Making a portable loom for tablet weaving

Tablet Weaving Loom

May 2024

Materials: Poplar wood, misc hardware

Length: 46 cm (18.125 in)

Width: 28.5 cm (11.25 in)

Height: 38 cm (15 in)

Design courtesy of CelticJujusBag on Etsy

One of the things I've really enjoyed about tablet weaving (especially with the backstrap method) is the DIY nature of it all - that the only tools I really need in order to weave some threads into a belt are a deck of cards, an old spatula, and some sort of anchor point. Of course, there's plenty of other useful, but not strictly necessary, tools that I use in addition - dumbbells, fishing swivels, gardening stakes, clamps, random bits of wood, etc. - and I love how they're all basically everyday objects used in an improvised way. To this day, I have not purchased a single item meant specifically for weaving, and for some reason I think that's neat.

All of that being said, I had started to get a bit frustrated with the difficulty of keeping my weavings straight when using the backstrap method, not to mention the hassle of having to tie myself in when starting a weaving session. So I started trying to come up with some alternate method, where the threads would be kept in tension statically, without me having to constantly apply force with my body. I'd tried the "2 clamps on either end of a table" method before and it worked fairly well, but took up too much space and would limit me to the length of the table. Inkle looms also didn't appeal to me, as they'd also need to either take up too much space or not allow for longer projects. Ideally, I wanted a solution that'd be compact but allow for arbitrarily long weavings - likely something that would only hold part of the project in tension at a time.

And then the youtube algorithm came through for me again, as it randomly suggested this video by Celtic Juju, where she describes a totally novel kind of tablet weaving loom that she designed herself. It's quite a simple concept - two sets of clamping bars held apart by a wooden frame. The bottom clamp holds the working end of the weaving, while the top clamp (with the aid of anti-slip tape) holds the threads. Behind the top clamp is a backplate full of holes to keep the trailing ends of threads separated. This fit my criteria perfectly - it supports weavings of arbitrary length while being fairly compact and portable. As an added bonus, it solves the twist management problem - since the ends hang loose, twist can be taken out by just releasing the top clamp, untwisting, and re-clamping. Excited to do some woodworking, I bought the instructions on how to build one of these looms from the creator's Etsy store.

After a trip to home depot, I got to work - hand-sawing, drilling, and gluing. Working with wood was fun, the design was pretty easy to follow, and the whole thing only took about 3 days (A Sunday and two weeknights) to finish. I made a couple of minor customizations to the design - I made the whole thing slightly longer, and I arranged the storage compartments so that the front one would perfectly fit my deck of weaving cards. Later on, I joined my roommate on a couple of trips to the potters studio and made some simple clay weights for weighing down the loose thread ends. These help keep the threads from tangling, and help unwind them when removing twist buildup.

Overall, my experience of weaving with this new loom has been positive, and I've mostly switched over to using it as my primary weaving method. There are certainly some trade-offs - there's a bit more hassle during initial setup, as well as every time I advance the warp, and I'm still not sure if I'm overall saving or losing time by using the loom. But I find it to be worth it for a few reasons. It is very nice to have a static object keeping all of the threads in place and in tension. Not only does it keep the weaving relatively straight, but it's also just more comfortable and less stressful. The other thing I like is that I can jump in and out of a project in progress with ease - I just put the loom in my lap and carry on weaving, no need to tie anything around my waist. This also makes it portable, so I can weave pretty much anywhere I can sit. I've especially enjoyed being able to weave outdoors - be it on the roof of my apartment or a meadow in the redwood forest.

References

1. Tablet weaving loom design/instructions: https://www.etsy.com/listing/1302915705/tablet-weaving-loom-instructions-pdf

2. Video on how to use the loom: https://youtu.be/F-BHRBE8Zjw