Day 1: We have a Loom!

In just six hours, on a cold and somewhat desolate Bank Holiday Monday, our Action Weaver Travis Meinolf put together the frame of the handloom in the middle of Spon End, Coventry.

The event was intended to be quite low key but clearly visible to all, and as such it was an ideal way to explain the project and give people the chance to see it from beginning to end. Some local residents came and watched and Travis at work – a few young people even got involved with the building, which was our hope. Children are surely the best publicists in a community.

Travis taught himself to make looms out of necessity, as he couldn’t find one to use, when he moved to Berlin. The result was a pleasingly rustic wooden object, which could easily have come from a certain Swedish furniture shop, only 5 minutes away.

For the non-weavers amongst us, it was a revelation to witness just how simple the mechanism is, will tell you about how it works later, when Travis reminds me what the different parts are called!

Tomorrow morning (Tues) we will be warping the loom at the Weavers House. And we start using the small backstrap looms with children at a nearby nursery.
So challenges big & small!

Thanks to the Watson family for raising morale with their enthusiasm and cookies!