Lampas weave on 8-shaft loom: Ep1: Exploration

At the Shuttles & Needles studio we often explore weave structures simply to understand how they behave on the loom. Some of these explorations grow into deeper studies.

Lampas was one such exploration.

Lampas is a compound weave that historically produced some of the richest patterned fabrics in textile history. Traditionally it was woven on drawlooms and later on jacquard looms, allowing intricate patterns to emerge on the surface of the cloth.

We began wondering what would happen if this structure was explored on a much simpler loom.

Could the essential logic of lampas be understood on an eight-shaft loom?

This question became the starting point for a small studio study. The work was carried out by Kavisha Masand during her internship at Shuttles & Needles, working closely with the studio team. Over several weeks she set up warps, experimented with different yarns and gradually built a collection of lampas samples.

What emerged from the loom was both surprising and instructive. Some structures behaved beautifully. Others collapsed or became unstable. Certain yarns worked far better than expected.

All of these observations became part of the documentation.

The complete study has been compiled as Notes from the Loom: Lampas on an Eight-Shaft Loom, the first volume in a series documenting weave explorations carried out at the studio.

In the next few articles we will share some of the ideas that emerged from this exploration.

In the next article we begin with the long journey of lampas itself. This structure has travelled across cultures and centuries, appearing in many different textile traditions.

This article is part of a series based on the publication Notes from the Loom: Lampas on an Eight-Shaft Loom, available through the Shuttles & Needles website