This new tapestry loom from Schacht is the newest addition to my loom collection. It has already become a loved member of my tapestry loom line-up and I will be using it consistently for the rest of my weaving life I suspect.*

I really like this loom. It works well, has user-friendly adjustments for sett, shedding, warping, and weaving angles. You can get an optional beam system for longer warps. And it is priced quite low for such an intricate piece of equipment.

Size: 27 inches wide, 30 inches high, 12 inches deep with legs unfolded for weaving (folds in to 7.25 inches for storage)

Weight: 10 pounds

Footprint: This loom definitely takes up more space than the Mirrix loom that weaves the same width. It is deeper and wider and taller. So make sure you have some space to work when setting the loom up.

Weaving width: 20 inches

Weaving length: 36 inches (or more if you’re careful) without the beam assembly

The loom as a piece of equipment

My first reaction to this loom is that it is beautiful. If you like well-made wooden tools, this is a great choice for you. I’m not that familiar with wood types, but I suspect this is some kind of maple. It has that beautiful clear grain and marking that reminds me of Bird’s Eye Maple. The wood is quite hard. My bobbin slipped while attempting to reorder some warps at the bottom while under a lot of tension and I was sure I had scratched the loom. Not a mark on the wood of any kind is evident. (Note to self: release some tension before trying that on any loom!)

As all Schacht equipment I have ever used (and that includes spinning wheels, large floor looms, and smaller tools like swifts, beaters, and drop spindles), this loom is very well made. Every detail was thought out and tested extensively. I know this in part because I was able to consult a bit on the loom in earlier stages and had the privilege of communicating with Schacht’s engineer. Testing a product thoroughly is important and this is one of Schacht’s strengths.

How the loom works

This loom in its basic configuration (without optional beam assembly) looks like this.

Note the stretcher string in the image above. I like to do this to help me space the warp at the bottom of the loom. After I’ve woven a bit more, I’ll cut this string off as it doesn’t do any good after an inch or so of weaving. Also, on this loom, there is a tilt feature at the side which tying this string on impedes. If I want to tilt the weaving surface further back, I can do so.

It is a loom that is warped with a continuous warp which goes around a warping bar. The warping bar (Schacht calls it the warp wedge bar in THIS warping video) is held securely between two rubber stoppers while you warp. I found this system worked very well. The warping bar is just long enough to fit very snuggly into those rubber stoppers so it doesn’t fall out when warping and the stoppers are out of the way when weaving but are always there for the next warping session. You can see the warping bar about 1/3 of the way from the bottom of the loom in the photo below.

The loom has feet on it that fold in if you want to store the loom, but they also raise the loom up. I was a bit ambivalent about this feature which wasn’t in the prototype because I’ve always just propped looms up on things to warp and it works fine. But I will say after working with the final loom that it is really nice to be able to just shift the body of the loom upwards so that the cone of warp fits underneath it without balancing the loom on books. The loom is raised in the photo above where I am partway through warping the loom. When starting to weave you just loosen the black knob screws and lower the loom again so that your weaving is closer to your body and you don’t have to reach above your heart.

Schacht Arras loom with loom raised for warping.

After you have the entire warp on, it is time to add the heddles. While warping the loom, the shedding assembly is removed. A simple screw and a metal piece that slides in the tracks on each side of the loom holds the shedding device on. The shedding assembly can be raised or lowered as you’re working on the loom if you need it to be farther from your current fell line.

Arras loom with slots on the side to raise or lower the shedding mechanism.

The loom comes with 100 texsolv heddles. I highly recommend these strong, reusable heddles though you can make your own (they are 3 1/8 inches long if you need to make a heddle jig**). Think about how wide you might weave and at what sett and do the math so you can purchase more heddles if you need them. At 8 epi, 100 heddles will get you about 12 inches of width. The advantage of using texsolv heddles is that they are all identical and this will make your shed very even. If you make heddles and they are not all exactly the same, slight variations will occur in the surface of your warp. This is not a problem functionally, but if you can afford to purchase extra heddles, do it!

On this loom, the shedding mechanism does not turn all the way around. I’ll explain more about that below, but it does impact how the heddles go on. I am used to standing up to put heddles on the shedding bar looking down from above on my Mirrix looms. I thought I was going to hate having to put the bottom row of heddles on from underneath the bar. It turns out, this was not difficult at all. The heddle bars slide out the end and as you put each heddle on, you push it back onto the loom. Rubber o-rings are used to keep the bars in place during weaving though I suspect the bars would stay put even without these.

Schacht Arras shedding rod with heddle assembly.

Also note in the photos here that the center support for the heddle bars has been shaped so that it is very narrow where the bar goes through it. This means that the center support doesn’t split the warp as the heddles go to each side of it. A great detail!

Shedding device

A loom with a shedding device definitely speeds up weaving. The Arras has a rotating shedding device and it can be installed with the handle on the right or the left. The device slides in slots so it can be raised or lowered for comfortable weaving.

I like the way this shedding device works. There is some kind of little ball bearing on the inside of the assembly. The image below shows the black screw (operated with a standard screw driver) which can be used to loosen or tighten the amount of force it takes to turn the shedding device. The little ball bearing will pop into place when the shed is completely open, holding the shed at maximum opening. But I have found that there are times when I actually don’t want as large a shed or when I want to pick the shed instead of changing the shed for every half-pass. In this case, I can tighten that screw enough that the shed will stay where I put it—either slightly open or all the way open—so I can weave as I desire. This flexibility may not have been the intention of this shedding mechanism, but it is a happy result for me!

