Post-apocalyptic Weaving
Album

Aizpute locals - including SERDE - donated us plenty of post-apocalyptic electro-waste for experimentation. The plan was to build loom prototypes out of this treasure-waste. / CC BY Kati Hyyppä

Among the electro-trash was this cute little telephone, which had once upon a time served Ugis' family. My family also had a similar one (with a duller color) when I was a child. I thought that this poor guy deserved still another chance to lead a respectable life - as a loom. / CC BY Kati Hyyppä

When opening the telephone, it became clear that it had been the home of various insects. Some cleaning had to be done before investigating the parts in more detail. / CC BY Kati Hyyppä

The phone contained several interesting parts, such as the rotary dial and the bell. However, I wanted to make something fairly simple that would work with low voltages and use the receiver as a handle for weaving. Therefore, I used from the old electronics mainly the switch mechanism that was connected to the receiver. The plan was to use it for triggering sounds. / CC BY Kati Hyyppä

A loom has usually heddles, through which the warp yarns pass. I used a rigid heddle design, where the heddles are fixed on a single shaft. The idea is that this shaft can move up and down, so I made sliding contacts for it out of an old radio antenna. / CC BY Kati Hyyppä

The heddles in the shaft were made out of a bakelite insulation sheet found in an old Soviet cassette player. / CC BY Kati Hyyppä

Once the heddles were in place, I made a quick test set-up to see that the height and distances would work for weaving. The idea of a rigid heddle loom is that the shaft is either lifted or lowered in order to move the warp yarns up or down. / CC BY Kati Hyyppä

The shaft received little feet, so that it would press the old receiver switch when weaving. / CC BY Kati Hyyppä

Here the feet are touching the receiver switch. The idea was to produce sounds when the shaft is in the 'down' position. / CC BY Kati Hyyppä

When weaving progresses, one needs to be able to wind the warp yarn. Vintage rotary knobs, which probably used to be for controlling volume, were ideal for a winding mechanism. / CC BY Kati Hyyppä

The winding mechanism needed a ratchet in order to prevent the warp getting loose. The small plastic parts that move as the receiver is lifted were repurposed for the ratchet mechanism. / CC BY Kati Hyyppä

Here's the finished, adjustable mechanism for winding the warp. Similar mechanism was used in both the front and back of the loom. / CC BY Kati Hyyppä

Since the idea was to produce sounds when lifting the shaft up and down with the receiver, sound-producing electronics were needed. For this purpose I eventually just bought a musical 'Happy Time' baby toy from the local supermarket. Despite playing around quite a while with the buttons, it never became clear to me if they had a specific logic, or if they played different sounds 'randomly'. For the purposes of the loom the unexpected behaviour was not a disadvantage, but rather amusing. / CC BY Kati Hyyppä

The toy was stripped down to its bare essentials: sound circuit, speaker and the battery holder. / CC BY Kati Hyyppä

Some rewiring was made to connect the sound circuit to the phone receiver. This included also some set-backs as one speaker died in the process and had to be replaced with a new one. / CC BY Kati Hyyppä

The new sound circuit was seamlessly integrated to the old circuit board of the phone by removing some components and connections and using the remaining holes. While two of the toy's buttons were connected to the shaft-switches ('up' and 'down' position), the ones that changed the mode (play either tones or melodies) were placed on the circuit board and decorated with keys harvested from a cheap calculator found in the bottom of one the electro-trash plastic bags. / CC BY Kati Hyyppä

The front and back of the loom needed still some styling, so I cut out few 'panels' from an old cassette player. / CC BY Kati Hyyppä

The front panel got its final touch when the last button of the musical toy was mounted there. / CC BY Kati Hyyppä

One more switch was needed for the 'up' position of the shaft. For that purpose I needed some metal parts, which I took from the old coil of the telephone. / CC BY Kati Hyyppä

Here the two sides of the 'up' switch are being built. / CC BY Kati Hyyppä

And here is the finished switch. A metal-covered block is attached to the shaft. As the shaft is lifted up, the block connects two smaller metal pieces on the top part of the loom, triggering a sound. / CC BY Kati Hyyppä

The battery holder and power switch were placed on the back of the loom. / CC BY Kati Hyyppä

Finished loom ready to weave. / CC BY Kati Hyyppä

In a post-apocalyptic spirit I used trash as weaving material, such as these colorful 'smart snacks' bags that were left over from the tinkering evenings. / CC BY Kati Hyyppä

We also had plenty of transparent plastic bags used for buying vegetables and fruit. They were also repurposed and cut into thin slices for weaving. / CC BY Kati Hyyppä

First post-apocalyptic weaving product. / CC BY Kati Hyyppä

The finished carpet, which could fit a doll house. / CC BY Kati Hyyppä

Local weaving master Laima testing the loom at SERDE's Open Studio event. / CC BY Kati Hyyppä

Here is the final Happy Time loom still in a close-up. / CC BY Kati Hyyppä

And here are both of our looms together: the tiny telephone loom made by me and the bigger Apocaloom made by Emma. / CC BY Kati Hyyppä