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About Me

Photo of the weaver

My name is Elizabeth Tritthart and I have been a weaver since 1992.  My first loom was an 8 shaft table loom by Schacht Loom Company. My second loom was a 24 harness, compu-dobby loom by AVL Looms. My third loom is an 10 shaft ground, 100 shaft draw, combi-draw by Glimakra. I am a complex weaver who likes to use historic textiles as the starting ground for new designs. I traveled to Europe to study silk weaving in Florence Italy at Lisio.  I have earned a certificate in Computer Aided Design for Weaving. I have woven on an antique velvet loom with a large warp creel,  and punched cards and woven on antique mechanical jacquard looms. Here in the United States I do not have access to a Jacquard loom, but long for such, but alas there are none in my home state of Montana.

My educational background is Information Technology ranging from Network Engineering to Systems Analysis and Administration including a long stint in software development. I also have a degree in Fine Arts - Studio Arts from Montana State University.

By day, I am an Operations Manager for a local christian nonprofit ministry called Love INC. I get to work with the best people, helping to transform the world one person at a time. It is engaging work, and I am finding that it suits me well.

I think about weaving, textile design, printing and photography a lot. When I get the opportunity I keep learning by trying new patterns, structures and ideas as time permits. I have taken my fair share of courses (especially in the beginning) nowadays I find that I make good progress by getting out thread and getting started.

A long term goal of mine is to travel the world as a weaving ambassador. I believe that I have as much to learn as I may have to share, and I do love to see new things and meet people.

I do not weave tapestry, rugs, belts or "blankets". I tend to work with 20/2 or smaller cotton as a ground warp, and use the appropriate weft for pattern and ground. I like to make cloth that gets turned into other objects after I am done weaving it. I am fascinated by being able to solve a design problem and then configuring the loom to weave the design in proper proportion. I have limited experience with silk and linen (due to its expense) I have found that I prefer to wear cotton and so I seem to have chosen to weave with it as well. 

Oh yes, I also like my Morgan loom, and tablet weaving - but it too gravitates toward the use of finer threads. Ribbons fascinate me!

Come along with me on my weaving journey, I have been told that it will take me the rest of my lifetime to learn about weaving and I am looking forward to some serious quality time with you.

Welcome

This website is designed primarily to share information that I have gathered about weaving in my weaving career. It is intended to be a compendium of information about equipment, design, structures, projects as well as lessons I have developed. 

My passion is to study weaving as it was done between 1600 - 1865 in both Europe and the United States.  I will admit I am not a purist, everything that I produce is not an attempt to produce a museum quality reproduction of a fabric that I studied. I like to work like most musicians, studying the classics, and then developing my own design using materials available to me. This results in fabrics that are very usable, but somehow feel classic.

When I discuss equipment, and how it can be used I am not attempting to be the ultimate historical resource, there are many in the academic community that are better at this pursuit than I am. My intent to give the viewer and idea of the type of equipment and its basic construction. I may make use of images in the public domain in an effort to place images in a context that the viewer can relate to.

Regarding copyright, it is not my intent to reproduce any printed or digital copyrighted material other than to explain to a viewer how best to acquire these materials. I will use links where possible to digital works to give credit to their proper sources. As I am not attempting to sell anything on this section of the site, all copyright owners should understand that I am presenting these items for educational purposes only.

My Interpretations

This page will be used to show how I have updated a historic weaving pattern, or profile draft to use a modern day structure.