quest for crofter tartan loom reenactment

[NHhighlander]

Hi all,

short:
I'm starting to weave tartan. For my full project (details lower), I intend to build my own loom.
A beart mhor (wood loom)is what I have in mind.



(image found on an internet blog. Gauldie's book is amazing. Perhaps it has the "answers," except the super important one about finding birds of like feather, which would be way cool...)

Questions

1. anybody feels like I should focus on a particular period?
   Maybe late 1700s, early 1800s, the Highland Revival soon after the Repeal of the Proscription act because so much was happening then, or perhaps shortly before, as I am finding a sort of deeper kinship with highly skilled weavers of tartan escaping persecution, maybe that one that perhaps came to Cape Breton?
2. Resources, ideas on how to do my research?
3. perchance, are you or do you know someone who is into reenacting period tartan weaving?

Long

The loom itself, and weaving, are not exactly our focus as "kilt wearers," but warp-and-weft are intrinsic problems of kilt, and many of us here are reenactors, so I feel this is an OK question to ask where experts and entusiasts on this narrow topic are more likely to be found, rather than a general weaving forum...
Regarding point 2 above, maybe you know of some other forum to ask this question? or a particular Museum, or any such resource? I'm intrigued by this one, for example https://www.harristweed.org/journal/...or-restoration

Hard evidence for something this specific and old is not too easy to come up with. For example, besides the uncanny fact that of three Total Border tartans that are known (v. P.MacDonald Antigonish papers), two have been found in Cape Breton and only one in Scotland, it's mostly an (educated) guess that I join that a Proscription-persecuted highly-skilled craftsman ended up in Nova Scotia and set up shop. Howeber, the most relevant opinion that I read seems to be that those arriving that early were likely to be focusing more on getting enough food to survive, rather than making fancy plaid, and maybe even not coming earlier than the Repeal anyway.
Any particular contact in NS that you think I should seek?

details of the Big Project https://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/...ad.php?t=99113

Then, about point (1) above, construction of one particular loom is pretty much as difficult as another, so I might as well get the most fun and value possible. Trying to be historically accurate is something that resonates to a big extent with me (learned so much from doing WW2 reenactment... My persona was a Czech or Polish refugee in Occupied France. A pacifist intellectual trying to be useful in the Maquis. For example, printing flyers on period gelatine technology, eventually joining with the American forces to help a Medic, etc.)

Canopy-bed looms (my English word for ancient beart mhor) are bulkier than any contemporary design, which would explain perhaps why these are not found in modern books on loom construction. And, anyway, a modern design might not be what I seek. I like the idea that these are more sturdy and stable than modern hobby-level loooms...

Also, some museums have a tendency to display top-of-the-line devices of the era, the pictures that I am finding might not quite reflect the reality of a smoky, dark, poor crofter's cottage having just enough to do great work but not much more. (those internet pictures are a good start, of course, and I am grateful to all those sharing). What is more "period" that I am coming up with is mostly American Revolutionary; maybe good enough?

Or, you know that Scotish looms had some distinctive characteristic in their construction or operation back then. That knowledge would be priceless for my quest!
One of these that i know of already, as per Enid Gauldie's Spinning and Weaving, is that probably Highland looms were narrower than elsewhere at the time, because the strong tradition was of single-width plaids. This lets her posit also that flying shuttles were not likely, then. The evidence for this is in the surviving plaids themselves, not on really old looms, oldests I have found of so far are mid-1800s.
Mrs. Gauldie (née MacNeilage) passed last year in December.

Also other must-have parts and accessories, for example, period-appropriate warping board.
I am planning on whale-oil lamps, though probably will refrain from trying to go for actual whale oil... (maybe cod liver oil would be a good substitute? That certainly would give a multisensory experience...)

An answer to (3) could perhaps weave it all together!

For now, taking my time, hurrying slow, starting with due diligence and basics, for example learning to weave tartan, and looking to find out how to procure some old-barn wood.

[DCampbell16B]

Too bad you are in NH. I have a loom I'm looking to part with similar to the one in your illustration where the weaver sits inside the loom. Per the weavers at the Cooperstown Farmers Museum it is c1790. It is taken down now.

[NHhighlander]

Field trip! (let me contact you by PM)

Too bad you are in NH.

Oh no! It's great to be in NH!

[OC Richard]

I would think Peter would be your man!

How cool a project, please keep us updated. I've love to hear about your experiences!

Your beart-mhor sent me scrambling for my Gaelic dictionary.

Mor means big or great of course, so I wondered where the "wood" came in.

Beart is a general term meaning a device, machine, or gear of many sorts (loom, plough, harness, even sword-sheath and a ship's rigging) thus beart-mhor would be "big device" more or less.

Beart-fhigheadair "weaving machine" is what is given for "loom" (and clarifies a certain screen name).

