Using the Shedding Device to Weave Beads
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The Mirrix As a Bead Loom
You've heard the name Mirrix before or maybe you've just encountered it for the first time on this Web site and you are wondering, first of all, why should I use that much of my bead money to buy a loom? Or you've always used non-weaving techniques (peyote, brick stitch, stringing, etc.) to produce your bead art and you're wondering why you should even think about weaving beads. Maybe your first and last loom (that you spent $10 for) taught you that bead weaving didn't produce the high quality work you have been able to achieve through other methods. I know mine did. Just trying to warp that loom and get all those little strings under even tension was enough to persuade me that bead weaving was not my cup of tea. In fact, I gave up beads all together and turned to tapestry (which lead, ultimately to the invention of the Mirrix Loom) because I wasn't happy with the available tapestry weaving equipment).The rediscovery of beads combined with the Mirrix Loom was an absolute joy.
I will use this space to answer some of your questions and concerns and to address some of the many ways that the Mirrix Loom can be used for bead weaving.
The Mirrix loom has many distinct advantages over other bead looms:
� It is made of metal: hollow square aluminum, copper tubing and threaded steel rods. This provides strength and a guarantee that your Mirrix Loom will never warp or disintegrate over time. With a little copper polish yourMirrix Loom will always look and act brand new.
� It sits in a vertical position and therefore eliminates those pesky neck aches you get when bending over a horizontal loom. It also allows for better viewing of your work in progress.
� The Mirrix Loom provides incredible tension and strength. All those little strings (referred to as warp) will be under the same amount of tension during the course of weaving your piece no matter how wide or long it is. When you cutyour piece off the loom, if you have used consistently sized beads, your weaving will be flat and even. It will not buckle, a common complaint about bead woven pieces. You can also use wire as your warp on a Mirrix Loom because of the loom's strength and because wire will not mar your loom's surface.
� The Mirrix Loom comes with four springs (8, 12, 14 & 18 dents per inch) for a large variety of different size beads. The 10, 16, 20 & 22 dents springs can be purchased additionally. The springs are just that: springs. The spaces in the spring divide your warp. To determine what size spring you need, calculate how many beads you will have in a linear inch. For example, Delicas work best with the 18 dents spring and size 11/0 seed beads work best with the 14-dent spring.
� The Mirrix Loom can be used for bead weaving, tapestry, a combination of the two, or wire weaving (using wire as your warp). Can you imagine the possibilities!Traditional bead weaving is just one of many ways of using your Mirrix Loom. The smallest Mirrix Loom (The LaniLoom) can be used only in this way because it lacks the shedding device, an option which I will address later on. All the other Mirrix Looms can be used both in the traditional manner of bead weaving and using a method that is more like tapestry weaving. Let me address some of the advantages of the Mirrix Loom when employing the traditional method of bead weaving:
� Setting up the Mirrix loom for traditional bead weaving is fast and simple once you get the hang of it. At first warping the Mirrix loom might seem a little daunting just because it will be new to most of you. With a little patience (and maybe some phone counseling with me) you will no longer dread the usually dreadful act of warping a bead loom.
� Because the warp is put on the loom in a semi-continuous manner, there will be a layer of warp about one and a half inches behind the layer of warp you are working on. For wider pieces, this can cause difficulty. Getting your hand in between those two sets of warp to hold your beads in place while sewing through them with your needle might not be feasible when a piece is more than four or five inches wide. This is where the second warping bar kit comes into play. It eliminates that back layer of warp so that your hand is unencumbered and you can weave, if you dare, a piece 33 and � inches wide (maximum weaving width on the 38 inch loom).
� Traditional bead weaving is really very simple. Your imagination is all you need to create a stunning work of art. Some people use the Mirrix loom to weave split bead necklaces or other pieces that do not fit into the rectangular format. Weaving using a shedding device is the other kind of weaving that can be accomplished with the Mirrix loom. This method has rarely been used because only one other loom (which is now out of production) has enabled it. That being said, I must note that many or most of the beaded bags woven during the 30s were actually woven on traditional weaving looms. Further explanation of what this technique is follows: To understand this kind of bead weaving you must first think like a weaver of cloth. Get out of your head, for a moment, all your pre-conceptions of bead weaving. The technique you think of as bead weaving is not really weaving at all. It consists of placing your strung beads behind and in between the warp (the threads that are attached to your loom) and then sewing through the beads on the top of this layer of warp. The act of weaving is defined as going under and over warp threads with weft (the equivalent of the string on which you have strung your beads). This second technique of weaving beads employs exactly that method.
