Raices de Sudamerica USA
Home
Services
Contact
Privacy
Terms
Services, loom floor and study rooms

Six textile heritage commissions, one working loft

The studio runs from 6983 S Running Springs Dr, West Jordan - 84084-2321, United States (US), and every service below happens inside that room. Nothing is outsourced to a distant mill. Looms are dressed here, drafts are read here, dye baths are recorded here and finished cloth leaves from the same door it entered. The six services share a floor and a calendar, which is why the same weaver can rent a bay on Monday, pull an archive draft on Wednesday and bring a commission in for a fitting on Friday.

01

Loom Rental Bays

Six dressed floor looms stand in bays rented by the day, the week or the quarter. Each bay carries a bench, a raddle tray, a lamp that does not throw shadows across the shed, and a small shelf for yarn and tools. We dress the warp to the sett agreed in the booking, so a renter arrives to a loom that is already threaded and ready for the first pick.

Rentals suit makers who cannot keep a large loom at home, students preparing a portfolio piece, and designers who need to test a structure in cloth rather than on a screen. Quarterly members may leave a warp standing between visits, which is often the only practical way to weave a long panel at a human pace. Orientation is included on the first visit and covers shed depth, beat tension and the etiquette of sharing a floor with other weavers.

Rates are quoted by the bay and the week, with a separate line for warping and for yarn we stock. We ask renters to book at least five days ahead when a warp must be prepared, and we hold a bay for thirty minutes past the agreed start time before releasing it to the waiting list.

02

Pattern Archive Runs

A pattern archive run turns one motif from the collection into a usable working document. The archive holds more than nine hundred drafted patterns on card, graph sheet and photographed cloth, and a run produces a fresh drawdown, a threading plan, a tie-up and a note on the yarn weight that will make the structure read properly.

These runs are short and specific by design. A client arrives with a photograph, a piece of old cloth or a description, and leaves with a document another weaver could pick up and rebuild the structure from. We do not reproduce a whole historical textile in one run, because a document that tries to hold everything usually fails to hold anything precisely.

Digital copies are provided as print ready pages and as a spreadsheet of thread counts. Where the original cloth is fragile, we work from photographs and measure only the drafts, keeping the textile itself in storage and out of handling.

03

Workshop Circle Desks

Workshop circles run two evenings a week with eight seats and one teacher at the heddle rack. A circle is not a lecture. Everyone in the room weaves, and the teacher moves between desks to correct a treadle order or explain why a weft is slipping. Beginners start on a table loom with a plain weave sampler and leave with a mounted sample on card.

Returning weavers work on their own projects with guidance on structure and finishing. Circles suit people who learn by doing and who want the sound of a loom in the room while they work. Materials for the first circle are included, and loom time is built into the fee so that nobody has to practise on a kitchen table.

We keep circles small because a crowded loft teaches nothing. If an evening fills, the waiting list carries forward to the next quarter and we will hold the booking for one cycle.

04

Dye Batch Reviews

A dye batch review takes a single batch of yarn through mordant, bath and rinse with a written record at every step. We compare the finished skein against the studio shade cards, note how the colour shifts as it dries, and record what will happen to it under daily light. The aim is repeatability, not surprise.

Reviews are used by commission clients who need a colour they can order twice, by conservators matching a period palette, and by students who want to understand why a bath that looked right in the pot can dry two shades paler. Natural dyes and low impact synthetic dyes are both handled, and every bath is labelled with the date, the mordant and the water source.

Clients receive the yarn, a shade card for the batch and a short written account of the process that can be filed with the object it belongs to.

05

Commission Fittings

Commission fittings cover wall panels, runner cloths, upholstery yardage, ceremonial textiles and small architectural pieces. The first conversation produces a written brief with dimensions, fibre, colour and finish, and the next produces a sample in the actual yarn. Fittings happen in the loft or on site, depending on whether the piece lives on a wall or on a floor that has to be measured twice.

Every commission leaves with a woven label carrying the studio mark, the year and a short batch number that ties the piece back to its draft and its dye record. We keep the label small because the cloth should carry the conversation, not the paperwork.

We take on a limited number of commissions each quarter so that each one receives the loom time it needs. Lead times are quoted honestly and revised in writing if a warp proves difficult or a dye batch needs a second pass.

06

Heritage Lecture Evenings

Heritage lecture evenings bring weavers, conservators, collectors and students into the loft for an hour of cloth on the table. Each evening pairs one historic piece from the archive with one new commission, so the conversation moves between what survived and what is being made now. Talks are kept short and the table stays open afterward.

The evenings are free with a reservation and are capped at the number of chairs the loft can hold. They are not sales events and no commission is pitched from the table. Visitors leave with a printed note listing the drafts discussed and the archive numbers they can ask about in a later run.

Groups from schools, museums and design studios can request a private evening, and we will build the table around the cloth they are actually studying.

How a commission moves through the loft

The process is the same whether a client books a loom bay or a full wall panel. It is slower than a retail order and considerably faster than it looks, because every decision is made once, in order, with the material in front of the person deciding.

Conversation and brief

A first meeting of about an hour sets the purpose, dimensions, fibre and budget. We write the brief down and send it back for confirmation before any yarn is ordered.

Sample and archive

Where structure matters, an archive run produces the draft. Where colour matters, a dye review produces the batch. A physical sample follows, made on the loom that will weave the final piece.

Weaving and finishing

The commission is woven in a scheduled bay with the dated draft taped to the loom. Finishing covers washing, pressing, hemming and the woven label, and each stage is photographed for the client record.

Fitting and handover

The piece is fitted in place or in the loft, adjusted if needed, and handed over with its draft, dye record and care notes. Follow up questions are welcome for as long as the cloth is in use.

Bring a project to the loom floor

Tell us what you are making and roughly when it needs to be finished. We will reply with the station that fits, the lead time we can honestly offer, and a short list of questions that will make the first conversation quicker.

Write to the studio →