{"id":14662,"date":"2025-04-12T13:39:48","date_gmt":"2025-04-12T20:39:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/?p=14662"},"modified":"2025-04-12T13:39:50","modified_gmt":"2025-04-12T20:39:50","slug":"backstrap-weaving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/2025\/04\/backstrap-weaving\/","title":{"rendered":"Backstrap weaving"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Another spring class with Susanne, what a blessing. I watched her do a demo of backstrap weaving at the Common Ground Fair last fall and I realized I needed a lot more instruction to be able to do it. So when I saw she was teaching it at the Adult Ed center, I signed up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a lot of fun. I really enjoy that the body is involved in holding the tension. There is a bit of complicated (to me) setup: winding the warp, setting up the heddles and the shed cord, inserting the “safety” sticks. As well as attaching the warp to the fixed object – in our case, a clamp – and the weaving belt – in our case, a strip of torn cloth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Creating the weave was very fun and went fast in comparison with tapestry weaving. No picking in our simple version, just opening sheds and sliding the weft through. And warp-faced, so it didn’t matter so much which colors were used in the weft. I think I could learn to like this! There are a few errors in my project and wonky selvedges of course. But I created a very functional belt to use for backstrap weaving. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We learned two methods for securing the growing belt to the body. First, just use a big safety pin to pierce through the looped weaving. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Safety-pin method of securing weaving to backstrap<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Second, use two flat sticks to roll up a section of weaving, then insert the belt as shown between the sticks and over the top. This felt very stable and secure and I found it easier than fussing with a safety pin. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“Stick sandwich” method of securing weaving to backstrap<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I finished one end of my warp with a wrapped loop. We learned two ways to finish the other end. One half of my tails are braided and the other half are twisted and plied. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Two methods of finishing tails: braided above and plied below<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Susanne said the colors are supposed to be gaudy. Someone in class said my colors were Mardi Gras colors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Finished project: a backstrap belt<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

She brought lots of examples of beautiful projects made with the backstrap. And sent us home with a string of heddles and a short wound warp, plus some weft, for the next project. Compared to tapestry weaving, there’s a lot less pressure to make something artistic. And it’s very simple, doesn’t take up much space like a loom would. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A woman in class was from Romania and she demonstrated in the air how her grandmother used to spin wool from the sheep they raised. She didn’t use a wheel, just a spindle and drafting. And Susanne told the amazing story of Berta’s Flax<\/a>. Fiber traditions are so comforting to me, and it feels good to be in this continuum, even in my inexpert way. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Another spring class with Susanne, what a blessing. I watched her do a demo of backstrap weaving at the Common Ground Fair last fall and I realized I needed a lot more instruction to...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14659,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[355],"tags":[385],"class_list":["post-14662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-weaving","tag-suzanne_grosjean"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14662"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14662\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14663,"href":"https:\/\/www.gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14662\/revisions\/14663"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}