Make a heddle bead loom from cardboard

When loom beading is mentioned, most people think of tension looms, such as the box lid beadloom I posted a while ago. Beadweaving can, however, also be done on a loom with a rigid heddle. The advantage of weaving in this way is that unlike tension looms, where the thread has to pass through each bead twice, meaning that only one row at a time can be strung, in heddle weaving the warp threads are doubled instead, and the weft thread passes through each bead once. This means that if you wish you can string the beads for your entire pattern in one go.

Commercial heddle bead looms are few and far between, most being made by a dwindling number of craftspeople. This means that heddle bead weaving is not as well-known as it used to be, as the looms are expensive and hard to come by. With a little tinkering, though, I’ve come up with a heddle bead loom that can be made easily and very cheaply at home.

There are two big differences between a tension loom and a heddle loom. The most obvious is the heddle itself. In addition, the heddle loom needs to have adjustable tension – the weaving of the warp threads tightens them, so there has to be a mechanism to slacken the threads as you work. I’ve accomplished this by using a cardboard tube which is anchored in place with elastic bands – the tube can be turned by hand to adjust the tension, but should not slip around during weaving. There are other solutions to this, but using elastic seemed the simplest working option.

This loom is very much a prototype, and I’m sure many will be able to suggest improvements. You may want to add some extra struts for stability, for example. Instead of cardboard, the loom could be made from wood, if you have access to tools. But anyway, to make this loom you’ll need:

• Corrugated cardboard
• wood glue
• craft knife
• sturdy cardboard tube
• disposable chopstick or length of dowel
• two fine tooth combs
• strong elastic
• piece of sheet plastic, rigid but soft enough to be cut with scissors (I used a piece from the cover of a plastic folder)
• punch drill OR thick needle and a candle
• scissors
• tape
• small strip of cardstock
• pencil and ruler

Sandwich two or three layers of cardboard together with wood glue, and place under a flat weight (e.g. a pile of books) to dry.

While it’s drying, let’s make the heddle. Take your plastic sheet and cut it to size. It should be a little shorter than the width of your loom. With a pencil, rule vertical lines 3-4mm apart all the way across the plastic, and a horizontal line across the centre. Use a pair of sharp craft scissors to cut slots where you’ve ruled your lines – starting from the right-hand side (if you’re right-handed), make a cut 1mm or less to the right of the line, and then cut along the line itself.

When you’ve cut all your lines, put a piece of tape along the bottom edge. Turn the heddle over, and reposition the teeth of the heddle on the tape until they all lie flat and even. Now you can sandwich the bottom edge of the heddle between two layers of cardstock, using wood glue on both sides to bond it together firmly. If you wish, you can also glue some card along the top edge to make it more rigid.

The last step is to make a hole in the centre of each tooth of the heddle, using the horizontal line you drew earlier as a guide. These holes need to be just big enough to pass a threaded needle through. If you have a punch drill, this is fairly straightforward. If you don’t have a punch drill, you can do what I did and heat a needle in the flame of a candle, and use it to melt a small hole in the plastic. Make sure to do this in a well-ventilated area, as melted plastic fumes can be toxic. The holes will be rather sooty, but you can clean them off a bit by passing a needle threaded with thick cotton or embroidery floss through each hole.

That’s the heddle done – now to make the loom itself! Cut the shapes pictured from your glued-together cardboard – you need two rectangles with cutaway sides for the side of the loom, and a narrow strip for the end. Cut vertical slots in the narrow strip, the same width as the thickness of the cardboard, and slots at a 45° angle at the smaller end of the side pieces. You also need to cut a notch in the top for your cardboard tube to sit in (v-shaped, but with the side of the v closer to you should be vertical so the tube doesn’t roll toward you as you weave), and a small notch inderneath for the chopstick or dowel.

Slot together the main pieces of the loom, and sit the cardboard tube in the notch on top. Take two lengths of elastic, loop them round the tube and a dowel or chopstick in the notch underneath, and tie them firmly so that the tube takes a little effort to turn.

Finally, attach a comb to the tube so that its teeth point away from you, and another to the front strut at the bottom of the loom so that the teeth poke just above the strut. I used wire and tape to fasten the combs in place. The combs will space your warp threads evenly.

On Friday, I’ll be showing you how to weave on your new loom

You may also like:

1. Make a DIY rigid heddle loom
2. How to Bead on a Heddle Beadloom – flowers and butterflies cuff
3. How to build a cheap bead loom