Weaving Treasures in Appalachia

Jim Costa doesn't have an address that you can find on google maps, but tucked back in the woods next to the Greenbrier River in West Virginia, he has amassed an amazing collection of Appalachian life that's as good as any museum collection you'll see.  Banjo builder Pete Ross and I went there to pick up two antique banjos made by Baltimorean William Boucher, Jr. for an upcoming exhibit at the Baltimore Museum of Industry.  

We got wrapped up in his stories about banjo-player Uncle Dave Macon, his explanation of the evolution of cast-iron skillets, his bicycle-powered woodworking tools, the store building that he saved and rehabbed from nearby Hinton, his amazing antique and homemade instruments (including a copper fiddle that you'd have to be a bodybuilder to play), and myriad other things he's collected over the years. 

I was thrilled when I saw something I recognized peaking out from some hand tools in the woodworking shop: a rigid heddle loom.  When I asked Jim about it, the floodgate of Appalachian weaving and spinning artifacts opened. He showed me lots of cool, handmade stuff he's collected over the years, and had a story to go with each thing. Here's a photo essay of some of the highlights. 

Jim Costa's cabin near Talcott, West Virginia. "Jimmy World," as his friend likes to call the property, has a store building that he saved from destruction, a wood shop, a blacksmith shop, and a large garage/ barn, that are pretty full to the brim with amazing antique instruments, tools, furniture, and machinery.

A box (or tape loom). This little rigid heddle loom was attached to a box that provided half of the tension of a loom. The threads that were not woven would be wrapped around the bar in the box (warp beam) and go through the little holes and slots in the tall piece (rigid heddle). On the other side of the rigid heddle, the weft passes over and under threads to form a woven band or tape. That end needs to be fastened to something (a bed post, a tree, the person weaving) to create tension that holds everything in place.

This was an even older tape loom that Jim has in his collection. It belonged to Leah Viney Lewis, born in 1769 and died in 1858, and was probably made in almost two hundred years ago. It is a little different than the other loom above, but the concept is the same.

These Germanic symbols were hand-drawn on the inside.

The nails that hold the box loom/ tape loom together are forged. That means they were hand made, probably before mass-produced nails could easily be bought.

String heddles. Heddles on modern looms are usually metal, but string was common on older looms when metal was more valuable. Each string would be tied to have a loop in the middle where the long warp threads would go through. The heddles are connected to frames that lift up (or push down) so that the weft yarn can pass over and under warp yarns easily.

A reed made from actual grass reeds. They sit in between two pieces of wood that are split down the middle. The reeds stay in place with string, that was sometimes dipped in tar to keep it from unraveling. The closer the individual reeds are to each other, the denser the weaving. Some of Jim's reeds measured in at 80 dent (spaces) per inch (compare that to the 10 dent reed I have!). Of course, you can always double or triple up or skip dents in order to get the density you want.

Henning Spinning Wheel from Lewisburg, West Virginia. Thomas Henning was also a furniture maker, and made these incredible well-crafted spinning wheels. This treadle wheel would have been used for cotton and flax (linen) spinning. Bigger wheels were used for wool.

These shuttles also belonged to Leah Viney Lewis. They would have been used on a big loom with fine threads. The shuttles are made out of dogwood, which Jim told me is incredible dense and good for items you don't want to wear away easily.

A loom, believe it or not. The oldest one in Jim's collection, he intends on setting it up when the store building it's in is totally rehabbed.