Backstrap Weaving

My books on South American pick-up weaving techniques and patterns can be purchased at taprootvideo.com. I have written descriptions below, which include the links to the books on the Taproot Video website, to help you decide which book would be most suitable for your kind of loom, weaving style and experience level.

Foreign language editions:

Starting June 1st, 2019, my books will be available for purchase at their new home, Taproot Video. EDIT: AS FROM NOVEMBER 6, 2019, ALL ENGLISH-LANGUAGE TITLES ARE AVAILABLE AS PDFS AS WELL AS SPIRAL-BOUND PRINTED BOOKS!  Here is a run-down of the growing collection:

Andean Pebble Weave, published in 2010, is the first book in the growing collection on South American weaving techniques and patterns for weavers. It is available as a download from Taproot Video in five languages. The English-language version is also available as a spiral-bound book. It is aimed at experienced weavers. It shows how to wind the warp, create the warp- cross and prepare it for weaving leaving it up to the reader to then decide which kind of loom or what method they will use to hold the warp under tension. The two beams of the ”loom” could be as simple as the weaver’s waist and big toe!

The simplest method has the weaver picking up threads to form patterns by hand. The book then goes on to show how the addition of additional sets of string heddles can make the process partly loom-controlled.

The draft and instructions are also given for four-shaft looms.

German, French, Italian and Spanish editions of this book are also available as PDFs.

(More suitable starter books for those who use inkle or other band looms are Complementary-warp Pick-up or Andean Pebble Weave on Inkle Looms. See their descriptions below).

The follow-up book, More Adventures with Warp-faced Pick-up Patterns, was published in 2012 and takes weavers who have used the Andean Pebble Weave book further into the world of  techniques used in the South American highlands and lowlands to produce intricately patterned cloth. A new structure commonly known as ”intermesh” is covered in detail.

There are one hundred and fifty new Andean Pebble Weave patterns which draw on inspiration from both South American highlands and lowlands as well as adaptations to the pebble weave structure of patterns from textiles around the world. A new charting system of spots and lines is introduced with accompanying tutorials which will help weavers go beyond charted patterns to create their own designs.

Complementary-warp Pick-up was published in 2017 and is recommended as an introduction to these techniques for weavers who can already warp and set-up their looms and confidently weave warp-faced plain-weave bands.

With a focus on narrow pieces and the very simplest of looms and tools, this book provides step-by-step instruction and forty-two pattern charts for band weavers to use on their inkle looms and other band looms, or with rigid heddles, or simple backstrap set-ups.

Any loom that can produce warp-faced cloth and two basic sheds can be used. The patterns are drawn on the conventional block-style chart.

A German edition of this book is also available.

The Complementary-warp Pattern Book was published in 2018 and is a beautiful collection of one hundred patterns for those who have learned the techniques from any one of the preceding publications. Several readers of the other publications contributed their own original patterns to this collection. Those who have learned the techniques from the 2019 publication Andean Pebble Weave on Inkle Looms will also be able to enjoy this book.

The patterns are charted on block-style charts. In the Appendix the patterns are also charted on the spotted charts that were introduced in the More Adventures book.

A second book of 132 patterns was published in 2019…More Andean Pebble Weave Patterns. See the description below.

The year 2019 brought two more books to the collection. The Eye-pattern Tubular Band and Other Decorative Finishing Techniques shows how taking a piece of fabric off the loom signals the start of a whole new process in which the piece can be strengthened and decorated using tubular edgings and other woven and sewn embellishments.

The tubular band with its distinctive eye pattern can also be woven independently and used in jewelry and accessories. A loom is not required. One end of the warp is attached to the weaver’s waist with the other end tied to a fixed point. Weaving the bands is not dependent on the use of heddles and all the sheds are created by hand. Detailed instructions on how to set up the warp and weave the tubular band on an inkle loom are also provided.

Two versions of the book were published. One includes the sewing techniques as well as instructions for weaving the patterned tubular band. The other only teaches the tubular band. (The shorter version is only available as a PDF).

Both include instruction via supplemental video clips as well as instructions on how to set up and weave the tubular bands on inkle looms. These books are aimed at weavers but can be used by those who don’t have any previous band-weaving experience. The PDF as well as the spiral-bound book allow access to the video clips.

2019 also brought Andean Pebble Weave on Inkle Looms., It is aimed at weavers who like to use the standard inkle loom and who, after being able to competently weave plain-weave bands, are ready to take their first steps in one of the many possible patterning techniques.

