THE ORIGINAL - Mirrix Looms

THE ORIGINAL
TAPESTRY/BEAD CUFF BRACELET
WWW.MIRRIXLOOMS.COM
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COMBINING
BEADS & FIBER
In this ebook you will learn:
• How to combine beads and fiber
• Some basic tapestry weaving techniques
• How to make a gorgeous cuff bracelet from start to finish WHAT YOU NEED TO BEGIN:
-Any size Mirrix Loom with a shedding device. (Alternately you could
needle weave this if your loom does not have a shedding device,
but we will not be showing how to do that.)
-A Tapestry/Bead Cuff Bracelet Kit (or equivalent supplies)
-A ten-dent spring
-Heddles
-A good pair of scissors
-A measuring tape
-A sewing needle
-A bead mat (or a piece of heavy cloth on which to put your beads)
Visit Mirrixlooms.com to purchase a
Mirrix Loom and Tapestry/Bead Cuff
Bracelet Kit to make this project!
-A piece of string or ribbon to balance your warping bar if you have
a loom larger than the 8″ Lani Loom -A Phillips head screwdriver (depending on the model of Mirrix
Loom that you have)
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A Few Definitions:
Warp
The thread or yarn that is put on the loom to serve as the base for your weaving. Think of it as your canvas.
Weft
What you weave into the warp.
Warp Coil (or spring)
The spring at the top (and optional for the bottom) of your loom that separates the warp threads.
Warp Sett
The space between warp threads
Shed
The space between a lowered and raised set of warps through which you pass your weft or your beads in order to weave them into the
warp threads.
Shedding Device
A mechanism that serves to create the shed by raising and lowering alternate warp threads.
Selvedges
The sides of your piece.
Heddle
A heddle attaches your shedding device to your warp threads. Used only when weaving tapestry and bead weaving WITH the shedding device, heddles can be either ordered pre-made or you can make them yourself!
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For this project we will warp like we
would for a tapestry project.
SET-UP & WARPING
Begin to warp by bringing your warp around the loom in the correct
pattern. Remember to follow the warping instructions in our warping
.pdf and video if you do not have experience warping. We will just
briefly go over warping here.
warping for tapestry .pdf
warping for tapestry video
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Here are a few tips to remember when warping:
1.) Never let go of your warp. It is important to keep even tension while warping, but it does not have to be tight as you will tighten your warp
threads later on.
2.) You can start warping in any direction (first going up over the loom or down under it), but the concept is always the same: Bring your warp
around the loom until you hit the warping bar. When you hit the warping bar, loop around it and go back in the direction you just came from.
Continue around the loom until you hit the warping bar again. Then, loop around the warping bar and continue back in the direction you came
from. Continue this pattern.
3.) Check occasionally to see if you’ve accidentally warped through the center of the loom. Your warp threads should always be going around
the loom and should never cross through the center.
4.) Make sure your wooden clips are even horizontally. To tighten them to the loom, turn the plastic screw at the end of the clips.
We started by going down
the back and under the loom,
then up the front. We placed our warp thread in
one dent at the top of the
loom. We then brought our
warp thread over the
top of the loom,
down the back,
looped around the
warping bar and
started back in the
direction we came
from (towards the top
of the loom).
When we brought the warp thread over the
top of the loom from the back, we placed our
warp in the next dent over. We then continued down the front of the loom, under the bottom
beam, up the back and looped around the warping bar. Then we
came back the way we came (this time, down the back of the loom
and under the bottom beam from the back). We then continued in
this pattern.
When you’ve warped 15 warps across (count
your warp threads by counting the number of
threads that are in the warp coil on the top of
the loom), tie off securely onto the warping bar.
Remember that tight tension is not important,
but even tension is.
You will also now want to tie your string,
cord or ribbon to the other side of the
loom and the warping bar if you need to
balance your warping bar.
At this point, take your spring bar (the
thin stainless steel bar) and place it in
your warp coil at the top of the loom on
top of your warp threads. This will keep
your warp threads in the warp coil.
