Back at the shop

I stopped by the Macomber shop yesterday and snapped several images to post here. One of you requested an image of a bench, so here's a couple of shots of a AD-40" bench ready to be shipped to Arkansas.

The bench has an adjustable height seat and a storage shelf underneath. Here you see Rick admiring his work, having just completed this 56" 16H loom with an Air Dobby system and two sectional beams.

Rick is chceking out the Air Dobby system to be sure that it is all working properlly before he ships the loom.

Rick and Eddie are getting the loom ready to ship. The loom will be placed on the large palette behind it, and then wrapped and strapped down. Behind Rick are the bench and the treadle cover. This box serves as a foot rest as well as protects your toes from getting squished when the Air Dobby engages the treadles.

As you can see in this photo the treadle cover slides easily over these treadles.

Happy weaving ~ from bitter cold Maine! Sarah

PS. NEWS FLASH~~ Local newspaper article about my art work in the community. Check it out!

Foster's Daily Democrat ~ Sunday Citizen December 13, 2009

Swinging beaters, words of praise and birds that sing!

Now that I am back in the studio, I can really make up for lost time! I found an image of the completed piece I posted yesterday. In this image the piece is being sewn to the backing and then it will be installed in a custom frame. You can see that the finished piece has the logo (inside the house) of the non-profit foundation that commissioned this artwork for their retiring executive director. The singing bird is a symbolic way of honoring this woman's work for the organization, a work of joy!

I had a call from a weaver who is refinishing a used loom. Her questions concerned the mounting of the beater, which by the way is a very SWEET feature of the Macomber Loom. The beater upright sits on a bolt which is screwed into a small cast iron piece. The small cast iron piece is screw mounted to the base of the loom.

You can adjust the height of the beater by selecting which slot to rest upon the bolt. The other adjustment is that you can swing this small cast iron part forward and backward (might need to loosen the bolt attachment).

When you swing this small cast iron part, it will adjust how close the beater sits against the castle. Often if the floor is not level, this will affect the way the beater rest against the castle upright, causing one side of the beater to hit and another to be a slight distant away. By fine tuning the beater with this small cast part, you can accommodate for any imbalance.

Your warp should rest comfortably on the beater race (the straight horizontal bar). By raising or lowering the height of the beater and fine tuning the left/right position, you can get it perfect!

And finally words from a weaver who has a Macomber Air Dobby System
"I continue to marvel that the system works so well.  My back pain is a memory.  I timed a chenille scarf last week and could weave 90" scarf in exactly one hour.  I think that is probably substantially faster than foot treadling a scarf of the same size.  Yea."

Happy weaving! Sarah

Winter is a time for weaving !

Here in Maine it is a blustery, stormy day. The Solstice in about two weeks away. I love this time of year. It is conducive to long hours in the studio, hunkered down with my threads, color, texture and patterns. I have been away from my blog, and way over-due for a refresher posting. So here's news that's been waiting!

Last month I completed a small commission on one of my CP looms. Here it is in process. And then a photo of the same piece with embroidery in process. I'll have photos of the piece completed soon (waiting for those from the professional photographer!).

At the Macomber shop looms are being built and shipped.  Here's a happy weaver with his new loom!

Keith in New Brunswick Canada with his new 40" 8 H Macomber Loom!

Did you know that you can get reeds in any size from Macomber? Rick was mentioning to me that he can special order reeds, even if it your loom is not a Macomber.

Did you know that you can send your loom back to the shop, where they will lovingly restore it? I had a student who did this with her CP, and she is SO happy!  Her 30 year old loom is like new.


I have promised more photos and will drop in the shop this week to get photos of the current looms in process, as well as a bench photo.


Meanwhile, for a treat check out this fun seasonal video of sheep herding.

Happy weaving to all! Light and hope to each of you ~ Sarah