[Bonetools] weaving tools [addendum]

[griffitt at email.arizona.edu]

Hi again
I should also add that while in Guatemala I bought a couple of very long, thin
pointed weaving tools from a woman doing a weaving demo (using a backstrap
loom). One is bone, one wood, both have squirrels carved at one end (both would
probably be called hairpins if we dug them up in the southwest because of the
decoration).  So, anyway, there's a lot of variation in people's chosen weaving
tools.

Janet


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Janet Griffitts
Visiting Scholar
Dept. of Anthropology,
Tucson,Arizona

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For what it's worth, both my grandmothers were weavers, one of whom lived next
door when I was growing up, so I grew up watching weaving, and I do a bit of
weaving myself (quite inexpertly, especially compared with my grandmothers'
work, but I have fun).  My grandmothers used tools of a lot of different shapes
and sizes depending on what they were doing and which loom they were using.
Right now my favorite tools for my tapestry loom are a bone folder purchased
from an art supply store that I use as a pickup stick for helping to lay in
patterns and a small shuttle.  The bone folder is blunt pointed at one end and
curved on the other. The shuttle I use has deep notches at either end, but
Grandma used thicker bipointed shuttles (called a boat shuttle) sometimes on
her big floor loom along with much larger shuttles shaped like the small
notched one I use. They sell shuttles of a variety other shapes in the US, and
I would expect there is likely regional variation in weaving tools, too.

With my inkle loom (a tabletop loom used for making long, fairly narrow bands) I
do use a short thick needle (a bone one, purchased from a needlework supplier
that sells modern bone tools, because I'm trying to develop usewear), along
with the short notched shuttle, and occasionally the bone folder, but much less
frequently.

But, I'm not arguing against it being mat making tool, either.  Just adding some
musings on weaving tools.

I was wondering about the curved shape and whether it's the original shape or if
it could have warped over time? Antler is nice and flexible and shapeable into
armbands and other artifacts, but has anyone looked at whether it warps in the
ground under the right conditions?  I've wondered this in the past about some
other long, narrow slightly curved or twisted objects.

Anyway, that's my input on the discussion.