Rope it

Material Research project, Design Academy Eindhoven. [2016]. As an ode to the Ancient craft of Rope making and a recent decline in traditional roperies, I developed ‘Recycling with a twist’. A children’s home rope making kit, that aims to sparke a new appreciation for the craft. The kit consists of a mini laser cut rope line and a book of inspiration on how to turn anything into rope, from bin bags and toilet paper to bedsheets and towels.

After a time spent at Albert Steenbergen’s family ropery ‘Touwslager’ I came to discover that we are potentially down to our last generation of rope makers, with only 3 large functioning roperies left in the Netherlands.

Transforming a collection of fibres so they can work together to form a new tool has been crucial to our historic civilisations. Taking an available material, twisting it into tension to give it strength, flexibility and through this, a new purpose is for me the essence of rope making. This is where I see big potential. Playing with and influencing the different qualities, strengths and aesthetics of that rope through a variable in the handcrafting is where I see inspiration.

How can we remind the new generation of the significance, and possibilities of the craft and get them inspired by rope?