Re-building a Loom

Last Tuesday I was rummaging around the Appalachian Arts Crafts Center looking for a small tapestry loom to use as I learn about this form of weaving.  I have a floor model at the house but it is busy right now making fleece rugs.

Anyway, as I was saying I was rummaging around looking in all the corners between boxes, you know the drill, surely there was an odd tapestry loom hanging around somewhere!  I caught sight of piece of wood with a spring stretched across it and I went to investigate.  Sure enough I had found one in the storage area set aside for barn loom pieces!  Although, when I managed to get it out from the barn loom pieces it was only half of a tapestry loom.  I spent a good bit of time looking for the other half of the loom, but it was nowhere to be seen.

I brought it home with me that day, to see if I could come up with any ideas about how to complete it.  I got to thinking about some plans for a tapestry loom that I had seen, made from copper pipe, and I went looking for them and I found them on the "Brennen-Maffei.com" website.





Armed with my diagram and the top half of the loom I went to Downtown Hardware in Oak Ridge, TN to see if they could help me.  We talked about what I was trying to do, and having the diagram really helped them to see what I was trying to accomplish.  I ended up leaving the dear loom with them over night as they fitted the new pieces.

The completed loom has a 36inch height and a 31inch width.  There are the threaded rods and bolts to use as a tensioning device and the cute angle pieces at the bottom to hold the crossbar in place.

The pieces are not yet glued together, and I think I will be bringing this piece to the Center on Tuesday to get some opinions about it.  I am thinking that I may have gone a little overboard in the over all height of the loom, the diagram we used was for a much narrower loom, so I figured that as we were already adding to it for width we may as well add to the height.   I also think it might be wise to reenforce that lower crosspiece by inserting a dowel or a rod of some sort into it before we apply any glue.

The loom is back in pieces and ready to go back to the Center for an evaluation, I don't know what I would do without this weekly get together with the Tuesday Weavers, where we share ideas and finished objects, hopes and dreams, and sorrows and joys.  I hope you have someone in your life that will cheer you on too!

Until next time, Happy Weaving, Tina