Wire Weaving Techniques With a Loom
When you think of weaving, you probably think of the traditional materials like yarn and fibers, but wire can be woven too. Wire woven on a loom creates a shiny, iridescent, even soft product that has many applications such as clothing, purses and curtains to name a few.
Instructions
-
Use a Rigid-Heddle Loom
-
1
Start your wire weaving project with a rigid-heddle loom; a rigid-heddle loom has a shaft with the heddles fixed and all threads go through every shaft so there won't be as much waste of the wire. The heddle is the part of the loom that each thread in the warp, or the lengthwise yarns, pass through.
-
2
Begin weaving with the finer wires, those in 34 and 32 gauges.You'll be surprised to find that this wire weaves as easily as stiff yarn. Use 34 gauge for smaller projects, it's softer and makes smaller objects more workable since it's easier to mold. The higher the number gauge of the wire you use, the finer it is, and the easier it is to weave with.
-
-
3
Keep your wire taut while you are warping your loom, as it will tend to spring out of your hands. When you warp the loom, you're creating the base yarn that runs from the top to the bottom. You can also use weights to hold the wire steady on the loom when you aren't holding it.
-
4
Weave until you run out of weft, (the yarn that's woven across the warp), and then just cut it off. If you want a thicker, stiffer piece of material, warp some more wire of a thicker variety, about 30 gauge, into your piece. You can also anchor your wire piece to some material to bolster it even more.
-
5
Try weaving with thicker wires, like 22-gauge copper wire, along with galvanized steel and magnet wire; your piece of work will be a lot stiffer. Magnet wire is an insulated wire made of copper or aluminum and used in electromagnetic equipment. Galvanized steel wire is wire that's made to be rust-proof, it's a very versatile wire. Interesting projects you can make with these thicker wires are armbands, necklaces and belts.
-
1
Tips & Warnings
Galvanized wire is one of the most adaptable; it's used in everything from jewelry to landscaping. It's a very thin but tough wire with a pretty silvery color.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit hand weaving loom image by green308 from Fotolia.com
