Sprang is an intricate form of plaiting which is made with threads which are stretched in tension and secured at both ends. Mirrored structures between upper and lower halves of the cloth are created. There is necessarily a horizontal finishing ridge in the center. Often this is the clue to identifying sprang as the technique in historical and archaeological cloths.

 

The elasticity of sprang becomes apparent when the tension of the threads is released and the fabric can be stretched across it's width.

 

Sprang, due to it's elasticity, served useful, everyday purposes for clothing, much as knitted fabrics do today. The technique was commonly used for different kinds of headgear, such as caps, hoods, bonnets, hairnets and snoods, as well as for stockings, mittens, collars, sashes and other purposes where pliant material is required.

 

The word 'sprang' is in fact a Scandinavian word meaning an open work textile. However, the technique is not necessarily of Scandinavian origin. In fact we do not know its exact origin. We just know that we find sprang clothes in many parts of the world and in different periods of history, from hairnets of the European Bronze Age to the current Central and South American hammocks.

 

Worthy examples of study and interest are the findings of the Bronze Age in Northern Europe and Byzantine Egypt, the sashes of the military uniforms of the European eighteenth century and the belts that married Greek women wear, in some regions, as a symbol of fertility. Across the Atlantic, highlights the sprang from the Paracas and Nasca cultures (400 BC-600 AD, Peru) and in North America, even today, the Hopi wedding sashes and the Ho-Chunk scarves.