Friday, October 4, 2013

What's on the loom today...

It's sad that Ashford's are no-longer making floor-looms. They were probably one of the last makers in New Zealand although it's possible Jim Mecchia may have made the last commercial one.
I like using both my Mecchia and Ashford. The Ashford's jack loom is lighter to use, has less loom waste and I seem to use it more. I have adapted it for sectional warping. It's very easy to thread the heddles. Mine is 38inches wide but invariably I weave narrower warps. Mine is possibly a 1980's  four shaft model. I use an adjustable office chair on wheels to both warp and weave.
So what's on the loom today....luscious silk, wool and alpaca all hand dyed and looking like this:-





4 comments:

Jody said...

Wow that's beautiful...all those bright colours work so well together!

Rachelle said...

It is lovely Doe. What do we do if we want to buy a floor loom nowadays? I'm not ready to do that yet, but I'm pretty sure I'll want to in a few years; especially as I want to weave tartans for the male members of my family and my 4-shaft table loom won't cut the mustard for that.

Doespins said...

Hi Rachelle,
They do come up periodically on sites such as Trade Me. But you have to buy carefully. Otherwise a new one has to be imported. Start looking now.

Anonymous said...

Gorgeous