Due to the pandemic, the Forum 2021 took place August 9-15 in Belgium, Tilff-Méry. Focus topic was "Sticks and Stones May Make a Loom". "Primitive" looms and weaving techniques in Europe and Egypt.
While we do have textile finds from both Europe and Egypt, evidence for looms is much more rare. In the case of Egypt, only some stylized depictions exist. For Europe, mainly loom weights have been found, but these can also be used in a variety of different ways. Contemporary ethnic weaving techniques can help us to find out about the many ways to build and use functional weaving tools from simple materials.
The 2021 European Textile Forum aimed to explore ways of weaving with "primitive" looms: weaving tools that are made from (mostly) organic materials, and that have little or no parts that would be easily recognisable as a specific loom part. These include warp-weighted looms, horizontal ground looms, vertical roller-beam looms and backstrap or other weaver-tensioned looms. The study of contemporary ethnic weaving can help us to experiment with the different ways of setting up and preparing the looms and of weaving that are possible on the different looms.