Curation on Pinterest

You can now find me on Pinterest, curating images of språng.  You can see it without an account of your own.

In previous posts here on the blog, I've put links for språng images.  It's not the greatest venue, it requires a person to click through to see something they aren't sure they will like.  Pinterest's boards are a more efficient way to show many images of extant pieces or looms, to help people see at a glance what used to be made with the språng technique.  It's like finding images all over the web and pinning them to a bulletin board.  Copyright is maintained, which I like.

I thought I was out in front blazing the way by pinning språng images and then I discovered someone else's collection of pins.  It has much of what I have on the topic, plus more.

I just gave the facts in the captions, no breakdown or commentary on the structure and construction of the pieces.  I could add such comments since I do understand the structure and construction, but I'm doubt that would benefit those who see the pins.  One of my favourite books is Suzanne Martel's The City Underground, where the residents never map the nearby caves in order to give everyone a chance to experience the twists and turns for themselves.  Also, språng terms are not standardized and many of the pieces are sophisticated, so commentary might seem like abstruse code.  Moreover, there's no way to draw attention to a part of the picture to describe it.  Finally, it looks better when the words are at a minimum on Pinterest due to its intensely visual format.

I can look at an image of a språng piece in a museum and know the structure (or at least as much about it as I care to--complete understanding would mean reconstructing it) so I don't need to put the facts down as an aid to my own memory.

I may change my mind.  I want to see people make good språng objects and right now many people either don't know the braiding technique exists or they don't know the methods.  Many people like it when you break down components, draw connections to corresponding techniques, and lay out the steps.