"So how do you do that? Sounds impossible!"
Using The Shedding Device To Weave Beads
The Mirrix looms ranging in size from 12" to 38" wide have a "shedding device" that lifts every other thread when it is rotated. The shedding device is attached to the warp threads with "heddles" which are circles of string that can be attached after the warp is put on your loom. Imagine a V where the two sets of warps separate and meet. The beads are placed in this V. When the "shed," defined as the space created between the raised and lowered warps, is changed, lifting the alternate set of warps, the beads are locked in place.
There are many advantages to this technique of bead weaving:
� You do not risk not sewing through a bead because you do not sew through the beads.
� You can use larger needles (easier to thread and more stable to use . . . I personally love those sturdy little needles intended to be used with Soft Touch) because you only have to string the beads and not sew through them again.
� Your weaving time is speeded up because you only have to place your beads and not sew back through them.
� The resulting fabric is sturdier because it has double the warps and half the wefts. The strength of a piece of bead woven fabric is dependent on the warp, not the weft..
� If you do not cut your piece of the loom, the warp threads will be continuous and hence, because there is no risk of piercing your warp with your needle, you can pull that warp all the way through creating four finished edges. This is a bit tedious and I don't necessarily recommend it as a preferred finishing method (see paragraph on finishing at end of this section).
If you've imagined this scenario in stunning detail you might have come up with one big, pressing question: If you raise one set of warps won't that mean there will be a warp, a bead, a space, and then a warp instead of a warp, a bead, a warp, etc.? You are correct. Therefore, when setting up the Mirrix loom for this kind of bead weaving you must put two warps where normally there is just one. The raised set of warps will then resemble the warp for the traditional kind of bead weaving and you will be placing a bead between each raised warp, making the fabric sturdy and weaving easy. But don't the warps show, especially if there are two of them between each bead? No, they don't. The warps cross between the beads and are nicely hidden. You have to make sure to use a very neutral warp color, avoiding white unless you are using tons of white beads.
What about this idea of using tapestry weaving techniques? I have discovered that weaving long strings of beads using the shedding device is difficult. You are placing the beads not only between the warps but also in the shed, the space between the two layers of warps. Your hands cannot get into that space to hold and adjust the beads before changing the shed. So what is the solution to stringing and battling four hundred beads (that will also want to sag in the middle, really messing you up)?
Tapestry technique requires that you weave only short distances with your weft, maybe at most three inches. This same thing can be applied to bead weaving. String on the beads necessary for one row of weaving. Instead of taking the beads the entire width of the warp, pull the beads through to the front of the loom at about two and a half to three inches. Adjust those beads in the shed and slip them down into the V, locking them in place. Insert the beads back into the shed and take them another two and a half to three inches, once again pulling them to the front of the loom. Set them in place and repeat until you've woven the whole string of beads. Weaving a piece 29 � inches wide is indeed possible and not even difficult. Now what if you used a bead spinner device to pre-string hundreds of beads instead of picking up each bead one by one! Suddenly the idea of creating a large masterpiece seems possible. Even doing this for a small masterpiece makes sense. In thinking about bead weaving as an art form that goes beyond jewelry and amulet purses and other smaller objects, one must address the issues of weight, warp material, hanging possibilities. Those beads weigh an awful lot and a lot of those beads weigh a ton, so in thinking about your large bead piece you need to address what kind of warp will be best suited for your work and how will this piece hang while being suitably supported? I have been struggling lately with the standard methods of finishing bead pieces. I have been extremely dissatisfied with the methods that I have seen or read about. I have mentioned the method of pulling all the warps through for four finished edges. In theory that is indeed a great idea, but the wider piece is the longer the warp will become. What I don't like about this method is the possibility of distorting your weaving as you pull these warps through. A short and not very wide piece would work best with this method and the result would be quite lovely. However, it has recently been discovered that Power Pro works terrifically for pull and pray. It just glides right through the finished piece. So I would recommend using Power Pro if you are planning to finish your piece with pull and pray.The method I dislike most for finishing a bead piece is the one where you thread and sew in all the warp threads. Not only is this impossibly time consuming and boring, I feel it distorts the weaving with all those nasty little warp threads going back and forth through the weaving. I refuse to use this method. This is where my patience runs out!
