Weave Well
DEVELOPED FROM MY 2025 WEAVING EXPERIENCE
Designing for the bodies behind the craft.
Beautiful fabric shouldn’t cost someone their comfort.
My weaving experience at Jim Thompson revealed how little support traditional looms offer the people using them. The discomfort was temporary for me, but routine for the artisans whose livelihoods depend on the craft.
Care, built into the seat.
I designed an ergonomic loom seat with adjustable height, lumbar support, a tiltable rocking base, and pressure-sensing pads linked to a microcontroller for stretch reminders. I used anthropometric data and field observations to explore posture and reach alignment. This is a design concept, rather than a claim of a deployed product.
New tools, grounded in real people.
In a second phase, I used AI to explore adaptive forms and possibilities such as integrated lighting and workspace organization. It expanded what I could visualize, but sometimes softened the labor conditions that motivated the work.
Tools can help me imagine. Empathy keeps me honest.
I want to preserve the craft while caring for the people who sustain it. The next step would be working more closely with weavers to test comfort, refine the design, and understand what would make it accessible in their daily lives.