Next, swing out your wooden
clips to release the warping
bar.
Grab hold of either side of the
warping bar and move it down
about an inch and a half from
the top of the bottom beam of
the loom. Here you may want to
tighten your tension slightly
and make sure all your warp
threads are even and not
crossed on both the top and
bottom of the loom.
Now you are ready to install the shedding device!
Swing your wooden clips so they are facing towards you.
Place your shedding device into the indentations in the
wooden clips. The hole on the shedding device (where
the handle will go) should go on the left side if you are
left-handed and the right side if you are right-handed.
Position the shedding device so one side with a thin metal bar is facing upwards. Loosen the nut that holds the bar in place with the Allen wrench
included with your loom and move it to the left or right of your weaving.
Now, begin placing heddles
on every other warp thread
and loop them onto the bar
on the shedding device.
Click here to see a video of putting a heddle on the loom
When you have put on seven heddles (one on every other warp
thread), secure the bar you just put heddles on (again, using the
Allen wrench). Make sure that it is flush with the brass pieces on
either end of the shedding device so they do not hit the wooden
clips when you rotate the shedding device.
At this point, make sure you have secured the shedding device to
the loom by moving the brass pieces on the wooden clips over
the shedding device.
You may need to use a Phillips head screwdriver to keep these in
place depending on the model of loom you have.
Now, rotate the shedding device toward the loom so the other bar is facing upwards.
Again, loosen the bar (the one on the opposite side of the
shedding device from the one you just put heddles on)
and put heddles on every warp thread that does not have
a heddle on it (again, this will be every other heddle).
When you are finished, secure the bar again. Then, place your handle
through the hole on the end of the shedding device and secure it.
Tighten your tension using the wing-nuts. You are now ready to
weave!
Check out this video to see how to change sheds using the
shedding device. When the handle is in one position, you are
in one shed (lifting half the warp threads) and when the handle
is in the other position your are in the other shed (lifting the
other half of the warp threads). Using the shedding device
eliminates the need for weaving in and out of warp threads.
With it, you will simply place your fiber or beads in the space
between the lowered and raised warp threads, change the
shed and do the same thing going in the other direction.
WEAVING
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First, you will weave in a piece of thread to act as a base for your piece.
Take piece of the C-Lon Cord you used as warp, move your shedding device to
open the shed in one direction and bring the thread through the open shed.
Loop around the side bar (this should be on the threaded rod), change the shed
and bring your thread through the piece again. Tie off with the other end of the
thread around the other side bar. At this point make sure the warp threads at the
bottom of your piece and those at the top of your piece are even and the piece
is the same width throughout.
Next, you will weave a header. Take a length of the C-Lon Cord you used as
warp (about a wingspan’s length).
Put your shedding device in one position. You always want to make sure the tail
of your threads face the back of the loom. Depending on the shed you are in
and whether the last warp thread is raised or lowered, you may have to make
what is called a pigtail to have your thread face the back of the loom. To do
that, take your thread that is facing forward and loop it around the edge warp
thread so it faces backward.
Next bring your thread through the space in between the raised and lowered warp threads. Then, change your shed (by moving the position of the
shedding device) and bring your thread back the other way. Continue doing this. Be careful not to pull too tightly when you move your weft across,
but also do not leave any space between where the weft turns and the warp.
Weave this header for about ten passes. End your
thread in the middle of the piece and tuck it behind
the warp threads.
With this piece, weaving without a plan tends to work very well. As long as your colors go well together (if you have a kit from us, they will), you can
really decide what you want to do as you go along. You may, however, want to plan your piece a little more and decide, for example, you’ll put
beads every inch or that you want to focus on certain colors or textures. You can follow our design closely, or once you’ve gotten the hang of it,
stray a bit and do your own thing. Your piece will have to be SEVEN inches long to fit on the one inch cuff. That might seem a tad too long, but
when you take your piece off the loom it will shrink slightly and we have found that seven inches is the perfect length. Having it a tad long is way
better than not having it be long enough. Trust me!
