A preview on our newest build of Foot-braced box loom (case loom) of the Atayal people from Taiwan.
For the first the main part - the box - is done! Other important parts, that make an Atayal Loom, are the heavy-type breast beam and the twig-shaped warp divider (shed rod); they are not done yet.
Anyway we are going on with weaving our circular warp for the Karen-type bag. That‘s one funny thing with loin looms, you may switch your warp from one to the other loom, as far the size of the warp copes with the size of the loom.
The Box loom-type of the Atayal is an advanced type of foot loom, because the box rests on the ground, so you won‘t have to keep the warp beam up by your feet all the time while weaving.
The early birds of Atayal Looms have been made by huge-sized bamboo canes of about 20 cm in diameter. The hereshown model is build by wooden boards, as nowadays usual in Taiwan. Original models as you found still used about 50 years ago have been made by wooden trunks, I.e. of camphor trees.
The form of such box looms may remind us the skills of Austronesian people to build boats to discover from Taiwan on the Pacific world, the Philippines, Indonesia up to Madagascar. This journey started about 3.000 years ago, but still written into the loom of daily use today. That may show, how far this loom isn‘t just a loom, as far the textile is not just a stitch to wear. It‘s "text(ile) to read", so the loom a library and museum built-in.
LOOM:DESIGN
