Fancy Knotwork
A selection of decorative items, rope design projects and commissions fulfilled over the years, brought together here in a gallery of knots.
The wooden devil stick shown above, has a decorative centre grip whipped in green flat section leather. The pattern is a Running Turks Head knot, woven using a single line and followed around three times.
A pair of tiny Monkey Fist ear-rings were made from 1mm polished fine flax twine.
Below, the choker necklace was made from two lengths of brown leather square cord. The centre knot is a type of two strand lanyard knot known as a double carrick bend.
The small picture shows a bracelet plaited from 2mm flax in the pattern of a crown sennit and finished with two double wall knots locked together in a shroud knot.
A rope door handle is shown in the first picture, commissioned as one of a set of fourteen for a house by the sea. These were constructed using 18mm hempex with an eye splice made around a chrome plated brass eye plate at each end, and covered with a decorative turks head whipping in 4mm hempex cord.
The funky rope knob shown above transforms an old pantry door. The Manrope knot is tied into a short length of 24mm hemp rope, the cut end neatly finished with a sailor's whipping in polished flax twine. To secure the knob to the door, a wooden dowel was provided and set horizontally through the lay of the rope at the back of the knot, held snug against the whipped end.
A wooden jewelery box is shown here, with the drawer pull made from a monkey fist knot using 2mm cotton cord. A small wooden peg is placed snugly through the loop at the back of the knot to keep it sitting tight.
Turks head knots are incredibly versatile and can be flat, cylindrical or even spherical depending on the configuration of the weave pattern and how tightly the rope line is tightened. On the little stool next to the nasturtiums are two made from 8mm hemp rope, fashioned into attractive dice shakers.
Below, a Monkey Fist Knot was made in 12mm cotton cord and worked and tightened around a sturdy chrome fitting to produce an original design for a door knob, coat hook, a hold-back for a lightweight curtain or screwed into the ground as a door stop.
