Weaving Processes

Warping

Warping is the unwinding of a certain length of yarn and a number of them required to weave a given width of cloth and possibly of a certain weight. During warping, where the intended material is a strip, the threads/yarns must be arranged in a way and manner it should appear in the fabric.

Raddling
Raddling is the evenly distribution of warp yarns on the loom for proper balance using the raddle mounted on the loom. Before beaming raddling is done to ensure that the warp is distributed evenly to ensure proper spread up on the loom for balance and equal tension during weaving and it is done by tying the warp to the tension box.

Beaming

Beaming involves the wounding up of the milled warp yarns around the weavers beam mounted on the loom. During wounding, tension sticks are placed within the warp intermittently to give added tension within the mounted warp. During beaming, the warp ends are tied to the tension boxes to give tension to the warp.

Heddling

Heddling is the threading of the warp yarns through the eyes of the hearlds according to a design and it’s draft pattern. During heddling, each and every thread is made to pass through one hearld's eye

Heddling order is the way and manner the warp yarns are drawn through the healds eyes that give the fabric a peculiar characteristics.

Reeding

It is the threading of warp yarns through the dents of the reed. Reeding is done with the reed hook. The yarns are drawn through the dents according to the nature of fabric one intends to produce. Whether light or heavy. Therefore, the ends could be one, two, three or four in a single dent due to the nature of fabric or pattern one intends to produce. Reeding also accounts for the fabric size in terms of the width.

Tieing of ends to flyer rod.

After reeding, the ends are tied to the flyer rod which is connected to the cloth roller. When tieing the ends to the rod, care must be taken in order to ensure equal tension in all of the warp spread.

Tie-Up

This process involves the tying of the treadles or pedals to the lams. This is done according to the pattern to be produced since the heddling order must always correspond with the tie-up of the treadles or pedals to the lams.

Weft preparation

This is the winding of yarns packaged in form of cone and hanks onto bobbins for picking. In weft preparation, the weaver prepares the colour of yarns intended to weave a given cloth to match the warp combination.

Weaving order

Weaving is the interlacing of warp and weft yarns to form a fabric. Weaving order is the way and manner whereby a weaver depresses various pedals to give variety of pattern or effect in the fabric. Weaving order is always deduced from heddling order.

Extraordinary Suit material

Can you believe that all these suit materials was produced (hand woven) using the broadloom.

 
This broadloom was used.

Broadloom Accessories

The Raddle

The raddle is used in broadloom weaving to distribute warp ends evenly on the broadloom before beaming to ensure proper spread up of the warp ends on the broadloom to ensure balance and equal tension during weaving.

The Reed

The reed is comb-like in appearance and edged at the top and bottom with a rounded bar. Originally, reed was used for making the reed. In recent times the reed is usually made of metal or wood. The reed has teeth which are set at almost any spacing per inch that one may desire. The number of dents in one inch of a reed is referred to as counts of reed, reed size or reed density. This normally denotes the letter “S”. The more dents in one inch of a reed, the more compact or dense or heavy the fabric that can be produced. Such a reed is known as a fine reed. The spaces between the teeth of a reed are referred to as dents of reed. Before weaving takes place, the warp threads are drawn through the dents of the reed. This is known as sleying-the-reed or reeding.

To know the number of dents in the reed, the length of the reed is measured with a tape measure and the results multiplied by the number of dents in one inch of the reed.

The reed is responsible for evenly spacing of the warp yarns on the broadloom.

Tension Boxes

The tension boxes are used to give tension to the warp ends during beaming. This process involves tieing the warp ends to the tension boxes with weight placed on the boxes . In order to ensure equal tension in the warp sheet during weaving, equal force must be applied to the warp ends during  the beaming process.

Tension Sticks

Tension sticks are placed intermittently in warp ends during beaming to give added tension to the warp sheets during weaving. 

