A worker is able to use this table to learn to weave cane or cloth fibers. Weaving was an important work skill taught at the MSAB throughout its history.
This is a photograph of a table loom at MSAB. A wooden table, about 3 feet high, is in the center of the picture. The wood is dark brown, a bit rough, and aged. The table is about 2 feet long, 3 feet high and 3 feet wide. Wooden spindles, each about 1 inch in length and half an inch in diameter, protrude from the table. The spindles are arranged in a rectangle, with 15 spindles along the width of the table and 10 along the narrow side. Soft, yet thick yarn is wrapped around the spindles, connecting spindles that are adjacent to each other vertically and horizontally. This yarn forms a densely layered grid, about half an inch deep. A small tool, about the size of a pencil, lays on the grid of yarn.
Two nicely dressed people, a man and a women site across from each other at opposite work benches. A large machine with a loom sits in front of them. White, soft yarn is being spun throughout the machine. The workers appear to be weaving. This may be how they spin their baskets, or rugs. A sign with bold letters hangs above them inn the picture, it reads “School for the Blind Faribault Minn.” The background as you leave the center of the picture is a cluttered mess of various weavings and objects. The room is as much a storage room as it is a workshop.
