The Penelope Project: The Loom

How many times have I said this, teacher friends? Ask, and you shall receive. On my school's open house night in August last year, I asked for help with our #RomanRoadProject, and the DOTD research director came calling! This past year, I asked for help with woodworking so that my students could weave on an ancient Roman/Greek warp-weighted loom. A parent reached out to me the very next day volunteering her father, Clark, who, despite his full-time job, loves spending spare time in his wood shop making all kinds of things.

Before I could even say yes, Clark was emailing me also, asking what I needed and not to worry about cost. He wanted his grandson and all my other students to have a wonderful experience. He just needed some direction on how to make the loom we needed. Ancient vase painters depicted looms like the one we needed, but these images were not exactly a blue-print for building a loom.

Lucky for me, I knew exactly where to send Clark for help. Sally Pointer is a British heritage educator with a helpful YouTube channel on everything from ancient Roman cosmetics to Iron Age textiles. She has a whole series of tutorial videos on making, setting up, warping, and weaving on a warp-weighted loom. I used her design with a slight variation - I wanted a wider-than-normal loom so that multiple students could work on the same loom at the same time. One of the reasons I teach weaving on small, hand-held looms is that I want EVERY child to design and weave on their own - just watching is never an option in my classroom.

Over multiple phone calls and emails, Clark finally had a design that met my specifications, and he started building. I didn't hear from him for a while and got worried, but then out of the blue, he let me know the loom was done and wanted me to come pick it up at his workshop in Covington, LA. Did I find it a marvelous stroke of synchronicity that he lived nearly a mile from a Girl Scout camp that my troop frequented every fall and spring? Nope. Just a sign from Athena, goddess of household skills like weaving.

In November, I traveled out to Clark's workshop to pick up our classroom loom. Our woodworking voluteer had it set up for me when I arrived to picked it up. I almost cried when I saw it. Not only was it super wide and a little shorter (for my middle school students), but it had adjustable heddle rods. AND...it could be taken apart for easy transport and storage. I thanked him profusely and promised to send pictures of our weaving process and product...but that would not happen as soon as I thought it would.

Thanks a million to our woodworking expert, Clark Gristina. His patience, research, and expertise were unmatched - our Myth Makers appreciate his volunteering so greatly!