Instagram

Winding another linen warp on the warping mill. Th

Winding another linen warp on the warping mill. The heck block allows me to wind a group of threads simultaneously, 12 in this case, guides them up and down the mill and automatically (well, almost!) makes the porrey cross, so I barely have to touch the warp at all. This warp is intended for a wider length of patterned huckaback towelling based on some made in North Lopham around 1900.
#handloomweaving #warping #warpwinding #warpingmill

Six leaves of 300 handmade heddles each, finished

Six leaves of 300 handmade heddles each, finished with shellac.
.
#handweaving #linen #crafthistory #handloom

I’ve been learning from @theburroughsgarret and

I’ve been learning from @theburroughsgarret and @marshfieldschoolofweaving how to make string heddles. (Thanks for sharing)
A while back I replaced all the polyester ladder cord on my loom with traditionally knotted hemp cord and found it more reliable and easier to adjust. Now it’s time to move on from polyester heddles.
#heddles #healds #handloomweaving

Learning about flax cultivation & processing @flax

Learning about flax cultivation & processing @flaxlanduk
#sowing #harrowing #rolling #drying #stooking #stacking #bundling #retting #gaiting #scutching #hackling

Beautiful golden flax, ready for pulling, then lai

Beautiful golden flax, ready for pulling, then laid out for dew retting. From a flax growing, processing & spinning workshop with the inspiring and brilliant @flaxlanduk.
#flax #linen #retting

A new piece of “The Right M & O Huggaback” as

A new piece of “The Right M & O Huggaback” as woven by Yorkshire weaver Thomas Jackson in about 1730, fresh off the loom.

#handwoven #linen #MandO

Weaving the last few metres of this piece of “Ri

Weaving the last few metres of this piece of “Right M & O Huggaback” as woven by Thomas Jackson in North Yorkshire in the early 1700’s.
.
#huckaback #huggaback #MandO #handwoven #linen #heritagecrafts

Ratchets, for warp tensioning. . . . #handloom #ha

Ratchets, for warp tensioning.
.
.
.
#handloom #handloomweaving #ratchet

A selection from the fascinating Mingei exhibition

A selection from the fascinating Mingei exhibition “Art Without Heroes” at the William Morris Gallery yesterday.

1,2 & 3: Traditional Korean ceramics collected by Yanagi, Hamada & Leach, inspiration for Yanagi’s concept of Mingei.
4: Sake flask, Obori sōmaware, 19th century, Japan.
5: Vase, Hamada Shoji; 1932.
6: Teapot, Niwa Ryōchi, 1967-70.
7: Teapot,Minagawa Masu, date unknown.
8: Kimono, Taira Toshiko, 2016, (bashō, from fibres of the banana tree)
9: Drinking cups (Ontayaki), Yanase Haruo, 2017.
10: Plate (Ontayaki), Yanase Haruo, 2017.

@morrisgallery @mingei

“The Right M and O Huggaback”, after Thomas Ja

“The Right M and O Huggaback”, after Thomas Jackson, in half-bleached and natural linen. Open studio this weekend if you’d like to see how this is made.
#selvedge #handwoven #linenweaving #camberwellarts #madeinlondon

“The Right M & O Huggaback” as woven by Yorksh

“The Right M & O Huggaback” as woven by Yorkshire weaver Thomas Jackson in about 1730, and yesterday here in Camberwell. A few of these handwoven linen handtowels will be for sale at the open studio this weekend.
#heritagecrafts #heritagelinen #handwoven #camberwellarts

I’m opening my studio on Saturday 8th & Sunday 9

I’m opening my studio on Saturday 8th & Sunday 9th June 12-5pm as part of Camberwell Arts Festival at Coldharbour Studios 26-34 Southwell Road London SE5 9PG. Please come along if you’re free.
#camberwellarts #openstudio #handweaving #londoncraft

I’m still weaving this length of M & O Huggaback

I’m still weaving this length of M & O Huggaback linen from a draught by Yorkshire weaver Thomas Jackson c. 1730. Twelve picks with the in-feet, twelve with the out-feet. If any of this looks or sounds familiar, it’s probably because I‘ve been doing the same thing, on and off, since February. Practice makes perfect, so they say.
We’re having an open studio 8th & 9th June: come along if you fancy watching someone doing the same thing over & over & over again. I’ll have some very nice heritage handtowels for sale too.

