I attended a textile conference in Barcelona, the Vth Purpureae Vestes Symposium. It was held in Montserrat, an exquisite site. I collaborated with two other textile experts, and we presented information on replicating a 1st century cap from the collection of the Hotel Bertrand de Chateauroux. The cap was constructed using sprang and tablet weaving. After the symposium I made a quick stopover in Lyon, and then on to Paris. There I met with members of the group “La Fibre Textile”. Yvette is an award-winning embroiderer who has also explored finger weaving. She showed me the ‘patchwork’ piece that she made many years ago. On to a small town to the north of Paris, near Chantilly (famous for horses) to visit a very talented textile artist, Edith Meusnier, who creates outdoor installations in sprang. Check out her website Paysages d’Artifice www.edithmeusnier.net On to the UK where I visited Erica and Oli, managers of the website Weavolution. They live near Newmarket, also famous for horses. I’m working on some tutorials to be posted on the Weavolution site. Thanks to Oli and Erica for technical support, assistance in spreading the word on sprang and finger weaving. While there, I went with Erica to a meeting of the Cambridge Weavers, Spinners, and Dyers, spreading the ‘good word’ about these amazing textile methods. It seemed to work, the weavers are inviting me to return to Cambridge to give workshops on these methods.
Back in Winnipeg, once again I am reminded why people call it Winterpeg. The snow in my yard is still deeper than my knees. The weather man is promising warmer weather … eventually. It’s the first of April.
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My flight to Belgium stopped over in Montreal. They were having a snowstorm, and I worried that the plane would not be able to take off. Not to worry, we arrived on time in Brussels. I taught two sprang workshops in Sint-Job-in-‘t-Goor. Some of the participants had taken my finger weaving workshop last fall. They brought items they had made to show me. I led two sprang workshops. A big thank you to Ina Verhulst for organising these workshops.
I also met with the textile group called Metamorphose. They explored finger weaving. Winter is getting to be rather long here in Winnipeg. The snow is up to my waist. It’s been difficult to keep up with the shovelling, and then the snowplows pass by and completely block off access to the street. Yes, it’s time to go South. Weather in New Mexico was very mild by Manitoba standards. Luckily I had been invited to teach at the Espanola Valley Fiber Arts Center in New Mexico. The group there was keen, and learned fast. We covered flat warps as well as circular warps. Glenna Dean of Abiquiu Dye Studios helped me special dye some yarn for multi-colored circular warps, and participants learned how to make some fancy patterns. Then on to Albuquerque and the Las Aranas Weavers and Spinners. I gave my powerpoint talk on sprang to the guild meeting, and then presented three days of workshop on sprang. It must be something in the New Mexico water. Everyone did well. Some even started exploring ‘S’ and ‘Z’ patterns, interlacing and intertwining. Many thanks to the folks at Village Wool (fiber addiction specialists), to Chris Allen and Ruth Ronan and Extra special thanks to Glenna Dean.
Munich is the home of Dagmar Drinkler, that famous sprang artist, who has sparked the discussion on tight fitting clothing from antiquity, probably sprang. I had the pleasure of speaking with her again this past November. Thanks, Dagmar, for taking the time. On to the Textile Museum in Krefeld. They have an amazing collection of Coptic bonnets, and allowed me close examination. The historic record of sprang patterns is amazing! I’m thinking that these patterns would be lovely as vests, have made up a few samples: But I’m getting ahead of myself.
I attended the VI Conference on Indigenous Textiles at the Quay Branly in Paris at the end of November. This museum is next-door to the Eiffel Tower. OK, the Paris sights are wonderful, but I was focusing on Indigenous Textiles. Yes, sprang was done in the Americas before Columbus. It seems the Paracas were particularly skilled. Before returning home, I stopped by to visit with contemporary sprang artist Edith Meusnier. You have to check out her website: http://www.edithmeusnier.net If you every have a chance to see her installations in person, please do. Photos cannot do justice to her work. Back in Lyon, staying with my friend, I tried to keep up with my daily walk. There are the remains of a Roman amphitheatre near her house. In my spare time I’ve been working on writing out patterns for some of the hundreds of sprang lace motifs that I saw in Brussels. I taught a finger weaving class in TheHague. My host in TheHague pointed out some flocks of birds, all bright green. It seems that escapee parakeets have adopted certain parks in TheHague as home.
