Making String Heddles for the Warp Weighted Loom

I've started making heddles. I'm making loop heddles because I'm not sure that I can make a continuous string heddle to a consistent length.

Some years ago, I bought some wooden dish drying racks at a 99 cent store with the idea of using them to wind warp crosses. There are too many prongs to do that right, so they've been sitting in my garage for several years. I have a problem throwing things out, especially wooden ones. I decided to use a rack to make string heddle loops.

I am making two sizes, one using all 8 pegs on a side which makes it about 8 to 10 inches in diameter, and one using 6 pegs which makes it about 4 to 6 inches. I made a loop using 4 pegs, but I decided that would be too small.

This is the 8 inch loop. I decided to use this one.

There are two options with loop heddles.

The first is to just "fold" the loop around the warp thread and slip the heddle bar through the two ends of the loop. This is the method that is set out in the Schact Tapestry Loom instruction manual. You can   look this up online at http://www.schachtspindle.com/instructions/weaving/tapestry-loom.pdf. The heddle instructions are on pages 5 and 6.

The second option is to make a slip knot with the loop around the warp and a slip knot around the heddle bar, or just stick the bar through the other end of the loop.

Putting the string heddle around the warp thread.

This is what the larks head should look like around the warp thread before you pull it tight.

The back threads, with the heddles attached. The threads are to the "front" because I was creating the "cross" with the flat sticks you can see.

I will probably use this second option, because it gives more length on the heddle. The shed depends on the angle of the loom and the amount of weight you have on the warp strings. Because the warps are attached to weights, and not to a beam or to the loom itself, the shed width is not predetermined, like a modern floor loom, tapestry, or frame loom. This is why all the instructions on making and warping a warp weighted loom deal with the heddles last and are not very specific about the length you need.

A third option, if you are not concerned with "authenticity", would be to make or use a frame or harness or rigid heddle. Another blogger I read did just that, but her loom project was more concerned with getting children to weave than with having a period working loom. She made a rigid frame heddle out of popsicle sticks.

To my knowledge, using a rigid heddle on a warp weighted loom is not period to first century AD, but I'm not an expert. Who's to say that it couldn't have developed? As far as I know, there is no documented period evidence for a harness-type heddle used on any warp weighted loom. If anyone finds any evidence for this, I would love to see it. I'm sure anyone else who has studied this would, also.