Loom preparation is an extremely complex operation, much more so than the actual ultimate process of weaving and making the product.
The first stage is wall warping, for the preparation of the warp, chain-knotted, with which the subbio is then set up. Next comes the setting up of the warper: as many as four people are needed to pull the warp threads by wrapping them around the warper, so that they do not come loose or twist, compromising the entire weaving work.
On the other hand, the preparation of the loom consists not only of the insertion of the raw material to be woven, but also the preparation of the accessories and the various components of the loom. In fact, the simple setting up of the frame itself takes about a week. The most complex preparatory operation is that oflacing: the threads must be woven one by one passing through healds, devices that raise and lower the warp threads, allowing the weft to be formed and thus the fabric to be made.
The art of weaving is popularized today through the Opera of the Museum of Weaving – “the Canvas” in Vicolo Vecchio no. 6 in Macerata and in theAppignano museum area “The Loom Room”, both managed by the Macerata and Camerino “Arts and Crafts” Association.
One or more threads (the weft) are passed through the warp threads by making these threads intertwine with the first ones. The weft thread determines the width of the fabric. To ease the transition, you wrap the thread around a small rod with tapered tips, the spool. You pass the bobbin alternately in the two directions by raising one set of warp threads one time, and another set the next time. The space thus formed between the warp threads is the mouth.
The order in which the warp threads are raised, by means of the different pedals (“pedicles”) that are pressed and then operated by “pedicling,” gives rise to a certain type of weaving. The device for raising the desired set of warp threads is the heald. Having made the weave, it is necessary to press the weft threads together with the comb, beating the case. By means of the healds, the fabric that is gradually being formed is wound onto a roller, the cloth subbio.
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