r/weaving • u/LaBelleBetterave • Jul 25 '26
Discussion Aren’t these loom weights?
I visited an Ancient Greece themed exhibit at a museum, and these were identified as bobbins. Is this correct?
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u/amdaly10 Jul 25 '26
They are loom weights. In the art she had a bobbin (or shuttle) in her hand and there is one attached to the loom behind her.
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u/boyishly_ Jul 26 '26
Everyone’s already answered but like COME on. They literally have them on display hanging as weights. It’s ridiculous
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u/Specialist_Part_1740 Jul 31 '26
I would honestly be confused (and didn’t know much about fiber arts or just enough.. if I was looking at this and they said these were “bobbins”. You may trust the museum, after all they are a museum.. and “bobbins “ would be confusing . I see the reason for the question.
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u/72-27 Jul 25 '26
I wondered if this was a translation but the French word means spindle/bobbin according to a quick google search. It seems like this particular translation of bobbin is the one used in bobbin lace, which I can very tenuously understand (obviously these are much larger and heavier than lace bobbins, but the idea of weighing down yarn tracks). But I agree that I can’t imagine these being anything but loom weights.
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u/meowmeowbuttz Jul 25 '26
They look like loom weights to me. It may be an issue of translation from French?
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u/LaBelleBetterave Jul 25 '26
The French says “fuseaux”, which is spindles. I’m going to write to the museum.
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u/magnificentgertrude Jul 26 '26
Coincidentally, I saw this exhibit too and thought the same thing. They had some stone spindle whorls in a different case also labeled as 'bobbins.' Since the descriptions were in French and English I assumed it was just translation weirdness.
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u/WeaveLikeGreatGranny Jul 25 '26
😂😂 The accompanying picture even includes a warp weighted loom! They could have just read the Wikipedia page about them
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u/Specialist_Part_1740 Jul 31 '26
They could have .. but isn’t this what places like Reddit can be used for 😁. No sweat off anyone’s behind . 😉
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u/mckelvyar Jul 26 '26
I am a textile historian and I have seen this kind of thing countless times. Loom weights and bobbins are almost always mislabeled in some way. I have heard my peers complain about seeing this too. I think it stems from people assuming the terms are interchangeable, or they assume that loom weights work like a drop spindle or vice versa. Either way, you can definitely send them a note to say it is mislabeled, but it can take a long time for labels to get corrected, so they might already know about the issue. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
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u/LaBelleBetterave Jul 26 '26
I’ve written them already. I’ll post an update if I get one !
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u/Early-Towel-7168 Jul 28 '26
Curious to know if the Greek word distinguishes between the two terms!
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u/small_spider_liker Jul 26 '26
Also, those are stone, not clay. They certainly had the technology to make clay weights, but they’d be much prettier and more uniform if they were formed and fired clay. Stone weights are better, though, since they’re far more durable.
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u/Tigupost Jul 26 '26
What did the Greek text say? I assume it is translation issue.
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u/LaBelleBetterave Jul 26 '26
I saw no Greek text. This is in Canada.
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u/Tigupost Jul 26 '26
Oh. I looked at the image and I thought there was Greek text as well. Now looking again I realise it was reflection 😁
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u/Early-Towel-7168 Jul 28 '26
Did I miss the name of the place where the exhibit is in the OP? (BTW love your Reddit name!)
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u/Early-Towel-7168 Jul 28 '26
Thought I would provide a link to the vase in the Met that the picture was taken from. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/253348
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u/samizdat5 Jul 29 '26
There are so many of these things in archeological museums. Some women would spend almost every day of their lives using these tools. Dreary.
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u/laurasaurus5 Jul 26 '26
The warp length was tied to the weight to be let out as the weaving progressed. That's serving the purpose of a bobbin technically
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u/KnitWitch87 Jul 25 '26
Probably. They maybe never had a textile expert weigh in with an opinion before labeling parts.