Learn how to tie decorative knots from across the world. Clear diagrams are teamed with step-by-step instructions to make tying 75 different knots simple.
Jewelry-makers will learn how to tie decorative knots from across the world with this stylish directory. Clear diagrams are teamed with step-by-step instructions to make tying 75 different knots simple. And each knot is graded so even complete beginners can get started right away. A selection of projects allow readers to create beautiful and original jewelry. Combine ornamental knots with beads for a modern look, or choose a more traditional style with entirely knot-built pieces. With detailed material lists and photography of finished items, this book is the complete guide to a unique style. Also containing a comprehensive techniques section, "75 Chinese, Celtic & Ornamental Knots "shows how to use jump rings and seal cords correctly. This know-how will be invaluable as readers progress to designing and creating their own knotted jewelry.
Knotting, "the joining of two cords," is an old and revered art form in China and an integral part of Chinese life. Since ancient times, Chinese knots have been used for a variety of practical and decorative purposes: to record events, aid in fishing and hunting, wrap and tie items, embellish personal attire, jewelry and fashion, ornament other works of art, and communicate. The intricate knot work and magnificent color combinations not only lent elegance to everyday objects, or a touch of gaiety and enchantment but were an aesthetic expression of Chinese folk symbolism, expressing wishes for good fortune and wealth or the joys of love and marriage. In craft book Chinese Knotting, author Lydia Chen first traces the origins, history, and symbolism of this fascinating craft, before taking the reader through the fundamental elements necessary for tying Chinese decorative knots--the materials, implements, and main processes. Step-by-step instructions are then given for the 11 basic knots, which provide the building blocks for the 14 compound knots-combinations and variations of the simple knots-that follow in the next section. The final section presents 41 knotting projects of varying difficulty. Detailed instructions, clear diagrams, and color photographs, combined with an exciting assortment of creative applications, will help readers discover the relaxation, artistic satisfaction, and beautifully personalized ornamentation that Chinese Knotting can offer.
This book is an ultimate comprehensive guide, not only presenting the step-by-step illustrated instructions but also all the information regarding Chinese knotting. From the origins to developments, functions to decorations, material selections to final products, basic techniques to modified combinations, and traditional crafts to creative designs, author Cao Haimei walks you through every detail.Chinese knotting is a traditional handcraft of interlacing silk cords and other materials. Do you know that it was dated back to the Early Stone Age and was used for keeping records before the invention of writing? Have you thought about how it was developed from a general necessity to a royal cherished decoration?Besides discovering the history and traditions, this book also demonstrates the basic techniques, such as designing, interlacing, tightening, shaping, adjusting, and decorating. With the proper tools and materials, whether it is synthetic or silk cords, glass beads or porcelain charms, gold rings or silver clasps, you can start knotting by following the 100+ projects to make your home decorations, lucky charms, necklaces, bracelets, hair accessories, buttons, brooches and many more.To make your craft more unique and outstanding, learn the different types of variations combinations, and advanced techniques. Now start knotting and create your own innovative piece of art!
An acclaimed artist celebrates the creative possibilities of macramé and knots in this memoir and guide featuring projects and tutorials. Every day for a year, artist Windy Chien learned to tie a new kind of knot and then shared the results on Instagram—a project that both reinvented her life and revolutionized knot art. In The Year of Knots, Chien describes how knot-making led her on a path of discovery. She shares projects, tutorials, and transformative personal stories, all aimed at inspiring readers to make knotting—and creativity in general—part of a meditative daily practice. The knots in this book are gorgeously documented step-by-step. Knotted projects abound—from wall hangings to a necklace, a dog leash, a hanging light, and more. At the heart of the story is the simple, empowering idea that a single year is all the time you need to make a life-changing creative leap.
Today we associate the Renaissance with painting, sculpture, and architecture—the “major” arts. Yet contemporaries often held the “minor” arts—gem-studded goldwork, richly embellished armor, splendid tapestries and embroideries, music, and ephemeral multi-media spectacles—in much higher esteem. Isabella d’Este, Marchesa of Mantua, was typical of the Italian nobility: she bequeathed to her children precious stone vases mounted in gold, engraved gems, ivories, and antique bronzes and marbles; her favorite ladies-in-waiting, by contrast, received mere paintings. Renaissance patrons and observers extolled finely wrought luxury artifacts for their exquisite craftsmanship and the symbolic capital of their components; paintings and sculptures in modest materials, although discussed by some literati, were of lesser consequence. This book endeavors to return to the mainstream material long marginalized as a result of historical and ideological biases of the intervening centuries. The author analyzes how luxury arts went from being lofty markers of ascendancy and discernment in the Renaissance to being dismissed as “decorative” or “minor” arts—extravagant trinkets of the rich unworthy of the status of Art. Then, by re-examining the objects themselves and their uses in their day, she shows how sumptuous creations constructed the world and taste of Renaissance women and men.
This book brings together twenty essays on diverse topics in the history and science of knots. It is divided into five parts, which deal respectively with knots in prehistory and antiquity, non-European traditions, working knots, the developing science of knots, and decorative and other aspects of knots.Its authors include archaeologists who write on knots found in digs of ancient sites (one describes the knots used by the recently discovered Ice Man); practical knotters who have studied the history and uses of knots at sea, for fishing and for various life support activities; a historian of lace; a computer scientist writing on computer classification of doilies; and mathematicians who describe the history of knot theories from the eighteenth century to the present day.In view of the explosion of mathematical theories of knots in the past decade, with consequential new and important scientific applications, this book is timely in setting down a brief, fragmentary history of mankind's oldest and most useful technical and decorative device — the knot.