[Regia-NA] Re: [Regia] Looming over us

[Hazel Uzzell]

Hi all,
Actually, there is no way that the loom depicted on page8 would work at all
as an orinary cloth loom without a great deal of hardship for the weaver.The
picture shows what seems to be, at first glance, a double beam loom,
however, the completed weaving is rolled round the bottom beam, so it can't
be. The warp is wound round the cloth beam at the top in such a way as to
make it impossible to have a 'natural shed', as you have with a
warp-weighted loom...so, the poor weaver has to force a shed, using a shed
stick above and below the cross over of the warps.
These shed sticks would have to be re-inserted after each passage of the
weft. This could mean that it is a tapestry loom, the weaver does seem to
have a supplementary weft in his left hand, or he could simply be using a
'weaving pick.' to pack down his weft.
What it could well be,is a tubular loom, missing the stick across the back
for the warps to loop over, before returning up and around the top and
bottom beams. See'A History of Textile Art' Agnes Geiger p27-30. She
believes that the tubular loom predated the warp weighted loom. There are
several finds of cloth which appear to have been woven on this type of loom.
As for having the weights at the back, at Leyre (?) I saw a weaving
(Tapestry) experiment being done on a WWL, with the weights going over the
top cloth beam and hanging down the back instead of hanging down at the
bottom. It was working, but why do it? You can weave tapestry on a WWL,
arranged in the normal way!
Sorry to bang on!
Hazel