Weaving Fusion

Day 272: I recently saw a demonstration of a weaving technique which coupled loom weaving with tablet weaving to produce a cloth with at least one ornamental band in a specific position. Rather than setting up a test on a longer warp, I decided to use thrums from previous projects since I only needed to weave a small piece to see how it worked. I installed a variable-dent reed (sectional reed) in my rigid heddle loom so that there was a gap in the center, threading both side sections in the usual way. The warp for the center band was put on eight cards, just enough to make a cute little diamond pattern. With each change of the rigid heddle reed, the tablets are turned according to the draft and the shuttle passes through both the shed controlled by the reed and that created by the cards. I found that beating was best done with the shuttle. The process has its quirks and requires a bit more effort on the weaver's part to achieve uniform thread spacing, but it is entirely workable and interesting to weave. A sectional reed is not required for this technique. If using a standard rigid heddle reed, simply pass two tablet threads through each slot, skipping the eyes in the banded section. On a regular loom, leave the tablet threads unheddled and thread them through the reed in the normal manner. I see lots of possibilities here!