Issue #63 - January 2009

As we begin our sixteenth year, we travel all over the world. Our contributors have found many variations on spindle wheels. One contributor found spindle wheels in Thailand, which was to be expected. Two other contributors found them in Malta and Argentina, which was not. We learn about the inventive New Zealanders who constructed spinning wheels from locally available materials.

Spinning Wheels From Thailand

Harriet Boon had the opportunity to meet spinners and weavers in Thailand. She describes the spindle wheels and other equipment that she saw in different villages.

From top, wheel A from Karen village; wheels B and C from Surin region

Wheel A detail: cho fa–style maiden

Wheels B and C detail: chedi–style maidens

The Maltese Wheel

While Jim Packham was traveling in Malta, he found an unusual spindle wheel in a private museum. He discusses some of Malta’s history in an effort to understand the wheel’s strange structure.

The Maltese wheel is in the foreground.

An Argentinean Spinning Wheel

Although he was on vacation in a remote region of Argentina, Michael Taylor still found a spinning wheel. Its structure is quite different from anything else he has seen.

Spinning wheel seen in Argentina

Metal Spinning Wheels

As an island nation, the people of New Zealand have had to be inventive of necessity. Lyndsay Fenwick recounts how several makers used a variety of metal wheels from other tools and machines to build spinning wheels. [To learn more about spinning wheels built in New Zealand, visit Mary Knox’s Web site: www.nzspinningwheels.info ]

Spinning wheel built by Harold Martin

Spinning wheel built by Patrick Jennings

Spinning wheel built by Harold Smithies