The Red River is frozen solid, and as usual the plows have cleared a track, so people can skate on the river. But I’m in California. At the invitation of Jules Kliot, I taught a sprang class at the Lacis Museum of Lace and Textiles in Berkeley, California. The weather was markedly different from what we were having in Winnipeg. Many thanks to Jules and to Erin for making this class happen. Then on to speak to a gathering of the Santa Cruz Handweavers. The place where they meet is in a park. I then taught two classes to the Santa Cruz Handweavers, one on sprang And then I taught a second class on the subject of finger weaving. Thanks to Mibs, Yonat, Barbara, and Ruth, for the work they did to make these workshops a pleasant experience for all. Looking forward to returning to California again sometime. But now I’m in New Zealand. Here’s the view from my window I will be teaching in Wellington, Mosgiel, Ashburton, Halswell, and Taupo, and then attending the national Creative Fibre Conference in Auckland at the end of April.
0 Comments
A few years back I used some of my single spun wool to make a bonnet. The wool was quite dark in color, and does not photograph well. I’ve since made another bonnet, this time using some commercially spun linen. The pattern is based on a bonnet in the collection of the Danish National Museum in Copenhagen. The pale color in the linen makes it easier to see the stitches. It is really a few simple stitches, combined to make an interesting pattern and a lovely bonnet.
Now, examining historic hair nets, some of them were made from tightly spun singles. I experimented with some tightly spun wool, not treating the overtwist, nor waiting for it to settle down. It worked just fine. The weaving was easier than I expected, not really hampered by the extra twist. The finished piece, well, yes, I soaked it and blocked it twice, but it looks just fine. Here are some bits of sprang by others, photos they sent to me.
The Art and History museum in Brussels, Belgium, has a lovely collection of sprang items, including a pair of socks. These socks feature sprang ‘uppers’ and a knitted sole. I decided to try my hand at this. I began with a 3 ft long (75 cm) warp. I worked these threads for about six inches (15 cm). I then added more warp. This now, is the complete warp for the ‘upper’ of the sock. I separated the two sock uppers, cutting along the midline of the warp. OK, to be honest, when I measured out the second, shorter warp, on a warping board, my first attempt was too long. I realized this as soon as I tried to mount the second warp beside the first. I should have warped directly onto the sprang frame. What to do? I am too lazy to un-wind that warp, and do not want to waste the yarn … so I set that warp aside. Now that the socks are complete, I think I’ll try a pair of fingerless gloves. I started working at the fingers. I’ll have one hole for the thumb, and another larger one for the rest of the fingers. This means I started out working two separate strips. Now, making these up into gloves, I decided I needed a small bit to breach the gap between index finger and thumb. So, I set up two tiny warps.
CIETA (Centre International d’Etude des Textiles Anciens) held its biennieal conference in Berlin. I attended, presenting a paper co-authored by Dr Maureen Matthews, curator at the Manitoba Museum. The subject of the conference was ‘Textiles in Transfer and Transformation’. The Canadian sash seemed to fit the topic perfectly.