Selvedges: the structure of this “M & O” linen

Selvedges: the structure of this “M & O” linen from an 18th C draft alternates between loosely and tightly woven areas. This is expressed along the selvedges where the loosely woven sections collapse inwards. Once washed the pinholes from the temple (that you can see in the 3rd image) will disappear leaving a nicely undulating selvedge like the deckled edge of handmade paper.

“Ty your short lams 5 inches from your gear and

“Ty your short lams 5 inches from your gear and your long lams 7 inches below your short lams and your treaders 9 inches below and then all will spring clear.”
This note about how to tie-up a countermarche loom was written by North Yorkshire weaver Thomas Jackson 300 years ago. The lams (or marches) are the long levers which mediate between the treadles and the leaves of heddles, or shafts, which Thomas Jackson called gear. The trick is to arrange all this so that no part impedes another; so that “all will spring clear”.
I’m weaving one of Thomas Jackson’s draughts for “the Right M & O Huggaback”; treading 12 picks with the out-feet, 12 with the in-feet.

It took a while. All done now. #tyingon #loomdres

It took a while. All done now.
#tyingon #loomdressing #slowprogress

That’s my seat for the next day or two as I tie

That’s my seat for the next day or two as I tie a thousand threads from my right onto a thousand threads from my left. Repetitive business this. The third photo is me doing the same a few months ago.

Warp winding again. I usually make warps in sectio

Warp winding again. I usually make warps in sections to make beaming easier. This is one of four sections, each 22 metres long with 288 ends in 24 half-gangs of 12. The row of beads on top of the warping mill keeps count.
This will be another piece of Thomas Jackson’s M & O Huckaback c 1740, in bleached rather than plain linen this time.

A further selection of samples - woollens this tim

A further selection of samples - woollens this time - woven by Margaret Pastoret Macdonald between 1960 and 1968, in Iowa, from draughts written around 1740 by Thomas Jackson in North Yorkshire, from the collection of Cooper Hewitt Museum, NY.

1964-21-7: “This work was wrought for my sister Ann in blue and scarlet in 1739”
1964-21-4: “Birds Eye in worsitt”.
1964-21-5: “This work is ye work of my Mother’s Cote in 1748”
1964-21-3: “Stuff for women’s wear in 10 leaves. The draught is over and over but must be trod all one way.”
1964-21-8: “This work is called the South Sea Bubble. First wrought in 1724. This stuf is for to be wrought in blue and white for women’s wear or for men’s waistcoat.”

Alice Pastoret Macdonald spent the best part of a

Alice Pastoret Macdonald spent the best part of a decade weaving samples from all the patterns in the 18th century Thomas Jackson manuscript. The manuscript, originally from North Yorkshire, had been acquired by the Cooper Hewitt Museum in New York in 1958. Macdonald, from Iowa, donated 65 samples to the museum between 1962 and 1968. Last week the museum’s textile curator very generously arranged to have the samples brought in from storage and we spent a morning going through them. They include woollens and linens from simple tabby stripes to elaborate 16-leaf patterns in fine linen such as those pictured here. A remarkable achievement, and a joy to see.

