I realised I never posted the compilation of my facebook posts featuring videos of the three main spinning styles, grasped, suspended and supported, from around the world.
So today I bring you the compilation of videos of Grasped spinning.
First up is this well-known romanian clip of a woman spinning with a distaff and spindle. I’ve seen much finer thread spun using this method, the spindle hand forms a funnel shape and the wrist flicks the spindle and as it rolls in the hand it spins.
This video is from Ecuador but I have seen similar technique in other parts of the world also. Here the spindle is spun from the ‘other’ end and supported between the hand and the thread comming off from the disaff.
This is a wonderful video from Western Serbia of a whole room full of grasped spindle spinners
I had a video from Bosnia showing a lady spinning with a distaff and spindle but it has sadly been removed from youtube.
D.Benta shows us how to spin with a “roca” and ‘fuso”, or a distaff and spindle
This video is of Trinidad Catagua, Master spinner and weaver from Zapote, Manabí spinning cotton. We saw a similar grasped style of spinning earlier, this one features a distaff that stands on the ground.
And I finished the week with a video from Ethiopia. There are just a few snippets of a woman spinning cotton on a top whorl spindle as you watch this video.
15thcenturyspinning 