What is Production Handweaving?

I use the word “production” all the time to describe my weaving, but most people don’t really know what that means. I guess I didn’t really know, either. I just knew I wanted to weave a lot and make a living at it. That’s easier said than done, particularly while living in one of the most expensive cities in the country. Crafts businesses aren’t generally thought of as extreme money-makers.

Back on topic... First of all, in production everything is measured. That’s true of all weaving to a certain extent, but not always so thoroughly. Every movement needs to be as efficient as possible because it’s going to happen hundreds or thousands of times a day. Today, for instance, I wove over 4,000 picks, about 80 bobbins, 5 pounds of weft. An average day, really.

As I work, I log all of my time into a database. At the end of every day I check the numbers. How long was this day? How much of the day was actually spent working? How many yards per hour did I achieve while weaving? How does yards per hour when I factor in all the other necessary tasks? How much did I earn per hour today? How much in total?

When I finish a set of garments I check the numbers again. Yards per hour while weaving? When factoring in all of the other time? What is the proportion of weaving to other tasks? What can I do to increase it? Does a particular task stand out in the project report? Why is it so big? What can I do to decrease it? Remember, weaving is the goal, and what I get paid for.

I’ve noticed a very rough analog between weaving time and clock time:
Minutes: Bobbins
Hours: Garments
Days: Sets of Garments (10 yards each)
Weeks: Beams (75-190 yards each)
Months: Material swapping trips (2-4 beams at a time plus weft)

So, when I’m planning my next glass of water and stretch, it’s “in 12 bobbins.” My next meal break is “in two garments”. My next day off is “in three sets of garments”. My vacation is “in two beams”. It’s not a 1-to-1 correlation, just a similar way to mark time.

This might all seem a little obsessive. Well, yes! It’s kind of amazing that it’s taken me so many years to realize that my rigid and ritualized way of experiencing the world could be such an asset. I used to do things like sort 10,000 mixed beads into their separate colors and make time-lapse video of it.



One thing that production weaving does is to make my old way of looking at weaving seem very tiny. So, just like in the rest of my life I’m odd-man-out again. I go to weaving guild meetings and hear people say things like, “I did a lot of weaving in the last two months. I’m almost done with 8 yards of warp!” I think to myself, “8 yards? After that, it’s time for lunch!” It’s not judgement, just a radically different perspective. I know that different people are in different places and that most people are not even remotely interested in production weaving, and that’s why their eyes glazed over when I told them that was where I was headed.

Well, I got here, and it’s exactly where I want to be.