I met amazing people at the conference, and learned a great deal about textiles … as is usual at such conferences. After the CIETA conference, I travelled to Prague where I met with an amazing sprang artist, Sylva Cekalova. Check out her website http://krosienky-sprang.cz Yes, the website comes up in the Czech language, but there’s a little British flag in the upper right hand corner, that takes you to the English translation. Sylva showed me some of her creations, and I am in awe. We discussed diverse pattern-writing methods, different approaches to communicating the structure. I then travelled to Munich, where I visited with Dagmar Drinkler, famous for her research on those sprang leggings. I’ve met with a few snags in my attempts to re-create garments in certain Medieval portraits. Her suggestions are always helpful. In France I visited with the archaeologist Fabienne Medard. She and I are working on that reconstructed sprang turban, will present together in Antwerp in late November. I’ve been busy teaching. The Midwest Handweavers Conference was held at St Thomas College in St Paul, Minnesota. I taught a finger weaving class and then a sprang class. On the way to Minnesota I stopped in Fargo to visit. Kim Baird said I should look up another instructor while there, Donna Kallner. Arriving at St Thomas College, I was assigned a roommate … none other than Donna Kallner. What a lovely campus, and terrific vendor’s hall. I found just the yarn I was looking for, the right size yarn to work a more authentic version of that Coptic sprang turban. Back home, I’m working on yet another pair of sprang leggings. These will hopefully be more accurate to that portrait of a Venetian gondolier. Not quite sufficient time to finish those leggings, and I’m off to Colorado and the Intermountain Weavers Conference in Durango where I taught a three-day sprang workshop. Great to catch up with former students. And there was a batch of new sprang students The lovely thing about a three-day workshop is that students are supported through the learning process. By the third day some really creative things can happen. After the initial bag, and a circular warp lace sampler, and some exploration of twining, some students were ready to explore. We were looking at images on the internet of wildly braided sprang pieces. Sally offered to use her piece to explore this method. We began the process in class. Recently she sent me this image of the completed piece. You see, sprang is so much more than ugly bags and hats. After the conference I had the opportunity to tour Mesa Verde, Canyon de Chelly, and Bandelier National Monument, sites of ancient cliff dwellings. One room was clearly set up for weaving, a place for the upper beam in the ceiling, loops to hold the lower beam in the floor. Thanks to Laurie Webster and Glenna Dean for being my tour guides. In other news, I’ve been working on a collection of sprang lace patterns. I’m looking for individuals interested in trying out my lace patterns, giving me feed-back on the readability of the patterns. Any takers out there? Send me a note, carol at sash weaver dot com.
Some of the things I’ve completed recently an oblique-weave sash And a silk military sash And a better version of that Egyptian turban This replica turban is based on a visit with a mummy in the collection of the Guimet Museum in Lyon, France. The turban is interesting as it makes use of a common phenomena in sprang: one side is not the same length as the other side. Here this was done intentionally. The part around the head is 3/4 the size of the ‘tails’. That is to say, the tails were packed more loosely. Here’s how it went: Once blocked, the tails can be wrapped around the front of the head, transforming this into a turban.
Back from my recent travels, to Europe, and then to the TNNA conference in Columbus, Ohio.
In Columbus I met yarn store people from all across North America, what a conference! Maria Freitas of Meridan, Idaho, gave me a set of rayon threads to try in sprang. Travelling again, teaching and researching in Europe. First stop Lyon where I stayed opposite the train station In Lyon I had a look at the turban on the head of a mummie at the Confluence Museum. Then I went for a walk in the city park I hear it was snowing back in Winnipeg. Off to Belgium, where my friend was waiting for me at the train station. Frieda hosted me for the better part of a week. Together we visited the lace museum in Calais, France, the Gemeentemuseum in TheHague, and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. We saw lots of sprang. Many of the items in these collections were made by Elizabeth VanReesema. Photos of these pieces are in books, but photos just do not do justice to them. Taught classes in Sint-Job-in-‘t-Goor, fingerweaving one day, sprang the next. Such a pleasure to share these techniques with people who are eager to learn. Many thanks to Ina and Frieda who organized these workshops, and made everything possible.
Spring is slow in coming here in Winnipeg. Today was a balmy above freezing temperature, but back down to below freezing tonight. Meanwhile, I’m busy with my sprang. I’ve been busy making military sashes. I’m also working on another pair of sprang leggings. These were inspired by images of Persian warriors fighting the ancient Greeks. Indeed a friend of mine is a re-enactor, who plays ‘Hoplite’ and will be going to Marathon, Greece, to re-enact the battle that made famous the practice of 23 mile runs. Yes, sprang can be ‘shaped’ and there is fair evidence that ancient Persians used the sprang technique to create form fitting clothing such as leggings and shirts. Here is my current sprang piece, destined to be leggings. The zig-zag pattern is achieved by the use of twining within a background of interlinking. For more information on sprang twining, check out my youtube videos which give you basic instruction on twining.
Instructions for the ‘W’ pattern can be found in my book Sprang Unsprung. |
Categories
All
Archives
May 2023
Categories
All
|