Summary

Boat Shuttle, hand made in the Memmingen Displaced Persons Camp in Germany, between 1945 and 1950. Used by both Anna and Anita Apinis in their weaving. Anna brought the shuttle with her when she arrived in Australia as a refugee in 1950. This shuttle is designed to hold yarns thicker than ST 961593.

Anna Apinis was born in 1913 in Latvia. She attended weaving lessons in Liepaja in Latvia from 1930 to 1933 and had a loom constructed for her with wood scavenged from bombed-out ruins, during her time in a Displaced Persons camp in Memmingen, Germany. Anna used her loom to weave ancient Latvian designs using the threads from old scraps of fabric. Anna brought her loom to Australia when she migrated in 1950, she became one of the few suppliers of fabric for Latvian national costumes in Australia in the 1950s and 1960s, and exhibited her weaving nationally, at exhibitions and Latvian cultural festivals. Anna kept her cultural traditions alive through her daughter Anita who continues to weave on Anna's loom to this day, and is involved in the Australian Latvian community.

Physical Description

Wooden shuttle used for weaving. The shuttle is smooth and has pointed ends. A metal rod passes through the wide hole in the centre of the shuttle. Another hole in the side of the shuttle permits thread to pass out of the shuttle and unravel when slid across the shed the space made between the warp threads.

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