I am excited about Inkle, and about the Staten Island Makerspace. In February I will be teaching a workshop: Build your own Inkle Loom + Learn to weave on it!
Two 3-hour session workshops Sundays February 16 and 23
1 to 4 pm
SI MakerSpace Members $85* Non-members $115
Materials fee: $15
Ages 12 and up. Children under 18 must be accompanied by an adult.
No fee for children with a paid adult, but parent/child team must work on one loom together. Class size is limited to 12 students (or parent/child teams). Minimum 4 students.
Session one: Intro to weaving/Build a loom/Setting up the warp and heddles
Session two: 3 hour weaving intensive; creating patterns and designs, how to cut off and remove a finished piece.
Inkle weaving is a type of warp-faced weaving where the shed is created by manually raising or lowering the warp yarns, some of which are held in place by fixed heddles on a loom known as an inkle loom. Inkle weaving was referred to in Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost. It was brought to the United States in the 1930s, but predates this by many centuries in other countries. The term "Inkle" simply means "ribbon" or "tape" and probably refers to a similarly structured woven good that could have been made on different types of looms, such as a box-loom.
Inkle weaving is commonly used for narrow work such as trims, straps and belts.
Class Goals:
Our first goal will be to learn about weaving in general; different types of weaving, types of looms, weaving vocabulary (ex: what the heck is a heddle?) and the processes involved in a simple weaving project. Then we will build looms out of wood. This is a very easy woodworking project and you will take home your own loom which would easily cost $75 to $100 to buy. After the looms are built, we will learn how to set up the warp and heddle yarns and practice making our own straps or belts.
*Members use promotional code inkle25 to get the discount.
Any questions please email db@simakerspace.com or call (718) 273-3951.
Way cool!
The latest and greatest thing in the world of rigid heddle weaving is Schacht’s new variable dent reed. Now you can mix and match dents in your Schacht Flip or Cricket loom. An assortment of rigid heddle reed sections in a variety of dents which include 5 dpi, 8 dpi, 10 dpi and 12 dpi can be inserted into the special rigid heddle frame for different setts within the same reed. Check out Schacht’s handy chart to see the number of reed sections available with each model. The Variable Dent Reed is a great tool for creating different densities in a fabric as well as using thick and thin yarns in the warp. How fun! Let the creative juices flow.