A handloom in Cambodia that weaves our silk fabrics! Power LoomĪ power loom is a mechanised loom powered by a 'line shaft' (a power driven rotating shaft). The warp threads pass alternately through a heddle, and through a space between the heddles (the shed), so that raising the shaft raises half the threads (those passing through the heddles), and lowering the shaft lowers the same threads-the threads passing through the spaces between the heddles remain in place. Here, the heddles are fixed in place in the shaft. A typical hand loom is a wooden 'vertical-shaft' loom. You know you're a pro when you can tell what fabric was made with what type of loom! HandloomĪ handloom is a simple machine used for weaving. Yes! And they all have different pros and cons, and also produce different characteristics in fabrics. Take up roll: This refers to the roll where the woven fabric is rolled up and collected.It helps to keep the warp untangled and guides the shuttle across the loom. Reed: The reed is a comb-like frame with vertical slits that secures the weft in place as it is woven in.Have you ever seen weavers moving threads across the loom from one end to another using a piece of wood? These wooden structures are shuttles and they have notches at the end to hold the weft yarn. Shuttle: This is the tool that holds the yarn and carries it across the warps to create the weave.The distribution of the heddles is determined by the pattern to be woven. Heddles are crucial to the weaving process because it is these heddles that are raised or lowered when the shaft is moved, causing the warp to be moved for interlacing with the weft to create the pattern. The warp is threaded through the eye of the heddle and there are as many heddles as there are warp threads. These hang from the shaft of a loom and have an eye in the center. Heddles: Heddles are made of wire or cord.Four harness weaves may either be plain weave or twills. A four harness loom, for example, has four shafts that hold heddles through which the warp passes. The number of harnesses can range anywhere between two and sixteen. The more the number of harnesses, the more patterns you can create. These shafts can be moved up or down by “treadles” to allow the weft to cross through and create the desired pattern.

Shaft/Harness: The shaft or harness is the frame of the loom that holds the warp threads.The warp beam: This is the roller on which the warp ends are wound for weaving.They can also change the method of this weave to create different textures or patterns. The weaver can choose different colours to create specific patterns. They are what hold the longitudinal warp threads in place as the weaver weaves the 'filling' or weft threads through them. Fabric Being Woven On A Handloom What Are Looms? The longitudinal thread that runs down the fabric is called the “ warp”, while the lateral thread that runs across the width are called the “ weft”. This is because the thread or yarn used in weaving is interwoven in two distinct directions, at right angles. If you look closely at a woven fabric, you can see that the lines of interlaced yarn used in it run in perpendicular directions, creating a cross-like pattern. Weaving has been practiced over thousands of years and over the years, both the process and the equipment used for it have grown in both complexity and efficiency. Of all these, weaving is the oldest and most popular method of creating a fabric. Cloth can be created by various methods: knitting, crochet, felting or weaving.

Tufted vs power loom