When the hackspace where this is being written created their textile room, a member who had previously been known only for her other work unexpectedly revealed herself to be a weaver, and offered the loan of a table-top loom. When set up, it provided an introduction to the art of weaving for the members of all different interests and backgrounds, and many of them have been found laying down a few lines of weft. It’s a simple yet compelling piece of making which  captivates even people who might never have considered themselves interested in textiles.
If you are not lucky enough to have a friendly hackspace member with a spare loom when you wish to try your hand at weaving, you may be interested in this Thingiverse project, a 3D printable rigid heddle loom. It’s not the most complex of looms, the heddle is the part that lifts the warp threads up and down, and it being the rigid variety means that this loom can’t do some of the really fancy tricks you’ll see on other types of loom. But it’s a functional loom that will allow you to try your hand at weaving for the expenditure of not a lot of money, some 3D printer filament, and some PVC pipe. If your hackspace or bench has an area devoted to textiles, it may find a place.
We’ve shown you a few looms on these pages over the years, but mostly of the more mechanised variety. A Raspberry Pi automated loom for example, or a CNC Jacquard loom.
Thanks to our Shenzhen contributor-at-large, [Naomi Wu] for the tip.
Amazing work.
Quilt-making seems to be popular around these parts.
Very nice design, huge step up from the nifty-knitter type designs I’ve seen. Great work!
So will there be HAD Throw rugs for everyone ?
Another testament to what 3D printing can bring and another good writeup by Jenny.
Next step in 3D printering:
3D printed jumpers and joggers 3D printed by a 3D printed automated loom that is 3D printed by a 3D printer. (#D).
Like someone else asked, A Hack-A-Day rug in the store won’t go amiss. Though world distribution may be a problem…
Nice article Jenny, a very interesting project.
For anybody interested in weaving in the Manchester (UK) area, the Museum of Science and Industry do regular live demonstrations of the old industrial weaving machines during school term times, well worth a visit:
https://www.msimanchester.org.uk/learning/schools/manchester-mills
(they also have the worlds first electronic stored program computer – Small Scale Experimental Machine – so worth going in just to have a look at that anyway).
Cool. Can conductive “threads” be introduced to make RF structures? Something like an antenna comes to mind. Maybe weaved a “Fractal” WiFi antenna:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractal_antenna
or “Fresnel” antenna:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fresnel_lens
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fresnel_zone_antenna
next, someone please make a 3D printable Jacquard head for this 3D printable loom :)
How can I get this printed