Textile Lab...

We had no idea what to expect when we entered the Textile Lab, but we were totally blown away but what we saw. Rather than just have looms doing repetitious demonstrations for museum visitors, the Textile Lab opened in 2005 to encourage innovation by inviting designers to work on commissions financed through national arts funds. Others, including students, can pay a daily rate to use the lab to create prototypes or finished products.

This automated loom used plastic patterns to make tablecloths sold in the museum store.

On the right side, was a fully computerized loom making fancier tablecloths.

This particular loom was set up to have visitors cycle to power it.

This machine could make two crocheted scarves at once...

...and this one made tapestries.

We enjoyed talking to the designer who was using this fancy contraption to knit sophisticated scarves, also sold in the museum store.