Tensioning

You’d be shocked if I didn’t mention this as it is the first thing I look at in any new tapestry loom. This loom provides excellent tension. I’m always skeptical of wooden loom that have these screw-bar types of tensioning as they can be pretty wimpy. This loom absolutely delivers. The top bar assembly is beefy. The bar is thick and the screw is strong and include comfortable plastic grips to tighten the tension. Always remember when using a loom like this to look at the level of the bar before you start warping so you can tighten the warp when you’re done. Schacht recommends putting the bar in the middle of the tensioning slot. I always put it in the middle or slightly below the center as I am more likely going to need to raise the bar to tighten the warp than lower it. But don’t start with the bar all the way down because you might be weaving something that tightens the warp by taking some of it up in which case you may need to loosen the warp tension. You’ll also need to loosen the warp tension when it is time to advance the warp.

This loom provides the very tight kind of tension I love and the equipment is beefy enough to take whatever abuse I can give it. I am so pleased with this aspect of this loom.

The Schacht Arras tapestry loom has beefy tensioning screws on each side.

Other considerations:

Warp spacing coils: The Arras uses plastic coils that slide over a metal rod which clips into the top bar of the loom. This coil assembly can be placed on the front or the back of the loom which gives you the flexibility to warp while standing at the back side of the loom if you prefer. As in other looms with coil spacing systems, the coil will not hold the warp in place. That is done by how you manage your weft tension while weaving. But it does give you a nice start on even spacing. The loom comes with several coils at various spacing. Coils in 4, 5, 6 and 8 dents per inch easily give you the ability to double or triple the warps in each space for various setts. These coils are made of plastic and you’ll need to check your work by measuring the epi with a ruler as the warps can easily shift the coils out of an even spacing even while warping. This is true of every coil system I’ve tried and this one is no exception.
Shed size: There are limitations (because of physics) to how large the shed can be on a loom with a rotating shedding device. If the shed is too big, the tension on the warp has to be lower and the difference in tension between the two layers of warp becomes greater. If the shed is too small, it can become difficult to get your fingers into the opening to put in your weft. Schacht has struck a perfect balance with this loom. The shed is about 3/4 of an inch right under the shedding mechanism.
Angled bottom beam: The bottom beam of the loom is angled. This means that the beam is much stronger than it would be if it was just a dowel, but my beater doesn’t hit the bar when I am weaving near the bottom of the loom.
Tilt feature: This loom has a nice additional feature where the loom can be tilted backwards a bit more. At rest it has a slight tilt for ease of weaving, but you can increase this tilt with the adjustments on the side.

The optional beam assembly

I recently purchased the beam assembly for this loom because I wanted to see if it could handle longer warps. I have a few ideas for some much longer tapestries that I need a beamed loom to weave on but I don’t want to dedicate my large rug loom to these narrower projects. I haven’t yet installed the beam kit so I can’t give you a final word on this addition. I’ll update this post after I give it a try.

The beam kit comes in a package as pictured here. I also purchased the optional raddle to help with warping. I thought briefly about rigging one of my many floor loom reeds for this purpose, but quickly decided that the equipment that integrates with the loom will give me the best results in terms of an even warp.

Bottom line

This is a great loom. I love how beautiful the wood is. The product is thoughtfully designed and works really well for tapestries 20 inches wide or less. The optional beam assembly (not yet tested by me) would allow you to weave tapestries as long as you want or warping continuously, you can weave something about 36 inches long comfortably. You could probably push the warp farther by moving the shedding mechanism higher or taking it off, but it will do a piece this big comfortably.

This loom is not small nor very portable. It won’t serve your needs if you need to fly to workshops or take it along on your camping trip. But if you want a constant companion in your studio and want to weave things 20 inches wide or narrower, this loom is a great option. I believe the price to be more than fair and quite a bit less than I anticipated when I was weaving on the prototype. This loom is a great value for the price. If you want a loom that will last for the rest of your life, will look and feel great to weave on, and offers flexibility in terms of longer warps with the optional beam kit, this loom is well worth serious consideration.

To find more information about the Schacht Arras Tapestry Loom

Change the Shed episodes so far where I use it:

June 10, 2020: In this episode I show the Arras and how it works and talk about putting it together. This post has the most about this loom and what I thought about it when it was still fairly new to me.
July 22, 2020: I’m still weaving that buzzard piece on the Arras.
September 23, 2020: Starting a new piece on the Arras, 14.5 inches wide.

Schacht’s links

Schacht website page. This page includes videos about the loom and how to put it together and warp it.
Jane Patrick, co-owner of Schacht, interviewed me about the process of working on the prototype with them. The interview is on their blog HERE.

Schacht Arras versus Mirrix

Many of you have already asked me how to choose between a Mirrix and this Arras loom. I’ll be writing more about that in coming weeks, but for the moment know that both looms are great pieces of equipment that offer excellent tension and shedding. You can’t make a bad choice though one loom might be better than the other for your particular needs and wants.

*Disclosure: I am not a Schacht affiliate and I am not being asked to review this loom or being paid in any way to do so. I offer these thoughts about this loom as a way for you to make your own decisions about the equipment you use. I did trial one of the prototypes well before it went into production and Schacht did give me a loom in thanks as well as pay for my consulting time. But if I did not like this loom, I would tell you so.

**These heddles are the same as Mirrix heddles. You can cut a piece of cardboard 3 1/8 inches long (the jig) around which you’d tie each heddle with a sturdy square knot.