Bringing Light

 

Yesterday I got the next warp beamed and began threading.

It was a grey day overall so supplemental light was really needed (although I always use supplemental light regardless).

I've drawn a yellow highlighter line around the lamp heads.  I have two lamps at the front of the loom (the British call them anglepoint, can't remember the NA term - I just love the word 'anglepoint'!)  

There is one mounted to the table beside the loom which I use during weaving as it provides sidelight, but when I'm threading I have a second lamp that gets set up on a 'pole' to my other side and each one shines over my shoulder with the light directed *into* the heddles.  You can clearly see in the photo how much light is in the heddle eye area making threading so much easier for me.

There is a third lamp at the back of the loom.  This lamp illuminates the back shafts because there are 16 of them and on a dark day it can get a little dim back there.  Plus it also lights up the taped sections (or the lease sticks if I'm working from a warp wound on my warping board, which I do from time to time.)

When choosing lighting in the studio, think about what it is you need to see and ensure it is *those* places that get the supplemental light.

One of the benefits of using this type of lamp is that I can move them as I proceed with threading and keep the spotlight on the area that I am working at.

The older I get, the more important it is that I have good light on my task.

The 'baby' cataract in my left eye is getting worse, so being able to see becomes more important while I wait to hear if the eye doctor decides it needs surgery.  My next check up is July, so I need to pay attention to things like my vision and how best to cope with vision that becomes 'old', just like the rest of my body.  Because she may decide that July is still 'too soon' for the surgery.  

One of the benefits to the anglepoint lamps is that they come with clamps that allow the lever part to rotate, the elbow bends as well as the base and the lamp head itself can be adjusted, so it is easy to get the light to where I need it.

I don't mount lamps to the loom - which is a hold over from weaving on the AVL.  I wove at such speed on the AVL that the lamps I mounted to the loom would vibrate and break very quickly.  So now nothing gets mounted to the loom, even though the Megado vibrates much less (because I have to weave more slowly on it as well as being engineered differently).  But using these lamps in this way works well for me, so as 'they' say these days, this is me doing me.