Learning Challenges – Weave and Music
This week has been a great learning challenge week.
Two new experiences; the fly shuttle on my Toika Loom and playing the three stringed Strumstick. Each came with their own enticing guarantee. The fly shuttle enables wide cloth to be woven which is beyond the normal human reach for the shuttle and the newly invented strumstick touts ‘no wrong notes and no talent required!’ The strumstick is beautiful but I still managed to get some ugly notes out of it. The fly shuttle is amazing but, like a musical instrument, it too requires the deft, subtle, skilled touch of experience.
I’m just shy of a metre woven with the fly shuttle and already the memory of my learning is leaving it’s mark.
As you can see in the montaged second photo, the mean looking metal tip of the fly shuttle has bashed repeatedly into the side of the right entry box. It has also occasionally flown off in high speed and gouged the wooden studio floor. I don’t mean to scare you off with all my adjectives of the process but people have been killed by these things. I’ve also photographed the string which propells the fly shuttle being worn off on the left side which helped the bashing process and eventually snapped off before the metre weave mark was reached. I was amazed at the damage I did in such a short time and the evidence of my uneven strength when pulling one side.
I had read that it could take a few days to get the skill of weaving with a fly shuttle so I’m prepared to do the time. I think this applies alot in weaving ….and music. You just have to enjoy the time to build skill.
The walls on both sides of my loom have shuttle dents. Even after you get the hang of it, there are times when the weft will snag for some reason and pull the shuttle off the race. :}
But once you get used to it, the fly shuttle is great!
Cheers,
Laura
I love the colour you achieve with your hand dyed yarns. Do you feel like sharing your secret? What dyes do you use? And (I may be pushing my luck here) what yarn do you generally use? I’ve been perusing your gallery and I just am amazed at the colour, sheen and drape of your woven cloths. I am very much still at the learning stage with weaving and everything else for that matter.
What is the intention of the woven cloth in these images? It is also gorgeous. OK I’ve asked my limit of questions.
Wow the fly shuttle sounds like fun – weaving as an extreme sport! I love the cloth you are weaving, particularly the way the triangles “pop” with the background colours.
Good luck with the shuttle
Such a beautiful pattern! You weave with so nice colours.
That shuttle sounds dangerous but you will soon be very god at it.
Wow, I’ve been flirting with the idea of a fly shuttle for my loom, but I’ll have to seriously think about it, I don’t want to kill anyone, let alone damage my loom!
By the way, the fabric your weaving is fabulous.
Alison
The design for that fabric is gorgeous. Would you mind telling me where I could find that draft, or how it’s done?
Lovely cloth! And yes, it takes a while to build the “muscle memory” for throwing the fly shuttle. In my previous house, there was a fly-shuttle-shaped hole in the window screening on the right side of the loom. As Laura says, sometimes a snag in the pirn will cause the shuttle to go astray. No deaths in the family have occurred, but I do warn people not to stand and watch from the sides of the loom where they might be in the line of a fast-moving sharp point.
OUCH! I’ve considered building a fly shuttle system and attaching it to my Herald loom. I had no idea they could be so dangerous! Hmmmm….
By the way, that fabric is absolutely beautiful!! I love how the cool colors pop against the warm ones. Lovely! What is it going to be when it grows up?
Owww, that’s dreadful about the damage to your new loom. Hope you can work out a way around it – do you have a lighter flying shuttle, minus the lethal metal tips?
Great weaving design and colour combinations all the same – I’m a triangle girl too.
I live in fear of my fly shuttle hitting my laptop as I weave on my AVL (I always take pains to place my computer out of harms way – sometimes difficult because it has to be connected to the Dobby). I have also had my fly shuttle shatter a cup of coffee on the tray next to my loom. I am curious about the cause – I trust Laura that it is caused by a snag, but it has never happened to me when the shuttle is heading from right to left – the divots in my studio floor show that it only happens when the shuttle travels from left to right. If it is a snag it must be combined with the a peculiarity in my placement of the beater when I am looking left or something??? Anyway, shuttle terror aside – your work is stunning – your color sense remarkable.
I am new to weaving with a large loom, I have acquired a Glimakra std 63in with a flying shuttle and am having similar events. I have found that an incorrectly wound pirn pulls the exit end of the shuttle towards the fell so that the point of the shuttle hits the side of the shuttle box. Also if there is differential tension on the warp as it is shot the nose of rht shuttle oscilates and comes out of the shed, sometimes violently.
Is this happening with your loom.
John
My Grandmother was a weaver in a wollen mill, she got hit in the head with a high speed shuttle. She recovered physically for the most part, but I dont think she was ever the same. Make sure you don’t have any little ones around, just in case. That goes for anyone with a fly-shuttle.
Your work is beautiful! This is my first time to your site.
It won’t be my last.
Thanks
Debe