Finlander Barn Loom

This.

This is what happens when you have two well-intentioned friends, who are sure to enable your addictions!

They see something on Facebook Marketplace that they know you will want. Day after day, they send you little posts or reminders to go get it.

 Go get it now! 

Go and check this out! 

Don't let this one pass you by! 

It's only 80 miles away.

My best friends Rosie and Linda, who live in Missouri and Tennessee, respectively, didn't want me to miss out on the deal. It was too far for them to go themselves. But they knew that I SHOULD have this loom.

This beautiful antique barn loom was being offered by a small historical museum in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.  As I understand it, they were condensing their historical society displays from 3 buildings down to 2 buildings. This barn loom was located in the lower level, actually the basement, of one of their buildings. They didn't have any room to display this large item in their other buildings. Their volunteer staff didn't have the ability or knowhow to tear it apart, transport it fully warped, and reassemble it in another location.  The decision was made to sell the loom, for a donation fee to the museum.

So, finally after weeks of watching it on Facebook Marketplace, Steve suggested that we should go up and get it. 

For a donation to the museum of $100, we agreed to fully take it apart and remove it, haul it up the stairs and out onto our trailer in front of the museum.

Steve and I both have experience in doing this. We have moved many looms in the past, including one other barn loom.

A long time ago, I had bought a barn loom from an old farm, also up in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I wove on it for a couple years in my studio, and I loved it. But it was BIG! Then I had a chance to buy 2 other looms that would take up the same footprint space as the one barn loom. So stupidly, I sold it! It went to a woman in Texas whose truck-driving nephew was going to transport it to her. I don't know if she ever got it set up. I've always regretted selling that barn loom.

Now I had a chance to get one again! Keep in mind, I already have 2 large rug looms and 2 smaller table looms for weaving. I really don't NEED another loom. But this one was calling out to me.  And my friends both made sure I heard it, loud and clear.

Here is the museum's website. You can go in here and walk around virtually. First click down on to level 1. By working your way through the rooms it's in the basement room, 2nd room on the right, and you can see the loom where it was on display.

Menominee Range historical museum virtual tour

Many items came with the loom, including the big warping reel, a pile of the shuttles, a jig for tying new heddles, and multiple warping and lease sticks. There was a tin can full of small assorted tools. Even this beautiful little sley hook. Everything was labeled with the museum's intake number.

The helpful gentleman assisting us promised to have the director of the museum look up the number.  He said she could try to locate any provenance for me on the loom as to who donated it and when. I looked forward to getting any information. Boy oh boy, I sure did! But I will save that for another blog post later. 

Now back to the loom disassembly:

We set to work taking the loom apart carefully, with plenty of photographs on each individual wedge and mortis and tennon joint. These barn looms were made to come apart fully warped and be moved from farm to farm. Multiple families would share a loom and each family would get it for a couple months at a time. They were made to be transported. But they were awfully large,  heavy and bulky;  usually hauled on big farm trucks or hay wagons, from place to place. 

Well, we didn't have a hay wagon but we had our cute little trailer behind our Saturn. Most of the delicate things were put inside for protection from the wind as we drove back the 80 miles down the highway to home. 

We made a small detour to Dobber's Pasty Shop for lunch, and a bag of a dozen frozen ones to take home.  

When we got home, I needed to figure out and re-arrange my she shed to see how I was going to get this to fit. I was working with graph paper and cut outs of various items in the she shed.  Arranging and re-arranging them on the paper grid.  

Steve said heck with that, let's just get it unloaded and hauled in and put it together, right in the middle of the she shed! So we did...

In no time at all we had it fully erected and put together. Each piece was perfectly back into place where it belonged. Each little wedge was the exact same one that had been in that joint for over a 100 years.  Right in the middle of the she shed.

Along with the loom came an old rug that was tagged as having been woven on that particular loom. It had been donated with the loom. I set the rug on the bench seat. It made me smile.

