I have a fellow teacher who has asked me to give some of his students an introduction to the inkle loom. The students are part of a vocational skills class, so learning about the process of weaving will be a good experience for them. I’m hammering out the national standards for visual art and also working on some occupational therapy applications so that the “administration” will be satisfied with the validity and rigor of the instruction. I’m planning on offering some classes to the homeschool community during my spring break in March, so getting the state and national standards defined and documented is something I need to do anyway.
Practice Inkle Looms
I’m also looking at offering a class to the local senior citizens center – they would benefit from the therapeutic aspects of weaving as well as the recreational and social ones. The photo is a quick snapshot of some of the practice looms I’ve assembled. They will only produce a woven sample 24 inches long and about 1 inch wide, but that should be sufficient length to allow students get the concept of weaving using minimal materials. I’m in the process of designing some low-cost inkle looms which will serve those students who want to take a more serious try at it . . . the first prototype is on the workbench waiting for the weekend to be finished.
by Annie MacHale, on February 28 2010 @ 8:30 am
Hi. Thanks for adding me to your blog list!
~Annie
by Scott, on March 1 2010 @ 5:26 pm
You are very welcome! I enjoyed looking at your site and am glad to share your information with all of my readers.
by Linda Dias, on March 22 2010 @ 10:16 am
When were these inkle looms originally used? How about card weaving? I am teaching a 4-H medieval arts class this year, we already have made chain mail pouches. This looks doable!
by Scott, on March 22 2010 @ 11:33 am
There were several “box looms” which were used for inkle weaving from around the 15th century, followed by a much larger and cumbersome form of the modern day inkle loom. The loom I am using is based off the early 1900s version; however, the “inkle” produced is identical. The current version of the inkle loom I find more “user-friendly” compared to the box loom, especially for younger students. Card weaving uses essentially the same loom design (with the obvious exception of the cards, or tablets). In fact, one of my next classes will work with card weaving. So . . . 4-H kiddos would probably do just fine with the inkle loom and card weaving. Glad you had success on the chainmail pouch – we will be doing something similar in our April 21 chainmail class. We will also look at some Japanese chainmail patterns for comparison.
by Fibrewoman, on May 10 2010 @ 1:41 pm
Hi Scott,
I would love to make some of these for teaching inkle and card weaving to students. Is is possible to get your plans for these looms?
Thank you so much.
by Scott, on May 11 2010 @ 6:50 am
I would be glad to send you the plans – probably won’t get to it until later this week as I’m in the midst of senior finals and graduation activities.