More Portfolio
Drawloom Weaving 101:
All woven fabric has a warp (the yarn on the loom) and a weft (the yarn that goes across the loom, thrown with a shuttle). One type of fabric is called damask, where there are warped faced areas and weft faced areas. The drawloom is what is used to create this type of fabric. Designs are made on graph paper and then by “reading” the graphed design, cords located on the top of the loom are pulled (or drawn hence: drawloom). This raises areas of the warp which then when woven become the warped faced area of the cloth while the part that isn’t raised becomes the weft faced area of the cloth (you can see this in the close ups of the towels). This is not a computer aided loom; cords are pulled/drawn by the weaver to create the design.
I started weaving in 1980 after my husband gave me a small table loom as a wedding present.
Now 35 years later I’m still weaving, although I no longer work on that table loom.
I weave on several different looms now, including a Swedish drawloom, which allows me to create original woven designs.