1920.] 



Hand Loom Weaving. 



561 



HAND LOOM WEAVING. 



Professor A. F. Barker, M.So., 

 Textiles Department, TJie University, Leeds. 



In this and many other countries Home Industries Associa- 

 tions have often rendered important service. Individuals or 

 communities, usually urged by some energetic and sympathetic 

 personality, have developed an interest m one or other of the 

 many forms of activity grouped under the term " home arts and 

 industries." In some countries, as, for example, Canada, condi- 

 tions have favoured the maintenance of such industries; but in 

 England, of the many communal and individualistic industries 

 started, very few have persisted. The question naturally 

 arises, therefore, whether there is a place for home industries 

 in England or whether the conditions are such that no indus- 

 tries of this type, even if started on a reasonably sound basis, 

 can be expected to survive. 



Until the industrial era of the Nineteenth Century the 

 industry of hand loom weaving was almost solely of the home 

 industry type, and it is possibly worth considering whether it 

 can be re-established on successful lines. This will of course 

 depend largely on whether hand -weaving can be made interest- 

 ing, useful, and financially profitable. 



There is no doubt that band loom weaving in the home may 

 be made an attractive pastime and within certain limits 

 also a profitable occupation. With one or two possible 

 exceptions, no serious attempt has yet been made to 

 promote the study of the fundamentals of weaving, the 

 knowledge of which would result in growing interest and 

 steady application on the part of the workers. Should a 

 thoroughly efficient business-like association ever he developed 

 it is quite possible that eventually an art of hand loom weaving, 

 approaching in interest that of tapestry weaving, might result. 



An efficient loom, as well as an intelligent grasp of weaving 

 mechanisms, cloth structure and colour is essential. Given 

 the right type of loom, and knowledge on the part of the worker 

 also, useful work can be performed. With a machine of useful 

 width and construction and a supply of materials suited for 

 weaving nicely coloured, sound structures, every normal well- 

 trained weaver should be able to produce fabrics of excellent 

 wearing quality and bearing some marks <»f the personality of 



