Guest Book Loom

We’re excited to announce our upcoming interactive display for The Spark: our Guestbook Loom! Find it in the Willis Spark area this February.

Now, what is a Guestbook loom?

To answer the first question, the Guestbook Loom is exactly what it sounds like: a guestbook, but in the form of a loom. The typical guestbook experience involves signing your name on the page, perhaps with a message or drawing alongside it or the date of the visit. Each entry is always something a little different from the last; something unique to each guest who signs it and thus, the guestbook becomes a record of those who have visited a particular place or event – a visual representation of history. The guestbook loom just takes this a step further: abstracting each signature into a row of colored yarn and beads – each one telling a unique story about who has visited us.

So, how do we get from signature to story with just yarn and beads? And where did this idea come from?

This is where the clever work of Quinn Dombrowski of Standford Library comes in. Dombrowski is an Academic Technology Specialist at the Division of Literatures, Cultures, and Languages, and in the library, at Stanford University. In October 2024, Dombrowski set up the first guestbook loom at their university’s Textile Makerspace and made a post online where they displayed their work. In their design, each yarn color corresponds to a unique reason for visiting the space, and each bead represents how the visitor feels in that moment. This combination creates each unique “signature” ultimately adding up to a visual representation of how our space is used and experienced.

Seeing as we had a few looms that could use some love, this project seemed like the perfect way to show off the textile tools we have available for students here at UNT! We purchased a beautiful variation of rainbow yarn for our warp and a variety pack of colored yarns and beads. Each color has been assigned a meaning – check out our handy chart here:

So how does one “sign” the guestbook?

It’s simple! All you need is to select your yarn color and cut a piece of it that’s long enough to travel from one side of the loom to the other, and then back! An easy way to measure this is to take your yarn and double it back on itself and use scissors to cut yourself a little extra room on the loose end.

Then you’ll tie one end to the first string of warp and use the provided yarn needle to begin weaving the loose end through the warp. Use the previous row as a guide: when the previous row goes under the warp, you go over on the current row. See the diagram below for an illustration of this:

Throughout this process, you can string on beads of your choice. The most effective way to ensure that they stay in place is to thread the bead onto the yarn, wrap the yarn around, and then thread it through again, so that the bead is sitting in a loop, as pictured below:

When you reach the end of your row, you have two choices: turn your yarn around and return to where you began or, tie off the end of the row with the loose end of the yarn.

Whenever you are done with your row, you can always tie it off on the last vertical strand on the end and cut away the excess or leave some to make a fringe!

So, what then?

At the end of the semester, we will remove the finished weaving from the loom and display it in the Spark to commemorate Spring 2025! We hope to see you leave your mark at The Spark!