Page 121 - Lydia Chen - The Complete Book of Chinese Knotting

07 Creative Designs (115-129) 3/23/07 4:59 PM Page 118

Real and Imaginary Creatures

It is a challenge to use Chinese knots to project phoenix and other creatures, some
real, others imaginary, that are found on early artifacts, or the flying maidens and
dancers depicted in ancient wall paintings. Chinese knotting is limited in the sense
that it cannot express itself as freely as painting or sculpture. It is very difficult, even
with the best knotting technique, to express movement and life.
Ancient knitting artists sometimes remedied this situation by adding paint to
their works. The author was thus inspired to do the same. In this section, in addition
to presenting the best in Chinese knotting, some other techniques for adding life to
the work are given in order to achieve the maximum impact.

Designs 1 and 2 are representations of
1 phoenixes found on brassware from the
Warring States Period.The bench on which the
birds are perching in Design 1 is very typical of
this period and makes the entire knot formation
very lively and reminiscent of the times.
The big, round eyes and drooping tail in the
original work can only be expressed by using the
round brocade knot with compound outer loops.
To show the majesty of the birds, tie double con-
nection knots and embellish them with red cords
to represent feathers.

TYING INSTRUCTIONS
1. Use the round brocade knot with compound
outer loops to knot the head of each phoenix.The
number of ear loops depends on the size of the
phoenix’s head and eyes plus the number of outer
loops needed in the two sketches. Fourteen ear
loops are used here.Wrap every second ear loop.
The last cord end must come out from an appro-
priate part of the knot body.
2. Make the feathers by knotting numerous single
loop double connection knots.
3. Make the claws from two clover leaf knots with
two outer loops.
4. Knot the bench on which the birds are perching
using the modified pan chang knotting technique.
5. Adjust and tighten the phoenixes’ heads first,
then knot and tighten each knot unit until com-
pletion.You can also tighten the whole formation
after the entire design is completed, but in that
case you would have to use a lot more cord dur-
ing the knotting of the design.

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