Monday 11 May 2015

Get knotted!

According to my dictionary, macrame is a noun and the name given
to the art of knotting string in patterns to make decorative
articles such as spider plant holders.
Truly underwhelming
But why?
Why go to all that trouble?
They'll die just as quickly standing in a saucer on the window
sill, no need to hang them at all.  I didn't understand the
fascination back in the 60's and I still don't get it now.
Must have been a long trip.  I wonder what they were modelled on?
I can sort of see why sailors away from home for months on end
would feel compelled to make decorative bell ropes out of bits
of old twine simply in order to keep away the boredom of the
voyage not to mention the rest of the crew.  But next thing you'll
ask me to believe is that it can be just as absorbing as making
little cotton crosses in neat little patterns all over a piece
of linen!  Never!

Come now Julia, don't be too hasty.
None of your sweeping generalisations on this blog please.
There are always exceptions to the rule and I've just found one
of them - religious macrame icons.  I kid you knot!
The boy Vlad with some of his work.
Vladimir (the knotter, not the knitter or the impaler) Denschchikov
was born on 1st July 1952 in Kiev.  He's an actor and teacher by
professon and director of the Simferopol Crimea Maxim
Gorky Academic Russian Drama Theatre, to mention but a few.
However, back in 2007, after suffering a stroke, he took up macrame
as a therapy to help restore the use of his hands, and so that's when
it all kicked off.
Deep in the Ukraine, entirely self taught and using nothing but his
bare hands and imagination, he creates his amazing masterpieces
entirely from millions of tiny, precise little knots with the exception
of the faces and hands of the saints he is depicting which are
painted on canvas and attached seperately.
Vlad has become so immersed in his passion that he even makes
the thread he uses from fine linen cloth.  The process is time consuming
as the cloth has first to be soaked in water before being taken apart
one thread at a time.  Thank goodness for DMC is all I can say.
Each tiny icon represents hour upon hour of relentless, eye-straining
work with even the smallest of projects measuring 40 x 50cm
taking anything between three to six months to complete.
Don't try this at home.  You might go blind and you certainly
won't have any time left over to catch up on your Long Dog's either.
There's no denying that Vladimir's work is skilled and beautiful,
perhaps even divinely inspired, but I still find myself repeating
my original question:  Macrame - why?

No comments:

Post a Comment