Hand-crafted Knot Jewelry:
Decorative Marlingspike Seamanship rendered in precious metal.
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One of the questions that I am asked most frequently, in discussing my jewelry, is "What in the world is a Turk's Head?". Here is a quote from "The Ashley Book Of Knots", by Clifford W. Ashley, on the subject:
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The Turk's-Head is a tubular knot that is usually made around a cylindrical object, such as a rope, a stanchion, or a rail. It is one of the varieties of the Binding Knot, and serves a great diversity of practical purposes but it is perhaps even more often used for decoration only; for which reason, it is usually classed with "fancy knots." Representations of the Turk's-Head are often carved in wood, ivory, bone, and stone.
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In my case, rather than a "representation" of a knot, I tie the actual knot, but in precious metal. In the following pages, you will see various examples of these knots, which form rings, bracelets, medallions, bezels, and chains. While the underlying theme is just one fairly simple knot, the range of possibilities available in its use are boundless.
My most frequently ordered items are rings, either single rings or matched sets. My rings are tied by hand, one by one, unique and distinctive.
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The knots are described in terms of the number of leads (complete turns around the cylinder) and bights (loops from edge to edge), and additionally by the number of times the path is completed.(See an example) I've managed to make rings of a number of different patterns, but all of them have at least five leads. I have seen rings made with only three leads, generally of several twisted strands, available from other jewelers, but I've never seen any rings as complex as my seven-lead knots. As far as I can tell, I am the only person in the world screwy enough to even consider tying a turk's head ring with as many as seven leads, much less nine or eleven. (Recently (May 2002) a wire-artist on the Creative Wire Jewelry forum on Delphi.com used my examples here to make some complex rings, including a seven lead by eight bight ring. Congratulations, Ron! Also, Grey Chisholm of Fair Winds Design has come up with some seven-lead knots that just amaze the heck out of me.) (This just in, July of '06, Cevulirn on The Ring Lord did a ring with 13 leads. Nice!) I would welcome news of any others, so please email me if you've run across rings like mine. Also, feel free to email me with comments - you can use the feedback page on this site if your browser doesn't handle "mailto" links. Note: If you ask me a question or submit an order without including the correct spelling for your email address, there's no way I can guess at it. Please don't hesitate to follow up if you don't hear from me within a day or so.
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