The seat of this weaving bench is made with bands woven on my inkle loom. The twelve colorful bands going from right to left were tablet woven, all with nature-themed patterns. They are:

Purple/black: Starry Galaxy
Purple/red: Red flowers
Purple/red/orange/yellow: Sunset reflected on the water
Red/orange: Fire
Orange/red: Ladybugs
Orange/yellow: Sunshine
Yellow/green: Vining leaves and flowers
Green/yellow: Tamarack tree
Green/blue: Ocean waves
Blue/green: Goldfish
Blue/purple: Butterflies
Blue/purple/black: Lightning

Each band was woven at the full length of my inkle loom, which makes just over 2 yards of woven band. I also wove 9 plain black inkle bands, which I was able to piece together to make 10 cross-wise straps up the loom.

It took about two days to piece together the bands and weave them into the bench seat - a comparatively short time next to the actual band weaving process! They’re woven like a Shaker-style chair seat, and I used this tutorial (video here) for guidance. There is a 2” thick foam insert covered in black muslin between the layers of woven bands.

The bench design is inspired by the weaving benches made by Walter Turpening. My husband built the frame for my Christmas present in 2012. He used cherry wood to match my Norwood floor loom.

I love this bench! It was a long-term (9-month) project, but I knew it would be at the beginning. I learned a lot from weaving and designing the tablet-woven bands, and my skills have improved from so much practice. Plus, it’s pretty, and SO comfortable to sit at while weaving at my floor loom.

I’m happy to share any of the band drafts. The draft for the yellow/green vining leaves and flowers band is included as a separate project here.