Woolhouse Looms Story

Woolhouse Tools began in 1977 founded by John & Teruko Low. From 1977 until the new millennium, John and company built a loom line with a glowing  reputation. Woolhouse Tools looms are known for their weaver-focused design and quality materials. Together, these traits make weaving on a  Woolhouse Tools loom an absolute pleasure.

In 2011, Tim Hale, the founder of Fiber Artist Supply Company, was building weaving supplies in Utah. At a Mary Atwater Weaver's Guild meeting a weaver approached Tim to ask him to look at her loom. What proceeded was a sales pitch for her 16-shaft Woolhouse Tools Julie loom. Tim recalls few elements of the loom but vividly recalled the weaver's enthusiasm. She ended by telling Tim that John was retiring and selling his business.

After an initial introduction, followed by several years of checking in, John provided Tim with a very complete list of what was available in his table loom line. Carolyn was John's first loom in 1977. Mimi came next followed by Julie, Margaret & Airloom. Tim asked John if he knew of anyone that regularly taught on his looms and he provided Natalie Boyette's name. Natalie Boyette, of the Chicago Weaving School became an invaluable part of this story because she replied to Tim's inquiry by telling him that the Carolyn is the best table loom and sent along a purchase order for 5 looms with 8-shafts. She'd been teaching on her 6 Carolyns for about 15 years.

John's list included info about how he acquired materials and his processes. Learning how John built these looms was essential to understanding John's design sense. John's parcels containing tooling, jigs and fixtures arrived in March 2021, and we spent the spring/summer outfitting our shop to build looms. By late summer 2021 we delivered Natalie her looms. We built Carolyns and Mimis first and had planned by winter 2021 to build Airloom.

In the process of building looms, Tim saw an opportunity to change some of the designs and materials to make the looms more user friendly without sacrificing the traits that make them great. The result of these changes gave birth to new designs and new loom names. We now make an Alice, Norah, and modernized Carolyn with the style and dimensions of John's original Woolhouse Tools table looms. 

The Margaret 16 & 24 shaft loom and the Julie loom are on our to-do list, but we are not planning for that production at this time.

I'd like to build upon this story as time passes. Feel free to contact us at customercare.fiberartistsupply@gmail.com if you feel anything here is missing or misrepresented. 

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