We had you end your header in the middle of a row by tucking the end behind the warp. For tapestry, this is all you need to do to end a thread. We
don’t really care what the back of the tapestry looks like. It is usually easier to start and end threads in the middle of a piece. But sometimes when
you are, for example, ending a single thread and starting a double thread, ending at the selvedges is a better idea. Sometimes, though, you will
want to start and end threads on the selvedges of your piece. If the shed is in one direction (as you saw when you wove your header), this will work
fine and your thread will face the back of the piece naturally. When in the other shed, however, your thread will face forward. To fix this, you will
need to make a pigtail. We will show you plenty of that farther on.
To start a thread in the middle, tuck the beginning of the
thread in the same place you tucked the end of the old one
and continue weaving as if you are weaving with the old
thread.
Before we weave in our first row of beads, we want to weave a few rows of fiber.
Do this just as you wove your header, making sure to change the shed between
each pass of fiber.
Note that the loop at the selvedge (edge) is neither
baggy or so tight that it pulls in. All your selvedge
threads should look like this.
Now that you know the basics of how to weave fiber, we’re going to
focus on how to add beads to your piece.
First, take your sewing needle and thread a few inches of C-Lon
size D beading thread (not the cord you used before). Then, tie the
ends of the thread together in an over-hand knot making a loop on
the needle. I suggest an over-hand knot because you will be using
this set up more than several times and a square knot will want to
undo itself.
Make sure you have a long enough length of a thin weft thread (like the silk) on your loom to weave a few passes. Take the tail of that thread on the
loom and place it through the loop you made on the needle. Pick up 14 beads with the needle. Then, push the beads down the needle, over the
loop and onto the weft thread. Now your weft thread will have 14 beads on it.
Change your shed and weave through with your weft as if you were weaving normally. Your beads will have to be at least a couple of inches above
the last row you’ve woven in order for them to fit into the shed. Position them evenly and push down so they fit between the warp threads on top of
your last row of weaving. Change the shed again and continue to weave with just the fiber weft. Easy!
Check out this short video showing how to add beads to your piece.
Continue weaving a few more rows of just the silk thread. When you are ready to add a new thread, stick the end of the old thread in between and
behind the warp threads and start the new one where the old one ended.
Weave with the new thread
for a bit. Remember, you
do not have to stick with
our design exactly. In fact
you very well may be using
entirely different materials!
We’ve ended our latest
thread in order to start a new
one.
Weave a few rows of
turquoise.
Technique time: Pick and pick which miraculously creates vertical
stripes. You might ask why? The answer is that it takes two passes in
weaving to create an actual line because one pass goes over warps 1, 3,
5 etc. and the second pass goes over warps 2, 4, 6, etc. If you alternate
colors this creates vertical stripes. But don’t believe me. Try it yourself.
You will need to start a new thread on top of the existing (turquoise) one.
This is where the pigtail gets employed. Take the end of the new (green)
thread behind the two selvedge warp threads and then stick the end
through the front of the piece and between the those two threads so that
it lands at the back of the piece.
Weave the original thread. Notice how we’ve come around the top of the
original thread before weaving the second thread.
Weave the second (green thread).
Keep alternating the two threads to create those
really fun vertical stripes.
The silk thread we are using (in the kit) is
hand painted and hence the colors change.
The green thread is becoming coral color. I
mentioned this because I don’t want you to
think I replaced it with a new color.
We are moving from the pick and pick technique to a new technique called wavy lines. To do this you will instead of weaving each thread once,
you will weave them twice. This creates the appearance of wavy lines. Weave one more pass with the thread you just wove.
Weave the other thread twice.
Weave the other thread. Continue with this pattern of
weaving each thread twice for a bit.
We’ve ended one of our threads by making a pigtail so that the
end of the thread does not land on the front of the weaving.
Weave the remaining thread
once.
Thread fourteen beads and weave them.
