I've read some comments here and there (a few in old posts here) about color coding the heddles (esp. Texsolv ones) to make it easier to keep track of them when threading.  I mentioned this to a loom shop owner and she said it was a bad idea because sometimes you have to "borrow" heddles from one shaft to put them on another, and if they are color coded this gets confusing.  I can see her point, but I wonder how often you need to move heddles from one shaft to another (I don't have a multi-harness loom yet, just planning for the future).  It seems to me it would be worth it to color code them and if you need to move them around, just deal with mixed up colors when that happens.  Any thoughts on this?  Has anyone tried color coding the heddles and then regretted it?

Comments

Fri, 03/07/2014 - 23:24

tien (not verified)

If you have a multi-shaft loom, you can switch heddles from shafts of the same color to each other without getting confused. For example, I had a 24-shaft loom, with heddles colored in groups of four shafts: red, yellow, blue, green. So shafts 1,5,9,13,17,21 all had red heddles, and I could swap heddles between them without getting confused.

This worked well for everything except the time I did a full-width-of-the-loom tied weave at 72 epi. Then I ran out of red (shaft 1) heddles and yellow (shaft 2) heddles, so I wound up using some blue and some green on shafts 1 and 2. I still didn't get confused, because I knew that shaft 1 had red and blue and shaft 2 had yellow and green. But that is the only time I have ever had to do that.

I could see where, if every shaft's heddles were a different color, you'd have problems. But groups of four are enough to keep you from mixing up adjacent shafts, while still giving you flexibility in rearranging heddles between shafts.

Fri, 03/07/2014 - 23:36

laurafry

Rather than colour code my heddles, I wrote the number of the shaft on the shaft.  With the AVL this is possible, although not all looms are 'equal'.  :)  I routinely shift heddles from shaft to shaft, depending on weave structure and epi.  But each person/loom is different.

cheers,

Laura

Sat, 03/08/2014 - 20:26

danteen (not verified)

I have my texsolve heddles on 16-shaft and 24-shaft looms color-coded in groups of 4 as Tien said.   In my case, blue, red, yellow and white.   I move heddles all the time.   Have extras in each color that I can use, or as Tien said, just move from an appropriate other shaft.

Also, have a small WDL that I have numbered ( as Laura mentioned) and colored the bottom heddle bars because I haven't bothered to dye the heddles yet.   This works as well for finding your place easily in the "forest" of heddles on multishaft looms.  That and very good light.

I dyed the polyester heddles with disperse dyes, by the way.

Or I have spray painted metal heddles.  Took the shaft frames out of the loom, kept the heddles on the shafts and masked the frame parts with cardboard, sprayed lightly on the spread out heddles and shook them as they dried.   No problems.

As you might be able to surmise, I'm a fan of coded heddles.  Did it for 4 looms so far.

Teena Tuenge

Sun, 03/09/2014 - 19:17

cottageweaver (not verified)

None of my Texsolv heddles are color coded because I move them around so often, from shaft to shaft and from loom to loom.  I have thousands of heddles for two Glimakra looms, and use the figure-eight tying method recommended by Becky Ashenden and Joanne Hall. This  method keeps the loops neat, but also keeps both top and bottom loops facing the same way so they are very easy to remove and replace. I store the bundles in a plastic bin.  There's a quicktime movie here: http://www.vavstuga.com/minimovies/movies/removehedd.mov. 

Sun, 03/09/2014 - 22:31

sequel (not verified)

You can color code the shafts by putting colored tape (or paint if you dare) across the top of the inside edge of the lower heddle frames.  Then the heddles can all be white or whatever color they were born with.

I'm thinking about wooden or metal frames hold the actual heddle bars.