At a recent event I was lucky enough to catch up with an interstate friend who had kindly agreed to show me how to use my rigid heddle loom to make narrow wares. I was given this little heddle as a gift two or three years ago and had played around with it on my own, trying to work out the secret to a nice even braid. I was not very happy with the results, and to be honest, I can't even remember if I did a blog post about the results because they were pretty atrocious.
Good teaching makes all the difference, and it turns out that, as I suspected, my issue was a simple one of tension. With the right tension, the process became so much easier, and actually quite enjoyable. Thank you so much Mistress Ursula for your help!
This is me at the event trying to get the hang of the process. Ignore the glazed look on my face; it was very cold, I was quite sick and I had spent all week frantically prepping for the event as it was a Royal Visit. I'm pretty surprised I was still upright at this point of the day, although I had lost my voice.
I'd like to be able to say that this is the fruit of my labour, but it is actually a braid that was gifted to me by my friend Lady Melodia after I admired her handiwork. She made it in what seemed like about three minutes, so I am aspiring to be as fast and as neat as she with this new skill. (PS- failing miserably so far.)
I used some birthday money to purchase this lovely, tiny little heddle from an artisan in Europe. It is so pretty, it makes me happy just to look at it. So far, I have made one braid on it and I am reasonably pleased with the results. This is a skill I need to work on: I enjoy it, but can't do it for very long because I get disoriented with the creation of the 'shed' for some reason. I believe it is fatigue related. For now, I have to do a little bit every day that I can find time.
