In this four-session textiles workshop with esparto grass and recycled materials you will learn the basics of how to weave with esparto and discover its uses. We will work with new materials and design and create a prototype together.
In the first two sessions we will learn different traditional esparto weaving techniques. We will experiment with other unusual materials, including those from our immediate surroundings, and we will learn how to weave, add colour to the pieces and sew them together into structures. After learning the basics we will use this knowledge to design one or various prototypes which we will make in the last two sessions.
Esparto grass is a fibre extracted from two characteristic plants of the Iberian steppes: Macrochloa tenacissima and Lygeum spartum. The fibre has been used for at least the past 30,000 years. In the early 1960s the mechanisation of agricultural labour and the emergence of plastics meant the use of esparto was abandoned. We are going back to this fibre, given the number of possible applications it has and its natural characteristics.
In this four-session textiles workshop with esparto grass and recycled materials you will learn the basics of how to weave with esparto and discover its uses. We will work with new materials and design and create a prototype together.