Make Wearable Art with Hand Weaving

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My articles on Tapestry Needleweaving

Tapestry Needleweaving


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If you are in Gainesville, FL you can find some of my woven fiber pieces and metal jewelry on display at the Artisans Gallery on 16th Blvd. at 43rd St.

Visit my Etsy shop. There's always a lot of new stuff to see!! The photo shows some examples of the bead and woven necklaces I've created over the last several years. The stones used include turquoise, lapis, and coral.

I have an online tutorial for a little Tapestry Needlewoven amulet bag.


Check it out


You can contact me directly to schedule a group class at my studio in Gainesville, FL.

I have a tutorial for a woven necklace available on my website. Visit the main page and choose "tutorials" to see the tut. I hope to have more written tutorials available on my website soon.

Please stay tuned and thanks in advance for your patience.

Here's a photo of a "Tiny Treasures" bag. The tutorial for this little woven bag will be featured on-line shortly at www.SPJ.com. I'll post the URL when the article is up.

Basically a loom is some device that lets you weave yarns (or threads) into a fabric. A loom can be very small all the way to very large. It can be made from a piece of cardboard or have a wooden framework.

A frame provides a structure. The structure can be a formal wood frame or something like pins inserted in a foamcore board, as in the case of tapestry needleweaving.

According to Wikipedia, the word "Loom" come from lome (Middle English), which meant a tool or implement. Early looms were vertical constructions with warp threads suspended from tree brances or something similar and attached to something heavy at the other end. Ground looms involved warp strung between two rows of pegs.

Frame looms are very similar to ground looms. Frame looms are still popular today and come in a variety of sizes. The Backstrap Loom is a popular, affordable, and portable loom that attaches around the weaver's waist on one end and around some stationary object on the other end.

Following a technical progression next come table looms, rigid heddle looms, and power looms. The first power loom was built around 1785. Modern looms are designed to produce specific types of weaves. The Jacquard loom was developed around 1800 and is a mechanical loom. The jacquard loom uses a series of punch cards corresponding to a row in the design to create the complex patterns to be woven.

I think that the style of weaving has a wonderful texture about it. Soumak weaving or soumak tapestry weaving is a very old technique.

You can easily create your own frame for Soumak weaving - a plain square or slightly rectangular wooden frame will do just fine. Hammer some brads or small nails into the top and bottom of the frame to hold your warp in place. The nails should be about 1/4" apart. Although you can use any size frame and any weight of yarn, you may wish to start working a small piece in a smaller frame.

The warp should be something that will not stretch - a waxed linen 4-ply cord might work well. Use a lark's head knot or a slip knot to attach your yarn to the right hand most warp. Pull the knot snug. You will weave to the left, then come back to the right for your second row of weaving.

To start, take your yarn over the next warp to the left, then go completely around that warp, so that your yarn comes out below where you first crossed over the warp and the yarn ends are headed left again. You will continue to the end of your row and then turn and repeat the process to the right.

If every row is the same, you will make a square. If you want to create a triangle, every time you turn you start one warp thread over resulting in one fewer "knots" in each row. Keep weaving until you have completed your triangle.

A plastic comb with wide set teeth makes a good tool for compacting your rows.

When you have finished your weaving, you need to cut and tie off the warp threads. Tie the first two warp threads together, then use the right most thread to tie to the next and so on until all the warps are tied. Run those warps back into the weaving to anchor them and trim the ends off. You can mount your weaving, frame it, or use it as an element of a garment or as an accessory item.

Hopefully, this explanation will be clear without photos or drawings. Imagine a square loom with a number of vertical warp threads strung on it. You can weave in a variety of patterns with your weft (whatever thread, yarn, etc., you use to weave with).

The most basic weave is Plain Weave, also called Tabby Weave. Plain Weave is an alternating under/over pattern. From your starting point (usually on the left), go under one warp, then over the next, then under the next - until you complete the row. You then head back in the opposite direction.

You can get an interesting effect by using two colors with Tabby Weave. Use a double weft, one strand of each color, or make one row in one color, then introduce the other color for the next row, then go back to the original color for row three, etc. This works well using two separate needles.

Another interesting effect with Tabby Weave is to create three or four rows with under/over passes, then push the entire thing into an interesting curvy shape.

Twill Weave is over two, then under one, then over two, then under one, etc. Twill Weave is used for blue jeans and similar fabrics.

Basket Weave goes over two, then under two, then over two, etc. You often use a doubled weft for Basket Weave.

Twining lets you create various two color patterns - stripes, etc. You start with a row of Tabby Weave, then introduce the second color (use a smaller needle) and twine the second color around the first, alternating the under and over. You will have alternating stitches in alternating colors.

Regardless of your weaving pattern, you will need something to push the rows together compactly. In Tapestry Needleweaving, I use a table fork. On a larger loom there's a device called a beater for just this purpose.