Williamstown’s Loom Room has been renamed in honour of Altona mother-of-six Herta Schornikow, who bequeathed her four-shaft floor loom to the community.
Ms Schornikow, who died in 2004, was born in Austria in 1922 and came to Australia in 1949. She became interested in weaving in the 1970s and bought her own loom in the late 1990s.
Her family said weaving was a relaxing and productive pursuit, one she loved to share with others.
Herta Schornikow Loom Room co-ordinator Jenni Mitchell (pictured, left, with Wendy Barrie) said Ms Schornikow’s youngest daughter, Tamara, gave the loom to Altona’s Louis Joel Arts and Community Centre about two years ago, where it had sat waiting for a new home.
A chance meeting in the street between the arts centre’s manager and Ms Mitchell resulted in the loom being relocated to the seniors’ building at the corner of Ferguson Street and Melbourne Road in Williamstown, where members of the Hobsons Bay Men’s Shed repaired and cleaned it.
The room is open every Wednesday from 11am for anyone interested in creating pieces using threads of all kinds.
