Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Poste revisited

I had a brain storm this morning while tying to decide what I wanted to do for the poste (sash.) Last time I made one I just hemmed a rectangle of silk and added tassels and pewter plaques. I keep throwing Luca Moia's definition of a poste from The Silk Industry in Renaissance Venice around in my head. "Poste: Silk veils related to sendals, sometimes made like a net, and usually worn around the waist as a belt."

The "sometimes made like a net," keeps getting stuck. There is this set of garters at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston dated 1575-1600, accession number 43.2001a. (The super cute pink and green ones.) They're made of silk using sprang.

Military officers (including George Washington) of the 18th century wore beautiful netted silk sashes made using sprang. . .

Various cultures in the Eastern Mediterranean islands as well as some Slavic groups still utilize sprang sashes as part of their traditional folk costume. . .

Am I completely up in the night here or might there be a connection? And if there is, do I want to pursue it? Making a silk sash using sprang is going to be a significant commitment of time and money, especially as I've only ever done tiny samples of sprang, nothing even approaching this magnitude. How crazy am I really?

3 comments:

  1. Well, you're loads crazy, but I think you should go for it. Why not? You seem to be on the right track working it thru and hypothesizing, so why shouldn't this be plausible?

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  2. I think it sounds gorgeous, and it does make sense that they would have done it.

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  3. Why do I always come up with these random, time consuming, ideas? I'm pretty much talking myself into it. I think there is at minimum a plausibility to the idea. Anyone want to come distract my kids while I warp and sprang a 3-4 foot silk lace sash? Oy. That is going to be oodles of fun. They've already unraveled my knit stocking at least 3 times. . . Now, where's my copy of Collingwood's book on sprang?

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