The Shuttle                          

The shuttle used on the foot power broadloom is referred to as a boat shuttle. It has two tapered ends which facilitate easy penetration of the shuttle through a partially opened shed. The center of the shuttle is hollowed to house the bobbin on a metallic rod. Beneath the shuttle are wooden rollers which makes it easier for the shuttle to travel on the race board.

On one of the side walls of the shuttle is an opening called the shuttle eye through which warp thread is threaded. The function of the shuttle eye is to distribute the weft or pick evenly during weaving.

Skein winder                

The skein winder has a star holder at the top made of wood in the form of two intersecting wooden slabs. On top of the slabs are four wooden pegs with each slab having two pegs, one at each end. The star holder is mounted on a wooden stand in such a manner that allows the star holder to rotate either clockwise or anticlockwise.

The skein winder is used to unwound weft yarns packaged in the form of hanks onto bobbins.

Warping mill/board                 

The warping mill consist of a skeleton reel which turns freely on a metal or wooden rod fitted into a socket in the base. It is made up of four upright wooden posts and two cross pieces of wood. One at the top and one at the bottom. The piece of wood at the top has three pegs namely A, B, C. It is on these three pegs that the crosses needed in weaving were created. 

On the four wooden posts consist of drilled holes which makes it possible for fixing the cross at various points to obtain the desired length of warp needed. Length of warp yarns as well as the number of that length needed to weave the fabric to specification. 

History of broadloom weaving in Ghana

According to Adomako 2013, the head of broadloom section at the Centre for National Culture Kumasi states that, Japan is the origin of broadloom weaving and was introduced in Ghana in 1971 by Mr Lionel Kow Idan once the director of the then Ghana national Culture Centre now Centre for National Culture and the founder of the Department of Integrated Rural Art and Industry, KNUST. Mr Idan who learned the skill in Japan introduced two pedals in addition to the four which was then used in Japan. It is known that, the first design produced out of the broadloom was the “Nwotoa” and diamond designs which were both found in the traditional Kente.

In 1981 his Excellency J. J Rawlings the then president of the republic of Ghana organised  national art exhibition and when he saw the act of broadloom weaving he loved it so much that it was made to be introduced in all the regions in Ghana. Mr L. K Idan who had a broad vision of introducing broadloom weaving to second cycle and tertiary institutions across the country was then achieved.

L. K Idun also invented other types of loom which two of them are the Boku and the Betty loom which were named after his children.

Since his death in 1982, his great contribution to the Art fraternity and to national development thus his legacy still leads on.

Broadloom

Broadloom is a wooden equipment/structure that uses manual effort to produce fabrics using warp and weft yarns in a traditional way. Materials that are produced on the  broadloom have wider width as compared to those produced on the traditional kente loom. On the traditional kente loom, the fabrics are produced in narrow strips of about five inches in width and later joined side-by-side to form a wider piece. Broadloom woven pieces are used for napkins, table cloth, wall hangings, suiting materials, men's cover cloth, material for "kabba" , curtains and to mention a few. 

History of broadloom weaving in Ghana.
According to Adomako 2013, the head of broadloom section at the Centre for National Culture Kumasi states that, Japan is the origin of broadloom weaving and was introduced in Ghana in 1971 by Mr Lionel Kow Idan once the director of the then Ghana national Culture Centre now Centre for National Culture and the founder of the Department of Integrated Rural Art and Industry, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana. Mr Idan who learned the skill in Japan introduced two pedals in addition to the four which was then used in Japan. It is known that, the first design produced out of the broadloom was the “Nwotoa” and diamond designs which were both found in the traditional Ghanaian Kente.

In 1981 his Excellency J. J Rawlings the then president of the republic of Ghana organised National Art Exhibition and when he saw the act of broadloom weaving he loved it so much that it was made to be introduced in all the regions in Ghana. Mr L. K Idan who had a broad vision of introducing broadloom weaving to second cycle and tertiary institutions across the country was then achieved. 

L. K Idun also invented other types of loom which two of them are the Boku and the Betty loom which were named after his children.

Since his death in 1982, his great contribution to the Art fraternity and to national development thus his legacy still leads on in Ghana.