Start a new thread where it ended.
Weave a few passes of that
thread and then end it in
the middle of the weaving.
Add to that piece some novelty yarn. Because we’ve begun ours where the
selvedge thread is lowered, we needed to make a pigtail.
Weave with the silk and novelty thread for a bit. You will love
the texture and the way those bits of color in the novelty
thread fall between each other as you weave.
Cut off your novelty thread and leave the silk thread.
Weave with just the silk thread.
Get ready for some new techniques! We’ve replaced our thread with a new color.
Weave that for a bit in preparation for adding an additional thread to show you
how to weave threads in opposite directions as well as demonstrating slit tapestry.
When your threads are woven in opposite directions in any given shed you will be
able to do some very magical things with them. Just trust me on this. For now we
are just going to weave a simple slit in one place. Then we will move the slit over.
It will all make tons of sense. Just follow these directions exactly!
Change sheds, and weave a new thread at the
opposite selvedge from where the working end of
the other thread emerges.
Change sheds and weave the two threads toward one another.
As you continue with
this technique you will
see the slit that appears
between the two colors.
Weave the threads away from one another leaving a slit in between.
Make those interior wraps around warps as neat as if they were at
the selvedges: not too tight; not too baggy.
This is fun! Weave one thread into the other thread’s space.
Keep weaving this pattern, forming a new slit join in a different
place. This gives you a hint as to how shapes are built in tapestry
(just one of many exciting techniques!).
Weave both threads back to
the selvedges, again leaving
Here we are ending one of the threads. Again, use that pigtail if you
need to.
Throw in some beads. If you don’t like the look of
the beads, you can leave them out. One of the
things they do is if your warp threads are getting
out of alignment or you have been pulling in a tad
at the selvedges, they will even things out since the
space between the warp threads is exactly the
space those 8/0 beads fill.
Weave the existing thread.
Weave an empty thread.
Weave that thread for a few passes and end in the middle of
the piece. If you’ve been following our piece exactly you will
now have woven about three inches.
Replace existing thread
with a new one.
Weave a pass with the new thread.
Insert a new thread on the opposite side as you did before.
Our next technique: warp interlock, called that
because the two threads when they meet will not
form a slit, but will wrap around the same warp
thread.
Do this pattern a few times.
Note the piling up of threads on that warp. If you continue with
this pattern for too long you will create a ridge in that place.
Which is why slit tapestry is better for longer vertical lines.
The next technique is shading. Move one thread into the
other guy’s space. In our example we are wrapping
around the same warp where they meet but you actually
employ slit tapestry as well. It’s your choice.
Now move the place where they threads meet to a different spot.
Just follow the pictures!
In preparation for adding a third weft weave the two wefts toward
one another.
Time to add a third color. This will change your view of
tapestry weaving. I call this weft dancing when you
have several or more weft threads playing together. It
has always been my go-to favorite technique.
Change the shed (this should be implied, but might be
a bit confusing in this case). Insert a new color on the
selvedge and weave in over part of the existing thread.
Weave all the threads again, making sure not to
cover the working end of any thread. See below
photograph. Can you see how all these weft
threads can dance together and how they are
all actually going in opposite directions when in
the same shed.
Keep playing with your three
colors.
End the two colors on the left.
Weave the remaining color to
cover the two you just ended.
Add some beads. Pour a cup of tea/coffee or a
glass of wine depending on the time of day
and sit back and admire your beautiful work!
Add a strand of novelty yarn to your silk and weave with that.
For a little fun, replace
just the silk thread
with a different color.
Weave a few rows of novelty yarn and silk.
Weave the new color with
the novelty yarn.
Replace the novelty yarn with a strand of silk yarn.
Weave a few rows of two silk threads and then get ready for Soumak
knotting. This is not a weaving technique since you are not taking your
weft thread under and over the warp threads. Rather, you are wrapping
around the threads. It’s a much slower technique that adds some really
nice texture to your piece. It also makes the piece more durable which
was useful when such weavings were used for, let’s say, saddle bags for
your camel.
