Weaving demo in Nanjing, China

Brocade loom, originally uploaded by ambrosianbeads.

I was fortunate enough to see some interesting demonstrations on my trip. At the Confucious Temple marketplace in Nanjing, we went into the museum of historical crafts where we discovered a fully operational silk brocade loom being manned by two weavers. The number of spools the weaver was keeping track of was mind-boggling. She had an assistant sitting up in the "rafters" of the loom, counting out some threads for either the warp or heddles, not sure quite what they were.
See all the loom photos