More on Production

There are lots of little procedures and techniques that distinguish ordinary handweaving from production. A weaver friend was asking me about some specific aspects of production handweaving, and I thought I'd share the answers here...


1. Who does the design?
Right now, my mentor/boss does all of the design. She buys the yarn, warps the beam, and designs the weft thread combinations. I ply the weft according to her instructions and do the weaving. My cloth goes to the seamstress who makes the garments and gives them back to the owner to sell.


2. How long does it take to set up the loom to weave.
It's pretty quick. Usually, there is a set of harnesses and reed prethreaded for each pattern. I tie the beam threads on, pull them through the heddles and reed, attach to the cloth take-up apron and weave. In theory, there are a fixed number of patterns with a set of harnesses and dobby bars for each one. Our goal is that I should never have to thread and sley, though it doesn't always work out quite like that just yet. We are still finding our way around this relationship.

3. Why don't you design and sell your own stuff? You'd make more money, wouldn't you?
Yes, I would, and it is my long term goal. There are just a lot of things that stand between me and that goal. They aren't insurmountable, but they aren't trivial, either:
- Finding my own market and making sure that my sales volume could support me in that market.
- Designing the products that will sell in that market.
- Purchasing the raw materials. Material startup costs are more cash than I have right now.
- Marketing. I need to get my, as yet mythical, products in front of customers.
- If I decide that shows are the way to go, I'll need a booth. I'll also need to find shows where I'm not competing with my current boss.

So, I'm very happy with the arrangement that I have right now. I've got my eye on the future, but for now there is much to learn and much to be gained by simply fulfilling my weaving contract for at least a year.