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How it’s Made – AVL Compu-Dobby Loom
There is historical evidence of weaving that goes back to the spinning and weaving of the Egyptians in 3400 B.C. And, there are images of these fiber activities on Greek pottery. Fibers decompose easily, so there a few ancient examples of cloth that was produced. Looms have been used as a tool to produce cloth for thousands of years.
Looms come in many variations depending on the width of the loom, how many harnesses it has, and if it has a computer interface (called a compu-dobby loom). I have been weaving for 45 years, and have had MANY looms during that time! Last year I got really lucky to snag a new loom to my collection!
The loom I got is an AVL 16 harness compu-dobby, and I LOVE it! I am excited about being able to design a weave structure on the computer and see it being created as the cloth is woven. Weaving looms come in many different options and configurations that are available when purchasing. One of the main choices is how many harnesses to get on your loom. The more harnesses you have on a loom, the more intricate weave structure you can create. For many years I’ve had 4 and 8 harness looms; moving up to 16 harnesses is definitely allowing me to weave more complicated designs, like this:
This 16 harness design is from Weaving with Echo & Iris by Marian Stubenitsky
There is a LOT to write about when making a decision about choosing a loom, which is not the scope for this post. I did run across this video that shows how AVL looms are made and wanted to share it with the reader:
Tags: Compu-dobby, Equipment, Fibers, How It's Made, Loom, Textile, Textile design, Tool, Weaving
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