Out of desperation I came up with two methods that I actually love.
Let me try my best to explain them to you. Those of you who are tapestry weavers will have encountered this first version It will only work for a piece that hangs on the wall and does not have to be two sided. It does not apply to jewelry. It is perfect for wide pieces and takes no time at all to accomplish. I like that part.
First you must tie over hand knots in pairs of warps. This is made easier by sticking a needle in the knot before you tighten it and pushing that knot snug against the weaving. After you've tied off all your warps, lay your piece flat on a smooth surface such as a wooden table. Spread out the warps as if the piece were still on a loom. Take a piece of self-stick velcro (the soft half of the pair) and cut it to be just slightly thinner than the weaving. Place the velcro across the warps, so that the side of the velcro is flush with the weaving. Fold over the warps with the velcro on top so that the velcro attaches to the back of the weaving with the warps sandwiched between it and the weaving. Trim warps flush with the edge of the velcro. Do the same with the bottom. Take the corresponding piece of velcro (the one with the stiff loops) and attach it to a thin piece of wood slightly wider than the velcro. Drill two holes in the wood in order to hang it on a wall. Place attach your weaving to the piece of wood with velcro on it. You can do the same for the bottom if you'd like. The velcro covers up very little of the weaving on the back and I did not find its presence distracting. The piece on this page with the big yellow sun was finished this way.You can also sew your bead woven masterpiece to a piece of material stretched on canvas stretchers. I love this way of finishing a bead piece because bead pieces on their own tend to be a tad too small to hang on the wall with nothing around them. You can also frame a piece finished this way. The pear and peach bead weaving in the gallery is finished this way. I've also attached bead weavings to tapestries and then attached the tapestries to material stretched on canvas stretchers.
The second method for finishing is also stolen from tapestry finishing techniques. When you are done weaving your piece needle weave a heading and footing (rows of thread at the beginning and end of your piece) wide enough that after tying off your warps in pairs you can fold these woven sections over and sew them down on the back of the weaving. You will want to fold these sections such that the tied ends of the warps are buried.
Finishing Techniques:
"Pull and Pray," or "Tape and tug"
This method requires that you tape down your piece (good strong packing tape . .. not some whimpy stuff) making sure to cover all of your beads, but don't press it down so much that you also stick your warp. I didn't have that problem but imagine one could. Start pulling from the middle out, which means choose a pair of warp threads and pull it until the opposite end is snug against the beads. Then go to the other end of the weaving and pull on that thread so it's snug against the beads. Your warp is going to get longer and longer and you might want to stop after an inch or so and sew in those ends. If you use two spools of warp when you warp your loom this method works great. If you've only used one spool of warp, the two threads that are in one dent will be going in opposite directions and will have to be pulled individually. This is not the recommended route. So if you are going to do the tape and tug method please use two spools of warp. This method can be frustrating. Jane from Janes Fiber and Beads swears by using threads that cannot be pierced by your needle such as softflex or powerpro.
Other Finishing Techniques that require a lining:
Backing your piece with ultrasuede either for the entire piece or just for the ends. Roll the tied off ends to the back of the piece and stitch ultrasuede to cover the ends and knots. Maybe a little glue could help as well.
Lining a piece that will become a purse with fabric such as silk the way you would line any purse. First, of course, tie of your ends with overhand knots, then fold over (as with the ultrasuede) then line the back of the piece with fabric. Fold and sew piece into a purse.
Mounting your piece on fabric with tied ends folded under. This fabric can be stretched on a frame for display on a wall. Keep in mind that you really don't want light to be going through your piece so it's okay to mount it on something that will not allow light to pass through.
Finishing Techniques that require sewing threads back into the piece:
This method requires you to sew all those ends back into the piece, knotting them around warp threads, sewing through some more beads so that all the ends are secure. I find this method is okay for pieces without a lot of warp ends but can be a real pain for larger pieces.
The Second Warping Bar
The second warping bar has two functions: If you are using the Mirrix loom for the sewing method of weaving beads, the warping bar eliminates the back section of warp. This is great when you are doing a wide piece because you don't have to stick your hand in between that second layer of warp. For thin pieces (fewer than four inches or five inches) this would not be an issue anyway. The second function is when you are using the shedding device. It allows you to put on a much shorter warp so that when you have to pull all those warp threads through they are not going to be as long.
