Brief touch down

Greetings from Vacationland! This is the nick name for the glorious state of Maine. I must say that at long last we are indeed living in the land of vacationers. My little village of York swells with folks from all over the world who enjoy our beautiful coastline and beaches.

I have heard from many of you that you are getting great info from the blog and that you appreciate the support for "all things Macomber". Thanks to all for staying in touch.

I also really appreciate all the orders for parts and looms. Let me know how I can continue to help you.

I will be away from my phone and email from August 15 - 22. So hang on to those questions and orders until I get back, or rush them in before 9 AM 9/15.

These pictures are from my last few weeks of living large in the great state of Maine. I will be grounded back in the studio on August 24th. Look for more tips and photos about weaving after that!


Peace, Sarah

Blog on vacation !

Summer......at last! I will be away for three weeks from July 18 through August 9th. I will have sporadic email during this time. The first week I will be with dear women friends on a 200 acre private island off the coast of Brunswick, ME. I plan to draw, read, sleep, swim and eat. The second week I will be taking a graduate course out in Oakland CA, working towards my Masters in Art and Healing from Wisdom University. And the third week I will be sailing in Penobscot Bay Maine.

There might be small smidgens of time for me to respond to emails. But most queries will have to wait until I return.

Hooray for summer!! I hope that each of you find a time to rejuvenate your creative energy, to feed your spirit and to play in nature. Summer here in Maine is SO brief that I find it important to seize the moment.

Here are some photos of my current work in progress. You can see how I thread the reed. It looks like the reed is bending, but trust me it is fine in this position for short periods of threading.
These skeins of dyed weft await my return.

Keep weaving, and stay curious. I am always happy to listen and help.
Peace, Sarah

Little tid bits and more

I was over at the shop this week, and picked up the closest thing to a manual that Macomber has. I have scanned the set up instructions for both the Type B and CP Looms. I hope this helps those folks that are restoring older looms. I am happy to post images if you send them.

I spoke with Eddie again about those tie-up super hooks. His advice for those of you using the newer hooks on the older lamms, is to be sure that they are "crimped" tightly at the bend. Since the older lamms are fatter, they will tend to push out the hook. Thus you will have troubles with the hooks falling off or catching on adjacent lamms. Hope this helps!







Here's a note from a reader..a historical tid bit for fun: " I don't know if you are aware of this, but 'way back "when" Macomber used to supply a hex beam that made it possible to use the Structo ready-wound spools with a Mac! Last Summer I purchased a 50-yr-old "baby" with all the extras still with it and, lo and behold, one of the hex beams! I used a lot of Structos in my teaching and had worked out a way to re-fill empty spools as if they were sections of a sectional beam. I had had the tension box on the back beam of my big Macomber and a small metal Structo clamped to the breast beam, but am going to experiment today with using the Baby Mac to do that.Anyway, just a little Macomber trivia for you!!!
Nancy C.















That's it for now...gotta get back to threading, half way done!
Peace, Sarah

The price list

Here it is...the Macomber Loom price list. Of course you can't read it unless you click on it to get it a readable size.

As you can see this copy has been well loved; spilled coffee, marked up. Rather lived in, I'd say. And also please note that the prices have not changed since 2004. So buy now!

Any questions?? From (still rainy) Maine~ Sarah

It's a beautiful sight

I just had to share this sight. The hand dyed double warp is all ready to thread. You might be interested in my set up. I keep the warps under tension by using cut up tube socks, and looping three inch sections under the harnesses and then slip them under the front beam. This trick makes it a breeze to thread this warp at 36 epi!

Don't you just love how the front of this loom drops to make threading so easy on the back?

My next step will be to raise the harnesses to make the heddles at eye level. I will post photos of the way I set up this as well as my quirky way I thread the reed.

I hope that these photos help you understand my set-up.
~ Sarah

Warping tip from one of you!

Yet another rainy day here in Maine. I am certainly getting much done in my studio these days!! Freshly dyed warps here.

Here is a tip for sectional warpers from Kathy in VT:

"At a pet store, you can buy plastic tubing for use in aquariums. It's about a quarter of an inch in diameter, I'm guessing. It is just the right size to fit over the metal dividers on the sectional beam. Cut it into short lengths (4-5 inches). For each section that you are about to fill with yarn, attach one end of tube to the left metal divider, then bend it and attach the other end to the divider on the next (empty) section adjacent to the section you are filling. Do this for all the dividers on both the left and right sides. Each tube creates a barrier so that threads cannot overstep the divider and wind into the wrong section. Then remove the tubes and do this with the next section to be warped."

The photos here show the plastic tubing and how to set it up on the sectional beam posts.

Thanks Kathy!!
Anyone else want to send me a handy hint?? Please do so. Photos help to tell the story.

Happy weaving, Sarah

Weaving in the rain!!

I know the song is actually singing in the rain....but these days here in Maine we have had 3 weeks of rain, with only four days of sunshine. One of those days was my birthday (thank you very much!!). The good side of this yucky weather is that it has been great studio time. I have had the opportunity to make head way on a commission that has been in the works for months. And here is a photo of a newly finished piece in a show at the Wentworth Gardner House, a historical house in Portsmouth NH.

Here's my artists statement about the piece: "Feeding the Heart" ~ This title is a direct quote from a credo attributed to Wallace Nutting, a NH photographer who once owned the Wentworth Gardner House. "America, with its abundant materials everywhere for dwellings that will outlast the ages, will fail disgracefully unless she can learn that the monuments which are nearer than any other to feeding the heart and enshrining history are old dwellings." This piece is hand-dyed, woven linen, rayon, metallic threads and hand spun paper with photographs on canvas. 26" x 56"

Now some thoughts about Macomber Looms. Many of you write to me about trouble with the little tie up hooks, especially those on the CP portable looms. I spoke with Eddie this morning to pick his brain again about this problem. He said that one typical cause of problems with these hooks it that sometimes folks fold the looms with the hooks still attached. You MUST unhook all the treadles from the lamms prior to folding the CP loom.

If you have an older style CP with the lamms with the dense cardboard on them often the holes get stretched out and do not hold the hooks tightly. If this is the case, you will benefit from switching to the new style hooks. I know I have written abut this issue before, but since so many of you still ask me about it, I thought it worth repeating.

Many folks have also asked me about a manual for the looms. There is no manual to speak of. If you purchase a new loom CP you will get a short booklet about your loom. With the type B looms you will get a 2 pages of information about unpacking your loom. That is one major reason I started this blog...to share information and help folks with their looms.

Keep the questions coming. Fingers crossed for sunshine here! Photo here of hand-over-hand weaving in a health care setting....sunshine for the spirit!
Sarah