Arts Special Section
Knot-ical Inspiration
A MACRAME CRAFTSMAN FINDS BEAUTY IN THE UNEXPECTED , TURNING UTILITARIAN ROPE AND MARINE DETRITUS INTO MAGNIFICENT WORKS OF ART .
By ASHLEY BREEDING
It ’ s early morning and Jim Olarte is crouched at the foot of a worktable in his Glenneyre Street studio . Ambient music from the “ Blade Runner 2049 ” soundtrack contrasts with the cheerful solstice sun spilling through windows on all sides of the cedar-shake cottage . Smoke from nag champa incense — thought to clear negative energy — sends notes of sandalwood into the air as it falls onto a mound of ashes accumulated over years .
Olarte , a macrame craftsman , tugs steadily at 60 feet of braided white cotton rope after knotting it around a thick core of three Manila hemp lines . A mess of excess rope falls at his feet ; across the table , an intricate corkscrew pattern , connected at the top to a square-knot strand with inverse colors , emerges as a work of art .
“ We ’ re building 12 feet , three-quarters of an inch at a time ,” says Olarte , who wears khaki board shorts and an off-black T-shirt with an orange Tom of Finland bandanna poking out from the collar . He loops the braided rope around the Manila core once again , forming a “ 4 ,” then pulls it under and through .
“[ It ’ s ] a universe of knots ,” he says . “ These individual components together create this beautiful symphony .”
Olarte rarely uses the word “ I ,” but instead humbly says “ we ,” referring to design partner Cooper Root . They can each create a 15- to 20-foot-long piece in about eight hours if they knot continuously . “ It ’ s meditative ,” Olarte says .
This particular composition is just a sample , but a web of other installations — some commissioned by big clients — dangle throughout the studio like a kelp forest . Root is finishing a vertical square-knot panel , 6 feet long by 4.5 feet wide , that drops from ceiling hooks . It ’ s one of four panels they ’ re making for a restaurant in Monterey .
In the distance , sketches and renderings are tacked to a wall . Spools of nautical rope , in both neutrals and colors that mimic varying depths of the sea , clutter the floor . Some rope was purchased by Olarte ; others he and Root found washed up from shipwrecked boats .
Focusing primarily on large-scale projects , Olarte says , he and Root conceive and create macrame art for several commercial and residential interior designers in Orange County , Los Angeles , the Bay Area and beyond . Locally , you ’ ll find installations at Bluebird Mercantile , Laguna Coffee Co ., both Laguna Supply stores , A ’ Maree ’ s in Newport Beach , and Lido House hotel in Newport , where their black and Manila knots stretch three stories high .
Artist Jim Olarte ( opposite page ) creates large-scale macrame installations made from nautical rope — some purchased and some found washed up from shipwrecked boats .
THIS SPREAD : ETHAN JONES
54 LAGUNABEACHMAGAZINE . COM