Pictured:
1963-81-1: “The Endless Knot”
1963-81-2: “The Garnished Table”
1963-81-3: “This work I wrought for my Lady Standish”

#cooperhewittmuseum #historictextiles

One square inch of M & O huckaback linen from a dr

One square inch of M & O huckaback linen from a draft by Thomas Jackson c.1750, freshly washed and ironed.
.
.
#huckaback #M&O #handwoven #linen

On & off the loom. I’ve recently finished weavin

On & off the loom. I’ve recently finished weaving this piece of linen following Thomas Jackson’s draft for the “Right M & O Huggaback” c.1750. Washing next.
.
#huggaback #huckaback #M&O #Ms&Os #linenweaving #handloomweaving

I have been making some leather fly-shuttle ‘pic

I have been making some leather fly-shuttle ‘pickers’ modelled on those on an old Norfolk loom in a museum. Some of you asked, so this is how:
I used vegetable tanned sole leather about 7mm thick, softened by soaking in warm water for a couple of hours. I made a wooden clamping mould to hold the leather in shape while it dries and hardens over a couple of days. This video shows me dismantling the mould. Extrapolate backwards to imagine the clamping procedure. This was my second attempt. Once dry the leather is very hard and can be drilled or sawn like wood. I will fix another piece of leather between the two tongues before drilling and trimming.
2nd & 3rd pics show the picker on the old Norfolk loom.
See previous post to see it my first one in action.

This new fly-shuttle picker is made from moulded l

This new fly-shuttle picker is made from moulded leather and modelled on the hundred-year old pickers on the loom from North Lopham now in Halifax (2nd pic). I hoped it would be a bit quieter than my previous wooden ones (as still installed at the other end - maybe you can hear the difference).

Selvedges. I’ve been looking back over my photos

Selvedges. I’ve been looking back over my photos of the Lopham linen in Norfolk Museums to remind myself how they handled selvedges. The patterned huckabacks all end abruptly and must have used an additional 6th shaft for the outside warp ends. The plain huckabacks have a tabby strip about 6 or 8 ends wide. I can see no trace left by a temple.
#selvedge #handwoven #linen

I have been doing some experiments with alternativ

I have been doing some experiments with alternative fly-shuttle mechanisms and recently made this lever & coil-spring assembly. The tree-branch solution I had been using (2nd pic) is nice and simple but makes the loom about 18 inches wider. And it’s hard to find a good supply of suitable branches here without falling foul of park rangers. This new set-up is more consistent, adjustable and compact.
#flyshuttle #springloom #handloom

I’m still working on this M & O huckaback as rec

I’m still working on this M & O huckaback as recorded by an eighteenth century weaver in North Yorkshire. I’m optimistic that it will distort nicely when first washed, but will have to wait a while to find out.

Sixteen-tooth gear wheel for my warp beam, and the

Sixteen-tooth gear wheel for my warp beam, and the old twelve-tooth one.

Making a new brake wheel out of an old worktop. My

Making a new brake wheel out of an old worktop. My other ratchet wheel has twelve teeth: this will have sixteen and allow me to advance the warp in smaller increments. I don’t know what the timber is but it’s very hard and makes sawdust like coffee-grinds.

Draft of “The Right M and O huggaback” written

Draft of “The Right M and O huggaback” written around 1750 by a weaver called Thomas Jackson in the vicinity of Kirkleatham, North Yorkshire; followed by some shots of the cloth currently on my loom. The Thomas Jackson manuscript was compiled by three generations of weavers, all called Thomas Jackson, and is now in the Cooper Hewitt Museum in NYC. The draft has 48 ends in a repeat, and works in units of 12.
#huggaback #m&o

Warp dressing. #handloom #handloomweaving #warpdre

Warp dressing.
#handloom #handloomweaving #warpdressing

This is old, but new to me. It’s from a draft ca

This is old, but new to me. It’s from a draft called “The Right M and O huggaback” in the Thomas Jackson manuscript, c.1750. Nice to watch this old cloth coming back to life on the loom.
#M&O #huckaback #huggaback #handloomweaving

It’s been slow progress recently. All warped, th

It’s been slow progress recently. All warped, threaded and sleyed now, following Thomas Jackson’s eighteenth century draft for ‘The Right M&O Huggaback’. Can’t wait to see how this turns out.

Load More… Follow on Instagram