Take your double threads behind two warp threads and to the front of the
weaving.
Insert the the thread between the two side warps and bring
it behind two warps and to the front of the weaving.
Continue with this pattern taking the
thread behind two warps and then
through those two warps
Head back in the other direction by first inserting
your thread through the two side warps.
Take your thread behind warps two and three and continue
making knots in this manner.
Weave the two threads on
top of the Soumak.
Weave a few rows of the double weft threads.
End your double thread and start a new one with silk and
novelty yarn.
To advance your weaving, trim the bottom two threads
that you used as a base for your weaving.
Pull up on the warping bar to
advance the weaving.
Turn the wing nuts clockwise to release the tension.
Turn the wing nuts counter clockwise to increase the tension.
Then you can continue to weave!
Repeat techniques already
learned until the weaving
reaches seven inches.
Then weave a header with warp thread as you did
when you started the piece.
Release the tension on your loom by turning the wing nuts clockwise.
Remove the
warping bar.
Cut the string on the right side of the loom if you have one there.
FINISHING
It’s easy to finish this piece by mounting it on a brass cuff.
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Lay your piece flat and admire it!
Trim the loops at either end leaving at least
four inches so you can tie overhand knots
(they are tricky to tie when too short).
Place a heavy object on one end of your
piece to get ready to tie overhand knots.
We happened to have this handy empty
water glass nearby.
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Tie the first half of a square knot with two warp ends (the
first step when tying your shoe laces).
Pull it snuggly against edge of piece.
Tie an overhand knot. Do this by
making a loop with the two warp
threads and then sticking the end
through the loop.
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Before you tighten that knot, stick a needle in it and guide it to the base of the weaving. This
will allow you to land that knot in exactly the right spot.
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Do the same with the warp ends on the opposite side to
keep the header from falling out.
Tie off all the other warp
threads. Since you have an
odd number, one of those
bunches will contain three
warp threads. Trim the ends to
about a third to a half of an
inch.
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Once your ends are trimmed, they will be all neat and
pretty and ready to be tucked under.
Trim the weft threads on the back of the piece. You want them
out of the way but not so short that they wander through to the
front of the piece. However, you will be using glue to keep them
from going astray.
This is how the back of your piece
should look. 60
Wrap your woven piece around the cuff to see how much extra you
have on the ends. You will be folding the knots and the header to the
back of the piece. You want only the actual weaving to show on the
edges. You need enough so that the weaving extends beyond the
end of the cuff by about a quarter of a inch.
Whip out your cute little tube of glue and place a thin
line of it on the back of the header.
Fold the header toward the
back of the weaving. You
might want to put a weight
on it once you’ve done the
other header while the glue
sets.
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Place your woven piece on the ultra-suede and cut the
ultra-suede so it is the same size as the weaving.
I used chalk to trace the
piece to make it easier to cut.
And then I retraced the line using
a ruler to make it straight.
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Place the tapestry piece and ultra-suede together to
make sure they are the same size.
Next glue down your stray weft ends,
pushing them toward the middle of the
piece so that the don’t get in the way
when you are attaching it to the cuff.
Place the tapestry on the cuff.
The glue is also intended to
keep the tapestry attached to
the cuff while you sew it to the
ultra-suede.
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Put dabs of glue on the ultra-suede.
Place the ultra-suede
on the inside of the
cuff.
Trim the ends of the
ultra-suede to so that it
is the same length as
the tapestry.
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Thread some C-Lon thread into a needle. Bury the end knot between the tapestry and the cuff and start
sewing the ultra-suede and tapestry together.
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This is what that should look like! At this point you can call it a day. Your stitches might be so neat that you don’t want to
cover them with beads. It’s your choice. But next I will show you how to add a bead edge.
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Start a new thread. String three 11/0 beads and start sewing around the
seams with the beads to make the edges pretty.
Once you’ve beaded around
all the edges, you’re done!
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