Laura Arena

My first experience with weaving was when I was 5 yrs old and in a Catholic grade school. Back in the 50's everyone had large families so the kindergarten classes had at least 50 to 60 students per class. We had story time and each group had to weave a mat to sit on out of layers of newspapers. I had so much fun weaving my mat that I knew I was hooked on weaving  and decided to find a book that would show me more about this wonderful new craft I had just learned. At our local library I found a very simple book that showed you how to make a loom using a picture frame. You needed to pound nails across the top and bottom of a picture frame to make your loom. My dad had a wonderful woodworking shop that I had played around in since I could walk. I found an old frame and preceded to pound my nails in the top and bottom of it. My first piece I wove was a landscape with a waterfall. It was more of a tapestry piece. I was so proud of the piece so I gave it to my mum. She was so excited and asked me how I did it. I showed her the old frame I had found in the basement. The look on her face was something I would never forget. She was horrified. The frame I had used was an old frame that she brought with her from Sicily, where she was born.

To this day  I am still weaving and my husband and I built my first loom in the 70’s. I did a lot of rugs back then , The yarn was more like rope so if you made a garment it weight almost as much as you did. LOL.

I  now love doing more of a tapestry style weaving so I  guess I did a full circle. I enjoy weaving and will continue to do it as long as I can. I also have started weaving SAORI. This type of weaving is such a wonderful experience that everyone needs to try it out sometime.

More On Saori Weaving

SAORI weaving is getting bigger in the US started in Japan by Misao Jo, who passed away in 2018 at the age of 105. SAORI is a free style hand weaving with no rules or restrictions. “We do not weave cloth, we weave our true self”. 

SAORI style weaving can be done on a Mirrix loom also. 

The SAORI loom is very user friendly and any one can weave on it even weavers with different needs. It is a quite loom and very pleasant to use. I enjoy weaving on it.