Fundamentals of Textile Design

Fundamentals of Textile Design 3(2+1)

Lesson 3:Weaving

Introduction

Weaving is a process of interlacing sets of yarns for formation of a textile substrate. A device that aids in this process is the loom. Loom, one of the man’s simplest and versatile tools, has not changed in its basic structure since it was invented in prehistoric times.

There is no specificity of when and how a loom was developed. But it is thought as a device used in weaving as a part of the developing civilizations. Meager evidence left behind from nature’s hazards indicates that weaving probably developed after basketry and mat making. Spider’s webs, birds’ nests etc must have inspired the primitive man to twine twigs, create braids, their first process of creation of a fabric.

Study by anthropologists revealed that weaving probably developed before 6000 BC. Research also indicated that people in different continents devised their own crude methods of making structures on their ‘crude looms’.