Catching the Principles of Sprang by Hanne Frey Husø

As I was making this piece, I had nightmares during sleep. Nightmares clean past. After the shivering is over, some traumas from before seem to be gone and one feels fresh and newborn - a bit the same feeling as after lightning and thunder. I wanted to create a poem about dreaming in the technique of sprang. The poem of the book is about how dreams and nightmares make you move on, make you take a new step in mind. In Norwegian the word ‘sprang’ means to take a leap. As I was learning this technique, after the first try I realized the technique was not so difficult. My mistake was due to the wrong attitude to the threads. My difficulties was the way I approached the threads, in what order I took hold of the threads in my hands. The second try - my mind changed. The third try - the knots in my head loosened up at the same time as working with sprang became easier. None of my trials are perfect - but dreams and nightmares helped me move on mastering the technique - my attitude towards the threads as I made loops.

The book consists of three trials of sprang - done in handspun kozo paper. Then a front page with the title, playing with Dream Catcher. The last page is the poem.  The head of each page is strenghtened with a flax paper with watermark of a person walking.

The book is sewn as a Japanese account book. What we dream during sleep - is made up of our steps during life. When we dream - we do our accountance. The pages are folded as an accordion, so one cannot really see the full papers as one does in the Japanese account books.