I had finished The Techniques of Rug Weaving and due to its modest success Fabers were willing to publish "my next". Both tablet weaving and sprang, fairly peripheral subjects, attracted me as likely subjects, no comprehensive work existing on either. I probably chose the latter, as I had recently met Noemi Speiser, a world authority on off-loom fabrics, and she was willing to help me with the research. As she lived opposite the Museum fur Volkekunde, Basel, she was able to locate in their library and photocopy any abstruse reference I came upon. So "research through the letter box" began and the bibliography grew and grew. Also, as with the rug book, I and N S found many non-traditional variations; so what began as a synthesis of analyses of past techniques became an attempt to describe all the possibilities. The diagrams required free drawing as the elements did not conveniently follow the grid of squared paper which I used in the rug book. To help in this, I stuck drawing pins through a thin board in a certain pattern and pressed each sheet onto this. These pinprick impressions gave me the points where elements crossed or linked. and I drew the intervening lines. All the drawings of hands were of my left hand drawn by my right, mirror-imaged where necessary. I used white and gray 6ply rug wool from the Wilton Carpet Factory for making all the samples for photography, For the first time I contacted museums for photographs.
There was a surge of interest when the book appeared; I gave many classes mostly in USA, sending on ahead the special frames I designed and made here on a primitive jig.
The technique is slow, despite the fact that two fabrics are made simultaneously, so it cannot be the basis of earning your daily bread. I have made a few large 3D pieces using very heavy yarns. Most sprang work is now done by re-enacting societies, like the SCA, to make bags and sashes. The world's largest piece, made from 30 miles of heavy rope, was temporarily attached to the Transamerica Building, San Francisco in 1974. |
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THE TECHNIQUES OF SPRANG, Plaiting on Stretched Threads; first published as hardback in 1974 by Faber and Faber, London, reprinted as softback 1999 by Design Books. ISBN 1-55821-930-7. 292 pages, 160 diagrams, 69 B/W plates. Distributed by Lyons Press, 123 West St, New York, NY 10011, USA in America and by Airlife, 101 Longden Rd, Shrewsbury, SY3 9EB, UK To obtain a SIGNED COPY, send me an email at <plysplit@onetel.net>
PRICE $35 (about £25) plus postage. Available in USA from Unicorn Books, <lars@unicornbooks.com> Price $35.00
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