The studio
Verpstė began in 1998 as one countess loom in a flat above the Vilnelė. Today it is two wooden floor looms, a warping mill and the old wheel the studio is named for — verpstė, the distaff that holds the flax while it is spun.
Everything is done in the one room: warping, threading, weaving and the finishing by hand. We weave in short standing runs and take a few commissions each season so the benches are never rushed.
Rasa warps and weaves; Mindaugas keeps the looms, mends the frames and does the finishing. On the first Saturday of the month the weave room is open — you can watch a warp go on and try the treadles yourself.
At the bench
Two four-shaft wooden floor looms, 70 and 120 cm in the reed, both well past their fiftieth year.
Wet-spun line flax from Lithuanian and Baltic mills, in natural, half-bleached and a few plant-dyed shades.
Hems rolled and stitched by hand, cloth washed and pressed in the studio before it leaves.