I love these linguistic rabbit-holes.

[NHhighlander]

Beart is a general term meaning a device, machine, or gear of many sorts (loom, plough, harness, even sword-sheath and a ship's rigging) thus beart-mhor would be "big device" more or less.

Sigh I confess I relied on the "translation" offered by the author of the website I came across, though, trully, Gaelic-English is hard to "sanity check."
But oh so fun. Among the translations I have been offered right now are "big deal (Irish)," "big bang," and "great wealth." But I certainly like more "big machine," with that sweet semantic of "device," as in multi-part tool or "art," "metier" in legacy French, when referring to a complex tool.

clarifies a certain screen name

Oh, I get it now! Elegant.

I love these linguistic rabbit-holes.

I must admit that I have the hardest time keeping my attention on the Pastor during the Sunday sermon. My escape is to find something that "sounds odd," in some Bible verse being shared, and use the cellphone to dig into the Koine - at least I'm "on topic," and it helps that we sit in the very last row so I'm not distracting or discouraging others or myself. This week, it was "master builder," as found in 1 Corithians 3:10, that tickled my papillae. Turns out that the Greek said ἀρχιτέκτων, "architekton," so far so good, "architect." Then, τέκτων itself is represented to be mostly "mason," or more precisely "carpenter," this last present in Scripture as in "the son of the carpenter."
Yet, the semantic universe for tekton found in secular writings is wider, maker, craftsman, a dedicated artisan... I like that!


Oh yes, I'll be reporting back!

so far, last Friday I purchased a loom, very first time in my life that I get to work with heddles. So I'm now enjoying all those noob mistakes, like having to undo inch and a half because I did the wrong color change Life is good.

I do have a question for someone who likes nuances of language in Scot Gaelic. I would want to be able to express a sequence of four, kind of "foursome of," "set of four." The basis of the twill 2/2 weave is sequences of four. I'm finding this whole exercise to be deep into maths, based on events happening in a four-based sequence. Would you have a suggestion? some languages like words talking about quantities.
We have "dozen," but that's about it, after "pair."

[Pleater]

Although in England, mostly, the effects of the reduction in income/wages must have been country wide - look up Chartist riots.
My family involvement and expulsion in all that went on was in the 1830s. In the next county, the 1840s.

You might like John Kirkpatrick's 'On the road to freedom' - several versions on Youtube.

They asked for a living wage and got blacklisted, and the industries were moved to other areas and into factories, the hand looms were redundant.

The hand loom weavers were upper working class, their income was not rock bottom until the work was taken from them - their homes were often two stories with the upper one having windows!! There were even two story homes with workshops in the back, in the long thin 'burghs' which was how the medieval town centres were laid out.

Anne the Pleater

[NHhighlander]

Although in England, mostly, the effects of the reduction in income/wages must have been country wide - look up Chartist riots.


The hand loom weavers were upper working class, their income was not rock bottom until the work was taken from them - their homes were often two stories with the upper one having windows!! There were even two story homes with workshops in the back, in the long thin 'burghs' which was how the medieval town centres were laid out.

And the Clearances, of course! Which went on for a longer period. Thank you.

Hmm, my previous life (what I did in Texas before moving to NH) was as a papermaker, and those did make fortunes in old times (not me!), yet the workshops were crowded and unsanitary. I might be projecting. Of course the black-and-white images extant of the last surviving beart-mhor weavers make it all look more drab than reality... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ly-lFONTuGk

Yup, my grandad was doing peaches, in Uruguay, as a skilled painter of buildings. His specialty was faux wallpaper and trompe l'oeil. He even built his own house soon after he arrived. Not grand, as made out of shipping boxes, but much better than his options in the Old Country...

[Pleater]

And the Clearances, of course! Which went on for a longer period. Thank you.

Hmm, my previous life (what I did in Texas before moving to NH) was as a papermaker, and those did make fortunes in old times (not me!), yet the workshops were crowded and unsanitary. I might be projecting. Of course the black-and-white images extant of the last surviving beart-mhor weavers make it all look more drab than reality... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ly-lFONTuGk

Yup, my grandad was doing peaches, in Uruguay, as a skilled painter of buildings. His specialty was faux wallpaper and trompe l'oeil. He even built his own house soon after he arrived. Not grand, as made out of shipping boxes, but much better than his options in the Old Country...

My father's mother's family, the Wilsons were cleared off their land, they walked to the East coast and got a lift down to Yorkshire on a fishing boat. There were some strapping lads in the family - she was no lightweight, so I expect they worked their passage.

In the you tube recording the light from the big window might be making the inside seem more drab - and the weaving shed might have suffered from neglect without younger family members there to keep it up.

The places where there were old houses and work sheds can be seen long after all trace of the building is gone because there is a rectangle of slightly lower ground, where the housewife swept out the place day after day, year after year.

Anne the Pleater