I use a basic 8-shaft 10-treadle Schacht Mighty Wolf loom without any of the accoutrements that many, if not most, weavers use these days -- a raddle, a sectional warp beam, computer dobby, jacquard loom with numerous shafts (up to 32 or more), temples, fancy apron setups, whatever else. The only thing I've changed on my loom since I've had it is that I replaced the slick rectangular apron rods with slightly-rough-to-the-touch dowels, which do a much better job of preventing the warp from slipping on the rod thereby affecting the warp tension -- despite the fact that these are round. Go figure! I also use WeaveIt Pro 6 weaving software, but I've hardly put a dent (pun intended) in its capabilities.
This no frills orientation of mine is a result of two separate but related threads that have run through my life...
One, I've always preferred to do things from scratch. I don't even know if that phrase is used any longer, so for those of you who may not know what it means, it refers to making things from the ground up, as it were. For example, once I learned how to bake, nearly 40 years ago, I never bought a cake mix, and I still wouldn't. When I was baking bread, I mixed the dough by hand in a big bowl, let it rise, punched it down, etc. etc. -- I wouldn't think of using a breadmaker. Once I started sewing my own clothes, eons ago, I rarely bought anything off a store rack (although I stopped sewing clothes a very long time ago). So making things without the benefit of technology has been a big part of my life. I like to do it myself. It's done better that way, anyway. I trust my capabilities, don't like to or need to rely on things being done for me that I know I can do for myself.
Two, I've been making art on a shoestring for as long as I can remember. Although I do purchase materials as often as I'm able to, expensive, more technologically-advanced tools have always been out of the question for me. I've operated on a do what you can with what you have basis forever, it seems, even though a part of me wants more-better-different. But do I really need bigger, better, more advanced tools? Will they make me a better weaver? or just create more chaos for me because of the exponential increase in design options available?
So I've been thinking that perhaps, at least in my own schema, I'm a sort of folk hero. Creating what I create against financial and modern-day technological odds. Which makes me feel like I'm an old school kind of gal. I wonder how many of us remain in this quickened-pace world we live in?
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