Warp
We love the threads offered by Caravan Beads. The C-Lon is just fabulous and comes in a zillion colors. There is also a new heavier thread that is great for larger beads. It's similiar to (but a little thinner) Conso 69 but comes in much better colors. We will be carrying it in eight colors in the very near future. For this thread I use the needles intended for use with Softflex because they have big enough eyes. Use a needle threader.
Suggested Instructional Material
Bead Weaving Elegance - Japanese translated to English $21.95
Author: Takako Sako
Wonderful Bead Weaving patterns -- great pictures - a little of
everything, collars, purses, lampshades, flowers, bracelets, earrings, pins, ties, belts, on and on. The double needle method is mentioned in this book.
2. Bead Weaving Accessories - Japanese translated to English $18.00
Author: Takako Sako
Unusual beautiful beaded accessories such as bows, brooches, hat bands, barrettes, lariats, purses. Talks about tools, findings, setting up a loom. They show step by step pictures of tug and tape, weaving in threads, doing twisted weaving and a little increasing and decreasing.3. Out on A Loom - $19.95
Author: Margie Deeb
Loom weaving Basic are covered. This is a pattern book. It has small wall hangings, bracelets, necklaces. Great color pictures.Information about Warp Coils
The 8, 12, 14, & 18 dent warp coils come with all the looms with the exception of the Laniloom (which provides just the 14 dent coil). We additionally sell the 10, 16, 20 & 22 dent coils. The dent refers to the number spaces in the coil per linear inch when the coil is on the loom. Therefore, a 14 dent coil will accommodate 11/0 seed beads because there are 14 11/0 seed beads per inch. The 18 dent coil will accommodate Delicas. We include these four coils because we believe they are the most useful for both bead and tapestry weaving. You can use every dent in a coil or every other dent Therefore, the 12 dent coil is great for tapestry weaving using every other dent. My all time favorite coil for tapestry is the 14 dent using every other dent (it corresponds to a standard European measure for warps per inch based on centimeters).
To find out what size coil you need, placed the beads you will be using on a needle. Measure an inch. Count the number of beads in that inch. Your warp will take up some space between beads, but our measurement does not have to be perfect. After all, the coils come in increments of 2, so we can't get in perfect for every size bead. If you are using a variety of bead sizes, choose the largest bead to decide what dent coil to use. For example, if your largest bead is a 6/0 you will want to use the 12 dent coil every other dent.(Claudia)
Using a Cartoon Placed Behind the WarpI've taken a photograph of some flowers and messed with it on the computer creating little blobs of greens and browns with a few blobs of red. All that is green eventually becomes blue in the upper half. So it has the feel of grass and flowers and sky and kind of explodes out from a center. I've taken this image and placed it behind the warp. I am needle weaving this piece (I prefer using the shedding device, but I like to play with both methods). It is five and a
half inches wide and will be about ten inches high. I am not counting my beads. I do not graph and count my bead work. Instead, like a tapestry weaver, I put my image behind my warp and just play it by ear (by eye?). I lay out all the colors I am using on two velvet covered porcelain plates. They are like little pools of paint. I work in extreme natural light! As I string the beads I press groups of them behind the warp to see if I am totally getting outside the lines. I allow for a certain number of mistakes
seeing that my "pattern" is not exact anyway. This allows accident a chance to flourish a bit. The amazing thing is watching this weaving grow behind a printed picture. The two are so startling different and yet similar. (Claudia Chase)
Beginning and Finishing a Bead Piece When Using the Shedding DeviceWhen using the shedding device to weave a bead piece you cannot start off using the shedding device for the first row. There are two reasons for this: 1) You need to create a base for beginning you weaving and 2) If you don't secure the first row in another way, when you remove your piece from the loom it will fall apart.
To begin your weaving, put the shedding device in the neutral position (so that no warps are raised and the pairs of warps are acting like single warps). Then string up the number of beads you will need. Place those beads behind and in between the pairs of warps, the way you would with the standard kind of bead weaving. Push up on the beads, so that their holes are above the warp. Sew through the beads on the top of the warp. After that first row you can start using the shedding device. Your last row also has to be sewn in. Because the crossing of the warps holds your strung beads in place, if you don't sew in that last row, the warps will simply uncross and the beads will be unwoven. (Claudia)
Mirrix
1097 Bible Hill Rd.
Francestown, NH 03043