Loom Fabrication¶
As part of my Final Project, I enlisted the help of my community to help me braid. In-order to do so, i created 2 types of looms, inspired by my learnings during the Open Source Hardware Week.
Community Loom¶
The first loom i created was to help enlist the help of my students at college, for which is setup a Community Loom. The idea was to set this up at work, so that students could braid together whenever they got a chance, or took a break or after class. After discussing with them and understanding their requirements and social setting locations, I designed the loom to exactly fit on the studio desks in our classrooms. This meant the students could comfortably sit on their work chairs and braid away!
I sketched out a draft of what i wanted the loom to be, which ws something that could easily slip onto the table and use the strenght of our table to esnure the force of pull during braiding wouldnot break it. I then immediately jumped on to make the lasercut drawing for the pieces. The loom was made using readily available MDF, glue and S hook screws. So it was very light and sturdy, and could easily be relocated, if need be.
In retrospect, if i were to re-do the loom, i would make in in acryllic. It is way more easier to cut on our laser cutter, and gives a beautiful finish and also doesn't need a lot of finishing to remove soot after being cut. I had chosen MDF assuming it would be stronger than acryllic, but after seeing the design work, i feel that in my design acryllic had more solid screw connections and would have a lot more quicker buildability.
These are the lasercut drawings for my loom.
Personal Loom¶
While i took the help of my students at college, i also needed a loom to braid the remaining pieces of hair myself at home. And after hearing that the srudents were enjoying working on the hair pieces and wanted to braid some at home as well, i decided to make more portable Personal looms that were easy for them to carry home and portable to use in average Mumbai homes.
Having the success of the Community loom, i took inspiration from my design and simplified the design to its essence. I came up with a simple strip of acryllic with tiny holes to insert the S hooks, the strip being small enough in length that it could be clamped easily to any horizontal or vertical surface with thick binder clips. ANd voila, the design was sorted!
For this iteration i used Transparent 5mm acryllic and S hooks. I created a small and long version of the Personal Loom, with the small version being able to hold 3 braids simultaneously and the long version being able to hold 7 braids simultaneously.
This has been my most favourite quick thinging design because it works perfectly, is super aesthetic and everyone loved using it. Over the course of me and everyone who helped braid the hair have shared soo many ways in which they have clamped the loom and used it, hasa brought me a lot of joy and satisfaction, knowing that design solutions can also be simple to work at peak functionality.
This the lasercut drawing for the Small Personal Loom and here is the lasercut drawing for the Longer Personal Loom.
