About four years ago I injured my shoulder. While weaving a tapestry to submit to ATB7, I didn’t take the time to adjust my position in relation to the tapestry. This meant I was stressing my shoulder by having my arms held too high. My shoulder was so bad I could barely raise my arm from my side. I had to find a way to support my arm so I could weave. I needed a range of motion to be able to raise my arm and grab the leashes and then reach down to use the bobbin. I used a large rubber exercise band from physical therapy and my arm sling to create a support for my arm.

below: Barbara Burns using adapted sling with
exercise band suspension.

Tapestry weaver Bobbi Chamberlain has had a wonderful assistant and design engineer in her husband Wes Brubacher. Below are three items that Wes has created and/or adapted for Bobbi to use as she weaves.

below: Reed modification by Wes Brubacher

below: Timer created by Wes Brubacher

Linen makes a wonderful tapestry warp.  It is strong and smooth and has a wonderful hand, but it can seem to have a mind of its own. I have been using linen for over 30 years and want to share some tips on how I work with it.

below: The half bow knot holds linen well and is easy
to untie for tensioning.

below: Pull on small sections of warp to fine tune the
tension on a long warp.

below: The back of the tapestry using a Half Damascus
Variation finish.

Last year before a workshop I racked my brain for a simple and inexpensive solution for supporting the copper pipe frame looms I’ve made based on Archie Brennan’s design. So, I started thinking about plumbing pipe components in PVC and how I might devise a loom support.

After several minutes of digging through various bins in the plumbing parts of the local hardware store, I found a combination of tee and pipe lengths that would work.

below: Loom (based on Archie Brennan’s design) with stand designed by Tommey McClure Scanlin.

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