Looking back at 2025…

For Digital Weaving Norway, 2025 has been a year filled with adventures. We started the year by deciding to celebrate 30 years since the launch of the loom. We considered possible formats: a conference, an exhibition of works woven on the loom, or a commemorative book. Unable to settle on just one, we decided – why not go for all three?

Announcing the event in February and expecting everything to come together by August was naïve, brave, and ambitious. Yet, as the months unfolded, ideas took shape, plans solidified, and somehow, we pulled it all off! More on that as we move through the year chronologically.

In February, we hosted the second TC2 Trainers’ Week in Norway. Four highly skilled TC2 trainers from around the world joined us for an intensive, week-long workshop. Beyond being a technical bootcamp, it was an opportunity to connect, exchange knowledge, and dive deep into all things TC2.

The participants – Cathryn Amidei (USA), Dakota Burpee (Canada), Francesca Piñol (Spain), and Irena Andrejeva (Latvia) – were guided throughout the week by Digital Weaving Norway’s Vibeke Vestby at our headquarters in Moss in Norway.

March and April were spent in fine-tuning the Conference program and working on the Anniversary Book. We brought together nearly 30 speakers from 20 countries across three continents, representing the cutting edge of digital weaving, design, research, and innovation. Topics spanned art and design, cultural heritage, smart textiles, weaving animation, augmented weaving, multimorphic textile forms, sustainability, and the intersection of craft and computation.

The Anniversary Book was conceived as a showcase of woven works by 50 artists and designers, all created on TC looms. In addition, it features contributions from Professor Sarah Mills (San José State University, CA), Norwegian writer and historian Jan Helge Østlund, and Denmark-based textile artists Lise Frølund and Grethe Sørensen. Together, these texts trace the loom’s development, the people behind it, its story, and its place within a broader historical, artistic, and technological context. It also features a growing number of makers spaces around the world.

June was particularly busy as woven works by 50 artists and designers from around the world began arriving. These pieces would be showcased in the Conference exhibition and also featured in the commemorative Anniversary Book, which was launched during the Conference.

Around the same time, Vibeke traveled to the University of Colorado Boulder, where she met with researchers and academics to evaluate AdaCAD, the research project of Laura Devendorf and her team – an experimental workspace applying parametric design to weave drafting. AdaCAD supports algorithmic and playful approaches to developing woven structures for both shaft and jacquard looms.

Also in June, we made a quick trip to 3 Days of Design in Copenhagen – our first time attending. It was exciting to see works woven on the TC2 loom on display. Students from Designskolen Kolding, the University of Borås (Sweden), and Statens Værksteder for Kunst og Håndverk exhibited their TC2-woven pieces.

In August, the Conference finally took place from the 12th to the 15th. The event began with the opening of the exhibtion on the 12th, two packed days of the Conference (13-14th) and then excursions to textile-related venues on the 15th. Read all about it in this article: Link

At our Conference, we launched the Warping Box, which created a lot of interest! The prototype was presented to us a little more than a year ago by our friends in Bontebok (#in.residence.bontebok), Netherlands, Renske Roorda and Reinier Sotthewes!  We agreed on developing the box into a market ready product together: Progress has been slow due to many other distractions, but we strongly believe that we will the warping boxes ready by late winter/early spring.

The Warping box is based on having each individual warp thread on a separate bobbin. This has been done for centuries, for example in figured velvet weaving. But the new dimension is that the box is compact, and offers individual tension control of each warp thread without weights.  Such boxes can actually be used for any loom, not only the TC2! Potentially it can make traditional warping (sectional or on a warping mill/frame) more of a personal choice than a deed of necessity.

Following the Conference, a few of our customers stayed on to weave at Vibeke’s workshop, including Sarah Rosalena, Monique van Nieuwland and Agnes Hauptli.

October took us to Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven, where we reconnected with many existing customers, including Lottozero and met many other inspring exhibitors!

At the end of November, TC2 customer and Norway-based designer Kristine Five Melvær received two prestigious honors at the BoBedre Awards, winning both Best Object (Textile Vessels) and Best Product.

 

In November, we installed two looms at Tekstilcenter Højer, Denmark. The centre will be open for residencies from January 2026 onward. More information is available here.

In early December, we did our first trip to Munich to check out ISPO:  Sportswear has a very interesting potential for the TC2. The next edition is in Amsterdam, and we’re already excited to be there.

In December, we also installed a loom at a factory/ studio named Recouture, founded by the Norwegian designer Hilde Hoff Nordskar. Her business idea is to embed traditional coverlets with sportswear for outdoor use. She appeared in a recently published booked called Åkle. You can find her on page 271 under the heading – Innovation and Future.

Internally, we continuously create new videos and animations on support, service, troubleshooting and Photoshop designing, in order to help our customers help themselves! We have also been working towards strenthening our in-house Support team. And our UK representative Ayse Simsek is in the process of preparing tutorials for them. This will then be converted into an AI-based support application for the TC2 loom: Our ambition is to simplify the job for our technical team around the world.

Meanwhile, our customers continue to weave wonders on their TC2s! We share the article published in W Magazine, featuring prominent US-based fiber artists (and TC2 customers). LINK

As we close the chapter on an inspiring year, we’re incredibly proud of the TC2 community and everything we’ve built together. Your curiosity, creativity, and craftsmanship continue to inspire us! We can’t wait to keep growing and evolving alongside you in 2026. From all of us at Digital Weaving Norway, thank you for being part of the journey – and we wish you a Merry Christmas and a truly well-woven 2026.