Textile Society of America

 

Date of this Version

2016

Document Type

Article

Citation

Crosscurrents: Land, Labor, and the Port. Textile Society of America's 15th Biennial Symposium. Savannah. GA. October 19-23. 2016.

Comments

Copyright 2016 by Carol James

Abstract

In this talk I would like to explore some of the evidence of sprang in history, how sprang travelled from place to place and some of the ways it was modified as it travelled. I will then suggest that sprang could be an exciting technique for the 21st century. First let me explain how this technique works. Sprang is a braiding technique. The worker winds one continuous thread around and around a frame. The worker then manipulates the threads at one end, and a mirror-image structure magically appears at the other end of the frame. Structures that lend themselves to this technique include interlinking, interlacing, and intertwining. For more on sprang, please consult Peter Collingwood’s Sprang, Plaiting on Stretched Threads,1 or Carol James’ Sprang Unsprung.

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