Sprang - Contemporary Sprang

Contemporary Sprang

In a study of folk textiles of Anatolia, Greece, Linda Welters identifies the zonari as a long fringed belt constructed of sprang. The zonari is a rounded material of indeterminate length around 2 or 3 meters long and is wrapped multiple times when worn. From interviews conducted during the 1980s, Welters found that the technique was practiced by elderly women and regarded as a specialized skill which they worked on pairs of beams. Their vocabulary had no special term to correspond with sprang, so they referred to it with descriptive phrases such as knitting with sticks, plaiting, and weaving without passing through. The zonari are made from sheep's wool hand spun with a drop spindle and dyed red, blue, or black depending on local custom. Zonari belts are a custom in much of Argolida and Corinthia where they are traditional dowry items worn by women from marriage onward and associated with fertility and donned on ritual occasions. Welters observes that these were mostly owned and worn by older women.

The sprang technique also survives as a traditional method for making hammocks in Guatemala, Mexico, and Colombia, and also in Colombia for making a shopping bag known as mechita. The work in these locations is generally performed on a backstrap loom. Handmade Mesoamerican sprang hammocks continue to be produced for export to a variety of international markets. Additionally, sprang remains in use for making silk trouser drawstrings for male attire in Pakistan. Contemporary art textiles sometimes employ sprang in wall hangings.