Backstrap loom

History

Backstrap loom is a simple loom which has its roots in ancient civilizations. Modern day looms include a rigid heddle. And many include a frame to which the warp yarns and sometimes even the heddle is fixed. I'm going to make a more traditional piece with only very few parts and using weavers body as a way to tension the warp yarns.

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  Antique heddle
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  Round heddles. This shape intrigues me.

Then there is the "fishtail" loom that is used to make more complex designs more easily than with normal loom.

This one has some shorter slots for pattern picking.

Pattern picking tape I made at home.

My experiences

I´m only starting to experiment with using belt loom and so far I've noticed that a wider belt is needed. Because thin belt digs too deep and is painful. Also the shuttle design is critical for easy making of the woollen ribbon. There are several kinds of shuttle designs and it would be wise to experiment with three or four types before settle for a design. It deeds to have a tapered edge for "beating" the weft yarns tight enough.

The old wooden loom that I have back home is just too heavy. It requires high amount of tension just to operate. And it's too top heavy, it tends to topple over the warp yarns a lot. I want to achieve light enough loom that is still strong enough to work for a long time.

Parts

-Rigid heddle
-Shuttle
-Belt
-Some sort of holder between warp yarns and belt
(-Threading station)

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  The way loom is traditionally used in Finland.
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  Holder I´d like to make. I like the idea that everything would be hold in place by leaning back, not with extra fastening.
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  Optional threading station. This would be really helpful thing to have.

First two tests

First two tests produced two working looms. Though I find acrylic glass quite brittle and wonder would it last in a long run. Have to do research about that more. It´s not like that people using looms would be careless about them but the question is more about longevity and quality of the product. Wood would be good alternative too and a more traditional at that, but then again I have the problem of it being fragile. Have to do more research about different woods, their densities and prices. And where to get proper material.

3D-printing a shuttle

There are many kinds of shuttles that I could have chosen. These are just some of them.

I had some real difficulties designing the shuttle with Tinkercad. I could not make the tapered edge no matter how I tried. After watching some tutorial videos about Tinkercad I found a solution, in "shape generators" index there is the "community" section and there I found a shape that already had tapered edges. After tweaking my design around I was finally able to put the design in MakerBot.

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  First try
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  Second try