Japan November 2013…...
-
And we were lucky enough to see a new run started, this only happens once every 13 or so days per machine….
Sacrificial lengths of warp are used to start the process, each of these is hand knotted to the real warp and then teased through the loom before the weaving actually starts...
-
That's a really great insight. I'd never thought about how a new run would be started. Always seem looms in flight. That is far more fiddly/detailed to setup than I would have thought, but makes sense.
Some really great photos there too. Love the one of Tom looking/smiling at the loom whilst all others are using phones/cameras :).
-
Giles that blue denim dust must be bad for the workers lungs. do they wear masks on the job?
I was thinking the same thing. In the days when North Carolina had a textile industry, workers in the mills often came down with "white lung"- basically a catchall term for pulmonary disease caused or exacerbated by inhaling cotton fibers. All of that can't be good for the workers.
-
Giles that blue denim dust must be bad for the workers lungs. do they wear masks on the job?
thought about that too, important question!
perhaps they didn't ware masks that day because of the visitors? -
I will post more pics of the "Middle Ounce" weaving factory later, but in the mean time, here are a few taken at lunch.
We had lunch in an amazing place overlooking the Seto Ohashi Bridge which stretches 9.4 kilometers from Sakaide in Kagawa to Kojima in Okayama. It is made up of several different types of bridges, including suspension, truss, and cable-stayed. Its two separate levels serve as an expressway for cars (upper level), and tracks for a railway (lower level).
And the lunch was as pretty as the view….
-
Bobbin being filled with weft…
http://gifmaker.me/PlayFrameAnimation.php?folder=2013111809ADSZVmwBF5Wh7MWve8WQ8R
-
Infectious smiles on those two…
