How many years have we been using Mirrix looms now? For me it has been at least 15 and for some of you it has been much longer! A classic Mirrix loom is a really fancy pipe loom. These looms are sturdy and they hold as tight a tension as you want them to. They have a shedding device and you can swap out the spacing spring at the top of the loom to help you create different setts easily.
A Mirrix Lani loom with 6 inch warp extenders. This is an example piece for the Tapestry Discovery Box on wedge weave and when I finished it, I rolled it to the back and did another on this same warp. The astute among you will notice this image doesn’t have a bottom spring on the loom. I have two Lani looms and they both now have bottom springs!
Some of you may not know that you can get an additional spring kit for the bottom of these looms. For many years I didn’t use these additional springs, but once I got one for one loom, I had to put them on all the looms. Those springs at the bottom really help space the warp out evenly.*
Did you know that at least for narrower tapestries, you can put that spring back in? Why would you want to do that?
I use the 8 inch Lani loom a lot for sampling and sketch tapestries and usually the tapestries are fairly small. I have lots of warp to do multiple pieces before I cut them off. When I finish a piece, I advance it around to the back of the loom, leave enough warp for the finishing, and then start a new tapestry. Before I do the header for the new piece, I put the bottom spring back in as if it were a brand new warp.
The video below shows how to take out and then replace the bottom spring from a classic Mirrix loom. If you get the blog via email, you can watch it HERE or click the photo below.
Taking the bottom spring off before advancing the warp. The linked video shows me putting that spring back in a minute later to start a new tapestry.
Mirrix now also makes the Chloe loom (reviewed HERE) which does not have shedding or springs but it is great for smaller tapestries.
Detail of a bottom spring on a classic Mirrix loom plus an ordering cord.
One thing I find weavers newer to tapestry are mistaken about is how much work the springs actually do. The springs are present to help you space the warp. The tension on the warp helps keep the warp in place, but 90% of that work is done by how you manage weft tension in the weaving.** The springs will NOT hold your warps in place. They’re thin pieces of metal and you should be careful with them as they can get stretched and uneven in denting. The purpose of the springs is to get your warp applied to the loom in a very even fashion. From there on, the way you manage the weaving does all the work of keeping warps evenly spaced and selvedges straight.
I will take this opportunity to mention that I have a couple affiliate links through Mirrix. If you buy one of these packages, I get a credit toward more looms and tools which I use for teaching. I have used these looms for a long time and they’re a staple of my tapestry production and teaching for a reason. The packages have all the things I recommend for the sort of tapestry I teach.
Have you tried replacing the bottom spring in your classic Mirrix part way through a warp? It definitely is harder the wider the tapestry is, but with another person to help you, I think you could put the spring back in even on a large warp.
*And yes! You can use a ruler and space the warps at the bottom manually! Just be really precise about it because the way you start is the way the weaving will go in the beginning! I recommend an ordering cord 4 times across the loom to help you with this start. See my online classes or my book, The Art of Tapestry Weaving for more details on that. Mirrix also has a lot of free information right on their website.
**Weft tension is a fancy way of talking about how much weft goes in any one area of the tapestry. Because the weft has to travel over and under each warp, we can’t just put the weft straight across the warp and beat it in. We need to bubble that weft a bit to introduce an extra amount.