work on the number of shafts and treadles available and then to weave it. Yes, there are limitations on the complexity, but that is offset by the wide range of fabrics and techniques that can be used without lots of modification. For a good 20 years, this was more than enough of a “challenge”.

A few years back, I became interested in more complex weaves and began giving thought to the direction I'd like to go. Certainly the multi-shaft computer aided looms were interesting, but as with any device, had limitations as well. I followed the thread of many current articles in magazines and journals, used drafting software to work out designs for 16+ shafts, and just wasn't thrilled with the cloth these would produce. My notion of attractive fabric tends toward patterns with clean lines, limited color ranges, and a preference for designs that do NOT repeat selvage to selvage. Yet the total piece should have a certain symmetry and limited repetition. While rather old fashioned, a drawloom started becoming more and more attractive.

A drawloom - for a weaver, a wonderful and mystifying loom. For me, exploring the realm of drawloom weaving is similar to the 6 year old who takes piano lessons from the church organist, while dreaming of progressing to a pipe organ. The analogy is not far from the mark - weaving at its simplest involves a web of threads lying parallel, interlaced up-down, up-down with weft thread to form a cohesive piece of fabric. For speed and efficiency, shafts with heddles are added to lift and lower the warp and treadles added to those shafts so speed selection. The weaver learns to skillfully execute any number of patterns, use many shafts, integrate form and color into pleasing designs the way the piano student learns the technical skills of scales and exercises, advancing to pieces of increasing difficulty.

Then comes the day, when the student, of weaving or music, looks to a more advanced path - a path involving a more complicated instrument. In the 21st century, there are two tracks, if you will. One involves using emerging technology - a fully digitized keyboard instrument with built in stops and tonal shadings, recording abilities, - much the same as the new generation of multi-shaft computer controlled looms.

OR the decision can rest with the old idea of a pipe organ - manual, if you will, but an instrument rich in tradition, rich in sound, played with hands and feet. So is it with the drawloom. Much like the pipe organ, the feet are used to provide the rich undercurrent of bass (ground weave), while the hands prepare the tone structure by setting stops (simples, draw cords) prior to playing the keyboard.

Below are the first samples woven at Joanne Hall's studio in Clancy, Montana during a weekend course.

Left: Opphämta with 10-shaft draw device.

Right: Damask woven onon the same warp - 10-shaft pattern device.

Woven on single unit drawloom. My husband's family crest surrounded by

Potential "signature" unit. flowers. Also done on single unit loom.