I thought I would post these photos which were taken when I was in Ecuador in 2007 in the hope that someone may be able to shed some light on the origin of the use of a rigid heddle in this fashion.
I was living and learning to weave with a family in coastal Ecuador. My eighty-six year old teacher, Luz, is the only one in the area who still knows how to make saddlebags from handspun cotton with warp float patterns so this is what I wanted to study and document. When the bag is off the loom, she weaves a band using the weft to sew it to the bag's edges. She has cut and fashioned her own rigid heddle which sits on the floor and which she moves from side to side to change the sheds. It is ingenious and she can weave and sew with this at a terrific rate.
I asked her where she had learned this and she said that she had seen a woman in another community using a rigid heddle this way over 40 years ago and had returned to her community and made one for herself.
In the photo, her daugther, Trinidad, is weaving and sewing.
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Has anyone seen this in use anywhere else or have any clues as to its origin?
Laverne