Very near Antwerp is the village of Sint-Job-In-‘t-Goor. That’s where I held a class in finger weaving recently. The organiser provided these wooden stands, clamped to the table top to hold the samples. The students were eager, and explored diverse motifs. At the end of the day some of the students had samples of both lightning and chevron patterns. And the chevron, a sample made by a participant that day: The skill of people who worked sprang in earlier times never ceases to amaze me. One detail that Anne Kwaspen and I discussed was the manner in which interlinking is mixed with twining. One would think that the twining threads, travelling a longer distance would require a longer thread. How can this be possible in sprang? The problem has been turning around in my head. At length, I have tried a sample for myself. It seems that if I use different materials, one elastic and one non-elastic, and found it worked for me in this sample. White silk interlinking and elastic lavender wool twining
I’ve been looking at sprang lace in European collections. The Petrie Museum in London had a spectacular bonnet. Today I was at the Royal Museum of History and Art in Brussels. I was honoured to be permitted to examine a collection of sprang samples made between 1798 and 1830, now in the care of this museum. What can I say, these pieces are spectacular! Created using a very fine thread, the patterns are exquisite. I’ve been working to map out the patterns I see, and then creating a small sample, just to be sure I’ve got the mapping correct. I think I’m in heaven. The next day I was allowed a visit to the Musee Royal de lArmée et d’Histoire Militaire. They have a spectacular collection of military sashes. I was also privileged with a visit to sashes in the storage area. It seems that Belgian soldiers wore sprang sashes until the World War I. Some are all S, some all Z. Many bear evidence of both S and Z twist in the sash, small knots on either side of the meeting place between S and Z. OK, so they did not do the bead thing that I do, removing the edge thread. I stand corrected.Many thanks to Dr Marguerite Coppens, Else Bogaerts, Frieda Sorber, and Katia Johansen for making these visits possible for me.
Yes, I’m travelling again. Now a member of the ancient textile society associated with the Textile Museum in Lyon, France, aka CIETA, I decided to attend their biennial conference. The conference coincided with the opening of an amazing exhibit at the museum, Antinoé à la vie, à la mode. The exhibit included almost incredible pieces found in Egypt in the late 1800s, some of it never before on display, quite the celebration of ancient fashion. From a textile perspective it was an amazing view into the time period. Yes, the exhibit included two sprang caps. Tours were part of the conference. I opted for a bus tour to le Puy-en-Velay More amazing textiles on display. From Lyon I went to London. There I had a visit scheduled at the Petrie Museum. I was accorded a visit with two sprang caps. I’ve since mapped out the patterns, and am giving samples to the museum. It is a fascinating piece, combining multiple twist interlinking and another technique where a single thread traverses the open space between vertical lines of interlinking. Later that week I experienced the Alexandra Palace Knit and Stitch Show. How heartwarming to see such crowds interested in textiles. I helped staff the booth belonging to The Braid Society. We managed to teach an awful lot of people how to do fill-the-gap kumihimo. On to Reading for a sprang class at Aldebourne. Aldebourne is a tiny community, but home to a large group of individuals interested in braiding techniques. Imagine the community center in a small village, and on a Sunday afternoon the space is crowded with people and their inkle looms, tablet weaving, and kumihimo. This is where I taught a sprang class. What a pleasure to teach to such apt students. On to the Pitt-Rivers Museum. Page 67 of Sprang Unsprung features the photo of an amazing bag with a design of 5 people, worked in beads. I was privileged with a close examination of this bag, as well as several sashes of Great Lakes interlacing (oblique weave) design.
Presently I’m in Devon. I presented a class in sprang to the Devon Handweavers, another group with a keen eye for structure. It’s always a pleasure to open up the world of sprang for people. I’ve created a number of military sashes this summer. The sashes with the colored stripe are wool NCO (non-commissioned officer) sashes, and were typical in the British army in the 1700s and into the early 1800s. The solid colored red sash is silk officer’s sash. And in between, I’ve created several of these coin purses. Made of silk cord, they are modelled after the image in Downer’s book Nelson’s Purse, and hold quite a lot of coin.
The North Shore Weavers and Prairie Weavers Guild near Chicago had invited me to visit and present sprang. I gave two workshops while in Downers Grove, in the Chicago area. On to Marion, Indiana, where I attended Mississinewa 1812. Sprang instruction was high on the bill. Then on to Ohio, the Cuyahoga weavers invited me for a workshop. Meantime, taking inspiration from a pair I saw last Summer, I set out to create sprang mittens. The wrist was worked in interlinking. I doubled up the threads so the fabric would be narrower at the wrist. For the hand I switched to an interlacing technique. This means wider, a bit less elasticity, and a denser fabric. Listening to my daughter’s advice, I used a serger and a strip of woven tape to finish off. The first pair (in green cotton) was too small. The second one, white, done in alpaca, was too large. The next one will be just right.
Just last week I was in northern Alberta. I taught fingerweaving in a couple of local schools, and presented a fingerweaving workshop for adults at the Fairview Arts Center. Check out the article reported in the Fairview Post: http://www.fairviewpost.com/2012/11/06/finger-weaver-shares-skills |
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