Looms have been used for weaving cloth and tapestry for centuries. But as you already know, looms are also used in beadwork to speed up the assembly of a beaded piece.
There are all kinds of jewelry looms - most are designed for typical bracelet widths. But what if you want to bead weave a wider piece for wall art or perhaps a bag? Or you have trouble accurately sewing your needle through many beads in a regular beading loom? A tapestry shedding device might just be the tool for you.
A shedding device lifts half the warp threads from the rest. The v- shaped space (shed) between these groups of warp threads allows beads or threads to pass through easily.
Otherwise with tapestry weaving, the fiber must be woven over and under the warp threads. With shedding device bead weaving, the beads are secured by changing the shed (turning a handle) after the end of each row. You do not have to sew through those beads.
This video shows how to weave a wide beaded piece. How wide a piece you can work on will depend on the length of the beading needle. Elena, the instructor, had to reach well into the shed to retrieve the needle being passed in from the other side. Perhaps a tool like pliers can facilitate that. You can read more about using a shedding device in this blog post.
Disclosure
This video shows the warping for beadweaving with and without a shedding device. There are bars which go across the loom for heddle attachment. Heddles are simple loops which connect the warp threads to the shedding device. Warping up a shedding device is definitely more time consuming.
Personally, I prefer a smaller and more portable loom which is less time consuming to set up. But if you are keen on fiber work and bead weaving larger projects, these shedding devices might be worth looking at.
Check out the MirrixLooms' free projects and tutorials to see examples of beaded and non-beaded jewelry designs.
H/T to Aims of Big Blue Barn Designs for this find.
Before You Go:
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Original Post by THE BEADING GEM
I need to save this and watch it a few times later, I got a Mirrix loom using Amazon points (price tag bigger than other retailers but free with the points so I took the opportunity) and I don't have a clue how to use it. Mine does have the shedding device.
ReplyDeleteYou do need to see the tutorials to be able to set up the loom with the shedding device, for sure! I think this is good for people who like to weave larger projects.
DeleteI'm really fascinated with these looms. Coming from a fibre background I was immediately drawn to these.
ReplyDeletemaybe some day I'll take on a loom, and a project that big... thanks for the info; it is fascinating to watch a master at work.
ReplyDelete