Name/Title
6-Shaft LoomDescription
Floor loom with multiple shafts, allowing the weaver to move their hands freely to control the shuttle and the density of the weave. The six shafts rather than the more common two or four allows for greater complexity in weaving patterns.Use
This loom would have been used by a single weaver who could have been male or female. It is generally assumed that weavers are females, however that is a very specific cultural understanding. As suggested by contemporary literature (such as the historical fiction book Silas Marner, published 1861), male individuals were not exempt from the practice. Similarly, work that we understand to be traditionally masculine was also sometimes done by female individuals, especially in early Canada. This understanding is important when considering the human beings behind the artifacts they leave behind.Context
Floor looms allowed weavers to create fabric much faster than the much earlier wall looms of early modernity and antiquity. These looms are synonymous with "folk periods" of the western world--that is, the lives of average or "peasant" people between the mid 18th century and the mid-late 19th century, though their use in some places continued into the 20th century. While more industrial versions of the floor loom did exist during this period (the power loom, invented in 1784, and a product of the industrialization of the textile industry) the average person would have their fabric woven on something like this.
