11/2/2023 0 Comments Rigid heddle weaving![]() The eye is simply a hole cut in the middle of the piece of metal. They are a flat piece of steel, with the ends rotated slightly so that the flat side is at an angle of 45 degrees to the shaft. The flat metal heddles are considered the poorest in quality as they are heavier and bulkier, as well as not being as smooth. Wire heddles look much like the inserted eye heddles, but where in the inserted eye there is a circle of metal for the eye, the wire ones are simply twisted at the top and bottom. Wire heddles are second in quality, followed by the flat steel. The inserted eye are considered to be the best, as they have a smooth eye with no rough ends to catch the warp. There are three common types of metal heddles: wire, inserted eye, and flat steel. The heddle should also be light and not bulky. The warp must be able to slide through the heddle without impairment. Heddles should have a smooth eye, with no sharp edges to either catch or fray (and thus weaken) the warp. Within wire heddles there is a large variety in quality. Metal heddles An early nineteenth century Japanese loom with several heddles which the weaver controls with her foot A loom from the back, in the process of warping, showing a shaft of threaded heddles. Rigid heddle looms, for example, instead of having one heddle for each thread, have a shaft with the 'heddles' fixed, and all threads go through every shaft. ![]() While the majority of heddles are as described, this style of heddle has derived from older styles, several of which are still in use. ![]() In this manner the heddles allow for the grouping of the warp threads into two groups, one group that is threaded through heddles on the first shaft, and the other on the second shaft. The third warp thread would be threaded through the second heddle on the first shaft, and so on. For a plain weave on a loom with two shafts, for example, the first thread would go through the first heddle on the first shaft, and then the next thread through the first heddle on the second shaft. The warp is threaded through heddles on different shafts in order to obtain different weave structures. In a plain weave or twill, for example, the heddles are equally distributed. Heddles can be either equally or unequally distributed on the shafts, depending on the pattern to be woven. When the shaft is raised the heddles are too, and thus the warp threads threaded through the heddles are raised. This is achieved because each thread of the warp goes through a heddle on a shaft. In weaving, the warp threads are moved up or down by the shaft. A handwoven tea-towel will generally have between 300 and 400 warp threads and thus use that many heddles. As there is one heddle for each thread of the warp, there can be near a thousand heddles used for fine or wide warps. ![]() Each heddle has an eye in the center where the warp is threaded through. The typical heddle is made of cord or wire and is suspended on a shaft of a loom. Each thread in the warp passes through a heddle, which is used to separate the warp threads for the passage of the weft. Three different types of heddles: a wire, flat steel, and a repair heddle Inserted eye wire heddles Patent model of a mechanized loom with string heddlesĪ heddle is an integral part of a loom. Undated Ho-Chunk heddle for beadwork bands, Wisconsin, USA.
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