Tool (for textiles) (Loom)

Description

This wooden disc is a handheld loom used for making Tenerife, or sol, lace. To create this type of lace, the handheld loom is “warped” with string or crochet cotton, then a design is woven back and forth between the warp using another decorative thread, such as pearl cotton. The resulting square or circular motifs can then be joined together to fashion household accessories such as tablecloths, bedspreads, or scarves. This particular hand loom was manufactured around the early 1940s by the Chicago-based company K. and K. Products. The company marketed the product as a “Polka Spider-Web” loom and sold an accompanying booklet of lace patterns one could weave with it. The loom was used by artists Gertrude Aronson and Edith Blumsack to create a large tablecloth in Winterthur’s collection: see objects 2017.0019.112.001-.004. This object is one of a large group transferred to Winterthur from the American Textile History Museum when it closed in 2017.