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| Members of the Carmel Crafts Guild in a workshop with Carol James. Photos courtesy of Carmel Crafts Guild. |
The Carmel Crafts Guild (California)
recently hosted a sprang workshop with
Carol
James, an author and professional weaver living in Manitoba, Canada. Guild members
were able to hear Carol talk about the history of sprang, her work, and her collection
at the morning guild meeting and met for a more in-depth workshop in the
afternoon. Carol explains that she found her niche in the textile world weaving
sashes for historical reenactment. She creates sashes using sprang and
finger-weaving techniques, in addition to teaching and demonstrating in North
America and Europe. See more of her work as well as how-to videos, on her
website.
What is
sprang? Sprang is a woven, elastic textile that is often associated with Bronze
Age textiles. The
Santa Cruz Handweavers Guild (California) has more information about this
technique on its website.
The guild maintains the Anne Blinks
Textile Study Collection. Anne Blinks (1903-1995) amassed a resource
collection of textiles, publications, and notes through her interests in
historic and prehistoric textiles. Now, the guild organizes Study
Boxes—a group of samples from the collection that can be borrowed by other
guilds or individual members.