Bead Weaving, Products, Weaving
Should You Purchase a Bottom Spring Kit?
What’s a Bottom Spring Kit?
A Bottom Spring Kit is a kit that allows you to put a warp coil (spring) on the bottom of your Mirrix Loom, just like you have one on the top.
What does it do?
Having a spring on the bottom beam of your loom helps you to keep your warp threads organized while warping and beginning to weave.
(Image Credit: Susan Murry -left- & Jacqui Johnson -right-)
1.) You are weaving beads using the shedding device and you don’t want to deal with trying to keep those pairs of warp threads neatly divided on the bottom while putting on heddles and weaving in the first row. Can you do this without the bottom coil? Yes, you can. But especially for wider bead woven pieces using the shedding device, this handy add-on does make it easier.2.) You are weaving a wide bead piece without the shedding device. When you’re dealing with lots of warp threads very close together, having a spring to help keep them organized at the bottom of the loom can be very helpful. 3.) You are weaving a tapestry at a very fine sett. While the Bottom Spring Kit was initially developed for bead weaving, many who weave tapestry at very fine setts (18, 20, 22 dpi) like the Bottom Spring Kit to help organize their warp threads while warping. 4.) You feel more confident warping when your warp threads are well organized at both the top and bottom of the loom. A Bottom Spring Kit is great for every perfectionist! It also precludes you from having to weave in a thread at the bottom that you tie to the threaded rod to provide a stable surface to start weaving.
You will have to loosen the tension on the loom and actually remove the spring in order to do this. Once the spring is removed, you will have no problem rotating your weaving.
You can purchase a few different Bottom Spring Kit sets:
One Comment
Linda Finkelstein
Hi Elena,
Thank you for your prompt reply and links. Very helpful as I would like to “cover the waterfront” with respect to having the proper warp dent requirements for any given future project. This means that I’ll submit an order by tomorrow for my Little Sister Loom so she will have:
1) The Bottom spring Kit with: 8,12, 14, 18 coils.
2) Additional top and bottom coils in sizes: 10 and 16 (Some mention was made in a video about size 10 coil when bead weaving
size 6 beads. Is this correct?
3) top and bottom coils in sizes: 20 and 22 (Can’t recall if I had previously ordered a 20 or 22 top coil when my loom purchase was made about 20 years ago. Need to look around for them. Do your records go back that far?) Again thank you for all the info!