the Argobuilder; Craftsmanship, Adventure, Enjoying Life!
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    • The Warp and Weft >
      • Making a Large Tapestry Loom
      • Making a Small Hand Loom
      • Weaving Projects for Small Hand Loom
      • Beautiful Handmade Tapestry Beaters
    • The Merry Blacksmith
    • Making Cheese
    • Wooden Cheese Boxes
    • How to Make Pickled Pike
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    • Making Broom-Corn Brooms
    • Making Horsehair Brushes and Brooms
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    • Poetry
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      • Underwood Standard Portable 3 Bank Typewriter
      • Corona 3 Folder Typewriter Refurbishment
      • Typewriter Platen Replacement
      • Design of Rubber Parts for Antique Typewriters
    • Making an Alphorn
    • Alphorn Gallery
    • Making an Alphorn Bag
    • Viking Lur
  • The Model Maker
    • Making a booknook
    • Krick Alexandra Steam Launch >
      • Assembling Miniature Steam Model Clyde Oscillating Steam Engine
    • Ship Model FD 10 Arnanes Fishing Smack Johanna
    • Artesania Latina, Cargo Ship "Capri"
    • Building a Ship in a Bottle
    • Model of a Disney Water Taxi
    • BlueJacket Optimist Sailboat Model
    • Oseberg Viking Ship Model
    • Making a Cuckoo Clock
    • 3D Print Workshop
    • 3D Printed Object Gallery
  • Tales of Adventure
    • Sailing from Door County to the UP Michigan
    • Sailing Northern Door County
    • Sailing Lake Superior Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore
    • Sailing Lake Huron: St.Ignace, Mackinac Island, Les Cheneaux Islands, St Martin Islands
    • From Manitowoc to Algoma and back on a small boat, 2017

Making a Large Tapestry Loom

Warp: the yarn or other type of string or cord that is stretched over a loom, typically the vertical strings on a loom.  Weft: the yarn or other type of string or cord that is woven back and forth, typically horizontally across the warp.

On this page I will document how I built my large tapestry loom for hand weaving.

Link to Weaving Main Page
Making Tapestry BEaters
Making a Small Hand Loom
Picture
My first weaving project; a 3 ft x 4.5ft wool rug made on a large tapestry loom I built. Fun project full of mistakes and learning. More detail on this loom below.
There are weaving experts out there and I advise you to seek them out; here is my novice experience in starting to weave.  The purpose of this page is to inspire people to try weaving something and to encourage those folks to learn from experts; my goal is not for this to be a resource for expert knowledge on the topic of weaving....because it is not.    Weave away people!  It is easy, and fun, and endlessly challenging if you want it to be.
Picture
6' long wool scarf with linen warp; made on my big tapestry loom.
A loom is a device upon which one set ups fibers in rows, into which are woven other fibers, in order to make a woven surface.

