The history of the obscure art form of knotted picture frames (often referred to as sennit frames) is limited for various reasons. The practice of making such items was not common even during the 18th and 19th centuries. Sailors of square rigged vessels who worked “before the mast” were highly skilled knot tyers and every so often, upon retiring from a life at sea, would apply their skills to creating a knotted picture frame. They would show off every fancy knot they knew, attach them to a wooden picture frame … put a picture of their wife or daughter in it and hang it over the mantle. There it would sit until he died and then likely go into the attic. The evidence for this assumption is that in those times sealing the fibers of the frames was uncommon. With each passing year these old frames became dirtier and dirtier. The oldest surviving frames were sealed with Navy Spar Varnish giving them a deep amber hue. Even the most renowned maritime museums have little knowledge of these frames. There are only a handful of these old frames in any museum and of those that do have some, few are on display. After researching the subject I made a decision to make every effort to preserve this art form. I am not only continuing to create new frames for various clients but, I am sharing my knowledge of “how to” via my YouTube Channel. The channel consists of tutorials of knots and frame creation methods and techniques I use.
