Category: band loom

A Different Kind of Band Music

Karen

The musician in me sees this band loom as another stringed instrument! My left hand passes the shuttle back and forth. My feet change the sheds by stepping on the treadles. My right hand beats in the weft with the band knife. Pass—Tug—Step— whack-Whack. One—Two—Three— and-Four. The two treadles operate with a simple pulley system, so they are always in sync with each other, keeping this instrument moving. Like the treadles, grace and peace are two elements that operate together to create harmony in our lives.

Colorful band woven on two-treadle band loom.
Doubled thick threads make a raised pink dot down the center of the band. Variegated threads combined with solid colors create a gradually changing color palette in the background threads.

We all long for grace and peace, don’t we? Grace, meaning forgiveness when we mess up; and peace, meaning freedom from anxiety. Why, then, do we avoid grace, thinking we should just try harder not to mess up? And we attempt to create peace by filling our longing with things that will not satisfy.

When grace and peace from our creator have their place in our lives, we experience the sweet harmony of the soul. Satisfied, with his grace and peace wrapped around us like an exquisite shawl, we stand ready for the music of the day.

May grace and peace from our creator envelop you.

Making music,
Karen

How to Fix a Listening Problem

Karen

I maneuver this tiny band loom shuttle entirely with my left hand. Winding the shuttle properly is essential. If the thread is not wound tightly, loops of thread start slipping off the ends of the shuttle, which messes up everything. Good listening is like a well-wound shuttle, and is essential for the health of any relationship. Even when we want to listen better, it’s easy to fall into bad habits.

Glimakra Band Loom with hand-carved shuttle
Three sizes of linen thread are combined to weave a simple band on the band loom. Shuttle, hand-carved by my husband, is modeled after an old Swedish band loom shuttle.

Mrs. Isenhower, your son does not have a hearing problem, the audiologist informed me. Apparently, what he has is a listening problem. Ha ha! That seems funny now, years later. When it comes to listening, though, eight-year-old boys aren’t the only ones with a problem. My own viewpoint often stands in the way of hearing another. And in defense mode, I miss what another person says entirely.

If I listen with a humble heart, I am more interested in what you have to say than I am in my own opinions. Humility prepares the heart before a conversation, like carefully preparing that shuttle for the band loom, and smooths the way to truly hear.

May you hear something new as you practice listening today.

Learning to listen,
Karen

More than Meets the Eye

Karen

We are surrounded with ordinary things. If we focus entirely on the ordinary we can miss the extraordinary that’s right in front of us. Something amazing happens and we don’t even notice. I’m not just talking about everyday miracles — a baby takes his first breath, a rosebud opens, a butterfly escapes from its chrysalis. I’m talking about the hidden things that are only seen with a special lens.

handwoven band
Woven on a two-treadle band loom, this cotton/linen band will be used as trim, straps, and handles.
(Click to enlarge)

Anyone might appreciate a woven band like this, but a handweaver will see things about this woven piece that wouldn’t occur to the casual observer. It makes sense that a weaver would see threads and cloth with a different lens than someone without weaving experience. What kind of lens do we need in order to see beyond the surface of ordinary events in our lives?

Faith is the lens of spiritual eyes, and by wearing this lens we are able see the amazing things God is doing around us — things unnoticed by the naked eye. There will always be the everyday miracles that we don’t want to miss, but I want to be one of the few who see the back story of how the threads of life are intentionally being woven together.

May you capture the wonder of intricately woven threads in your life.

Constantly amazed,
Karen