Page 348 - The Complete Rigger’s Apprentice
P. 348

CHAPTER 10







































                                     Fancy Work










             What with the years-long voyages that used to be  intricacy. I know, I know—picky, picky, picky. But
             the rule in olden days, sailors would find themselves  as long as we have the fruit of thousands of hours of
             with a lot of time on their hands, and lines in them.  boredom (the Mother of Invention?), why not take a
             Given patience, trial and error, and that peculiarly  little time and make good use of it?
             human urge to create semi-useful frippery, hun-
             dreds of beautiful, intricate complications came into
             being: fancy work. It’s an art form like scrimshaw          HITCHING
             or woodcarving, but unlike these pursuits, its artful-
             ness is intrinsic to its use; what’s right for a bellrope  For instance, there’s decorative hitching, a way to
             is wrong for a thump mat.                   cover cylindrical objects with twine to provide chaf-
                Today fancy work is too often mere decoration  ing gear or a more comfortable handhold. The sim-
             made with no concern for proportion or appropriate  plest form is French Hitching (Figure 10-1), a series

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