Building an Extra Large Tapestry Loom!  55" Wide x 65" Tall

These look wonderful when all the warp is on the loom and all the heddle bars are all strung up.  Here are some photo's of the loom I built.  This is not a detailed instruction, but some photo's that may inspire you to try something similar.   
Picture
I started with rough sawn Ash, and here have planed and roughed out the pieces.
Picture
The top of the loom frame features a upper tension beam that will ride in this slot. I knob and threaded rod will allow me to raise the upper beam and apply tension to the warp. I made this mortise with forstner bit and chisel.
Picture
I rounded the beams , and made the dowels, by hand with a plane.
Picture
Starting to come togerther!
Picture
Here is my finished Large Tapestry Loom. I 3D printed the tensioning knobs and the raddle spacing strip on top of the tension beam.
Picture
The working angle of the loom is adjustable with nuts and bolts at the base of the frame.
Picture
I made a number of stick shuttles and waxed them with Carnauba.
Picture
Here is the loom with the warp installed. You will see a round rod towards the bottom of the loom. The warp wraps around that rod, and as I weave, I can pull that rod up and pull the woven fabric down around the bottom of the loom, which will expose new, unwoven warp to weave into, in order to make a longer piece of fabric as I weave.
Picture
With the warp installed on the loom, I took a long length of strong cotton string and threaded the heddle bars to the warp. If you look closely, you can see that the upper bar grabs the 2nd warp from the left, and then every other warp thereafter. The lower bar grabs every other warp that is not grabbed by the upper bar. When I pull a bar forward, every other warp is pulled forward allow me to quickly pass the weft (on the shuttle) through the resulting gap in the warps. When weaving you pull one bar, pass the shuttle, beat down the weft, then put that bar back and lift the other bar, pass the shuttle the other way, and so on.
Picture
Here is a side view of how pulling one rod forward pulls every other warp and creates a "tent" to put the weft through.
Picture
Shuttle with weft wound on it.
Picture
My first weaving project a 3 ft x 4.5 ft wool rug on cotton warp. It wound up a bit trapezoidal in shape, as I learned all about the concept of too much tension resulting in your weaving necking tighter as you weave on this project.
Picture
I left long tails on the warp that extended from the weaving, and I braided and tied them.
Copyright 2016 - 2022 www.argobuilder.com ALL photos and writing are by the Argo Builder and his crew, unless noted otherwise. Contact jason@argobuilder.com to request permission to use any writing or images from this site. Thanks. Use the information at your own risk, please ​make safety your first priority, the author does not claim responsibility for the accuracy ​or inaccuracy of any information on this site
  • Home
  • The Shipyard
    • Building SCAMP "ARGO"
    • Compac 16 Pilothouse
    • Building a Kaholo SUP
    • Making a SUP Paddle
    • Ships' Provisions
    • True Seafaring Tales: Book Reviews
    • Nautical Fiction: Book Reviews
    • Seafaring and Boat Building Reference Books
  • The Woods of Arcady
    • Wisconsin Mushroom Hunting
    • Wisconsin Wildflower Photo Gallery
    • Making Apple Cider
    • Making Maple Syrup
    • Building a Stone Arch
    • Making Traditional Wooden Skis
  • The Homestead
    • The Warp and Weft >
      • Making a Large Tapestry Loom
      • Making a Small Hand Loom
      • Weaving Projects for Small Hand Loom
      • Beautiful Handmade Tapestry Beaters
    • The Merry Blacksmith
    • Making Cheese
    • Wooden Cheese Boxes
    • How to Make Pickled Pike
    • Wisconsin Bluegill Fry
    • Making Wooden Spoons by Hand
    • Handmade Wooden Dustpans
    • Making Broom-Corn Brooms
    • Making Horsehair Brushes and Brooms
  • The Muse
    • Poetry
    • Antique Typewriters >
      • Underwood Standard Portable 3 Bank Typewriter
      • Corona 3 Folder Typewriter Refurbishment
      • Typewriter Platen Replacement
      • Design of Rubber Parts for Antique Typewriters
    • Making an Alphorn
    • Alphorn Gallery
    • Making an Alphorn Bag
    • Viking Lur
  • The Model Maker
    • Making a booknook
    • Krick Alexandra Steam Launch >
      • Assembling Miniature Steam Model Clyde Oscillating Steam Engine
    • Ship Model FD 10 Arnanes Fishing Smack Johanna
    • Artesania Latina, Cargo Ship "Capri"
    • Building a Ship in a Bottle
    • Model of a Disney Water Taxi
    • BlueJacket Optimist Sailboat Model
    • Oseberg Viking Ship Model
    • Making a Cuckoo Clock
    • 3D Print Workshop
    • 3D Printed Object Gallery
  • Tales of Adventure
    • Sailing from Door County to the UP Michigan
    • Sailing Northern Door County
    • Sailing Lake Superior Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore
    • Sailing Lake Huron: St.Ignace, Mackinac Island, Les Cheneaux Islands, St Martin Islands
    • From Manitowoc to Algoma and back on a small boat, 2017