Transitioning to 8-Shaft Weaving: From Digital Control to Traditional Constraints
By
surprisetalk
The kind of bagel that ruins lesser bagels for you.
Summary
The article documents the author's journey into 8-shaft weaving after a break from the PENELOPE project. Inspired by visits to the Wearable Senses lab in Eindhoven and conversations with weaving experts, the author acquired a second-hand 8-shaft table loom for the Alpaca project. The piece explores the transition from looms with individual thread control (like the TC/2 and handmade live loom) to traditional shaft-based weaving, examining how creative constraints can foster innovation in textile arts.
Key quotes
· 4 pulledAfter a bit of time off from weaving after the PENELOPE project, it was great to visit Kristina Andersen, Pei-Ying Lin, Femke Vorselen and co in Wearable Senses lab in Eindhoven last year and explore hacking the TC/2 loom.
This got me keen to get deeper into weaving, and I remembered Laura Devendorf enthusing about thinking in terms of shafts, and so we acquired a second hand 8-shaft table loom for the Alpaca project.
Before I'd only really woven on looms where you control threads independently (in particular the TC/2, and my handmade live loom), which is often not how traditional weaving works.
It might seem a bit strange to go from full control, to only lifting threads in eight groups of threads, but I suppose that's how creativity works – finding constraints and playing with them.
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