Two beginner methods are taught with the use of dozens of step-by-step photos, detailed text and video clips. Weavers can decide which method best suits their particular loom and weaving style. A third intermediate-level method shows an optional faster way of achieving the same results by using additional sets of heddles on the inkle loom.

Both the PDF and the spiral-bound book allow access to the video clips.

In late 2019 I decided to re-publish all the Andean Pebble Weave patterns from the 2012 publication More Adventures with Warp-faced Pick-up Patterns. All 126 patterns plus 6 brand new ones appear in this latest publication on the more conventional block style chart. They were previously drawn using charts of spots and lines in 2012. Many weavers enjoy the spotted charts and have used them to design their very own patterns. Others, who haven’t had time to study the tutorial which explains how the spotted charts are read, have often asked me if the patterns could be re-published on the more commonly used block-style chart.

More Andean Pebble Weave Patterns is for them but it will also be welcomed by those who don’t own the 2012 book and who have learned the techniques from my more recent publications Complementary-warp Pick-up and Andean Pebble Weave on Inkle Looms. This pattern book provides 132 charts with patterns that have been adapted from textiles produced in various regions around the world….Kuba cloth of Central Africa, Komi knitwear, belts with patterns of Russian origin, yurt bands and satchels from Central Asia, historic and contemporary tablet-woven motifs, as well as patterns from textiles woven in the highlands and lowlands of Peru and Bolivia.

Published in April 2020…Warp-faced Double Weave on Inkle Looms

This is an advanced-level technique aimed at weavers who use a standard inkle loom. By that, I mean the kind of inkle loom that uses individual string heddles and which requires the weaver to lift and lower one layer of threads with the hands to create the two basic sheds. I use an Ashford Inklette in this book to teach and demonstrate the technique using its two basic sheds. There is a bit more work involved in setting up the loom and weaving requires extra care and attention (hence the advanced-level rating). It is also one of the slower techniques that I have learned in South America. However, it is one of the easiest structures for designing and I liken it to doodling on plain weave.

The structure does not use warp-floats and so the surface of the band is perfectly smooth. The motifs are identical on the two faces with colors reversed. Angular, curve-like, solid and delicately outlined figures can be produced. The book has 45 pattern charts. Chapters on designing take you through the steps for sketching, charting and planning the layout of patterns. You are also shown how easy it is to chart a motif from an image of a woven textile.

Video clips supplement the instructions and accompany both the PDF and book editions.

A section is dedicated to Finishing and includes tutorials on a braid and weft twining.

My DVD on Operating a Backstrap Loom available for streaming or as a dvd from Taproot Video.

I made this video to answer the questions that I am most frequently asked when weavers are setting up and using a backstrap loom…how to make string heddles and how to make them even! What to do when you find a mistake in your heddles, how to open sheds cleanly and smoothly without over-working the heddles and shredding the warp threads or building up fluff and pills on the heddles, how to change the set-up to suit wider warps, how to handle the weft to create neat and even edges. It shows you how to use your body as a moving part of the loom itself.

It is not a start-from-scratch guide. My article Backstrap Basics gives you a lot of start-from-scratch information about what pieces you need to make your loom and backstrap and how to install simple heddles. My free video Basic Warping for Backstrap Looms gives you tips on how to create simple stakes around which to wind warps as well as the methods for creating warps for both plain and pick-up bands. The Operating a Backstrap Loom video takes you beyond all that.

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ARTICLES

BACKSTRAP WEAVING IN LATIN AMERICA – An article in Shuttle Spindle and Dyepot summer 2010

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The Handwoven team wrote a Spotlight article about my weaving in the November/December 2010 issue.

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An excerpt from an article I wrote on Meaning in Cloth in Bolivia appears in the Jan/Feb 2011 issue of Handwoven. 

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An article in the Spring 2015 issue of Handwoven in which I describe the connections I have made in the world of backstrap weaving and their influences on my work.

I contributed articles to the published proceedings of the international conferences of the Braids Society held in Manchester, England in 2012 and Tacoma, WA, USA in 2016.

I was asked by Devin Helmen to contribute to his article ”Honest Cloth” in the summer 2019 issue of Spin Off.

An article on my experiences learning to weave in South America in Issue 9 (November 2020) of Tiny Studio Creative Life magazine.