There was also a partially woven rug on the loom itself, still threaded up through the heddles and reed, and wound onto the front beam.  It was started long ago, by whomever had the loom?  It was begging to be "finished up", I am sure.  

Wonderfully enough, a big ball of matching coordinated rags was also included with the loom. So of course, I wound up those rags onto a stick shuttle and went right to work. Weave weave weave and sure enough I finished up that beautiful rug!

 I tied the knots the old fashioned way

Tah Dah!  

A perfect Finlander Rug.

What I did with this rug will be in the next blog post... stay tuned! 

There was just something so wonderful about this loom.   Just being able to sit on the bench, grabbing that sturdy overslung beater, and packing those rags firmly into place.

An overslung beater works so much better than the under slung beaters of my other floor rug looms. This was extremely joyful and marvelous to weave at such a big monster.

I wondered about who owned it before?

I wondered how it came to be into the museum?

I wondered how many people grabbed that beater and slung it back-and-forth? 

I wondered how many rugs were woven on this big beautiful loom?

I could tell it been built with care and craftsmanship. The corner bracket braces, as well as the beautifully cut finial shapes on top of the pulleys, the decorative charming points on the top of the beater swords, and the side brackets to hold up the front beam. They all showed signs of woodworking craftsmanship. 

This was not some loom just tossed together by a farmer from long ago remembered instructions. Or images tucked away in their mind from a loom in the Old Country. No, this was a loom that was created with some craftsmanship and woodworking skills. Of course, it was homemade. But it was made with thought and a little bit of style.

The weavers on my barn loom restoration group confirmed that it was a Finlander Barn Loom. It was built in the "root" style of construction with the large arms overhanging the top of the loom. Many of these style looms were made out of a curved tree that was carefully cut in half to create the loom. This one was cut timbers in the same design. 

The Finlanders were a prominent nationality among the early settlers in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Many were iron ore miners, and some were lumbering men. They were hearty folk, used to the deep snowy winters, and determined to carve out a life in the new world of the rugged Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

There was just enough warp left on the loom to weave one more rug. I just happened to have an order from a customer that she wanted a rug of about that same length. She wanted it for her "camp" (also known as a cabin in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan). She was a co-worker of my daughter, and had heard about my rug weaving abilities through my daughter. 

She asked for a Finlander style rug with hit and miss design. She wanted me to work in some burnt orange and some reds, along with mostly blues and blacks. Dark colors that didn't show the dirt.

I set to weaving her rug right away and it was a joy. It seemed like the inches flew by. The rug was done and I was able to cut it free and still have enough dummy warp left to tie on a new warp. Then I can pull it through the existing string heddles and reed without having to rethread everything.

I hemmed up the ends of the rug for the customer and sent it off with my daughter to bring to work the next day. The customer was not in the office that week so the rug was left on her desk at work. 

The following Monday I got an appreciative email from the customer, expressing delight and extolling the beauty of the rug that she found on her desk. It was exactly what she wanted for her Up North Camp. Her family has Finlander heritage, her father is a 100% Finn. She was delighted with knowing that this rug was woven on a museum quality loom, right from the Finlander area of the U.P.

Next, I had to figure out how to rearrange the she shed. It was time to give this barn loom a permanent home. First we had to cut off an extra foot of desk space from my sewing desk configuration. Steve brought in the circular saw while I held the shop vac to suck up any of the flying sawdust.  

This would work. I still wanted to keep the higher bar portion for my ironing area, but the extra depth of the desk could be sacrificed to get everything to fit. 

We moved things around and shifted this and shifted that.  Soon we were able to give the barn loom a prime location right in front of the windows facing to the west.  This cleared up the main area of the floor and gave us space again. 

This works out really well in this location. I can pull it away from the windows to wind warp on the back beam, and slide it back into place during the weaving process. We put felt pads on the bottom of the loom feet so it does not scratch our floors.

I think this old loom is happy.... and from what I learned last night on the phone, I know the person who donated it is happy as well. Just wait till I tell you the provenance on this loom!!!!!   

Now you have to wait until the next blog post.