Is it possible to create art from knots?
Yes it is! And it’s called macramé! It takes lots of patient but knot by knot the artist can create lots of patterns and use his creativity to bring almost anything to life.
Literally, macramé is a type of ornament work made by knotting and weaving thread into a pattern. And this technique carries a long long history!
There are debates as to whether this word comes from French Turkish or Arabic origins but generally the first signs of Macramé existence in the human history are met in Babylonian and Assyrian carvings between 15.000 to 17,000 BC.
Some of the oldest physical founding of macramé in human history is this pottery from Egypt in 3500 BC. and a pair of shoes made by knotted grass that were found in 1991 on an iceman in Alps that dates from 3300 B.C.
But even after all those information the scientists don’t really know how old is the art of macramé but it seems that it is possible that it is almost as old as the use of fire! Speculations are, that humans knew how to knot even before being able to light up a fire and the timeframe stands between 250,000 and 2,500,000 years B.C.( !!! )
There are numerous creations that someone can make by macramé and in human history the art of knotting helped a lot in sailing in clothing and in other aspects of the daily life. Even Marco Polo itself has wrote about macramé referring to it as lace.
Royals also loved macramé!
When the Queen Mary II of Great Britain married William of Orange in Netherlands they say that both the king and queen loved lace and liked to decorate their clothes with it. She taught her first ladies how to make macramé and lace and the story says that it was the queen that introduced macramé to the ladies of the British court where it became a popular craft.
In the Victorian era many books about nautical knot-tying were published as the sails men that were staying a long time at sea were using macramé a lot as a passing time habit.
But macramé was not only known at the seas. Back in the households of the Victorian English ladies, this craft was used to create laces in household items and clothes. And then more books about macramé were published.
The years passed by and wars made the planet look darker for sometime till the hippy generation made the humans embrace again their artistic side. That were the years that macramé came back and became really well known all around the planet.
Nowadays macramé is met in many parts of the world and in the traditions of different cultures.
Even kids at school exchange friendship gifts that are made by simple macramé knots and many talismans of the modern era contain parts made out by macramé knots. Macramé is also used a lot in jewellery and many people of all ages around the world keep on trying to learn this amazing technique.
If you want to learn more about macramé then don’t hesitate to visit our macrame art collection!
Get inspired by our unique ideas.
Every knot has a story to say!!
But many knots together can create a fairytale!
As Written by Lida Siskou