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Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program Year 14 Presentation: Maritime Rope Making and Knot Tying

Date15 September 2012

MediumBorn Digital Video

ClassificationsGraphics

Credit LineConnecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collections

Description2015.196.1663.1: Video from the Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program Year 14 final presentation, showing Barbara Merry and Joe Battaglia talking about and demonstrating maritime knot tying

Object number2015.196.1663.1

NotesSubject Note: In Year 14 (2011-2012) of the Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program, Barbara Merry taught Joe Battaglia and Aaron Hawkins maritime rope making techniques: splicing (both rope and wire), braiding, knotting, and determining load bearing. Both men created items that they used: Joe made boat fenders out of recycled scrap rope that becomes dangerous in the sea to fish and whales – he uses the fenders in his work as a marine scientist, and they are a great re-use of problematic old materials. Aaron developed a rope border design for a line of fancy ceramic plates and a rope gear holder, both for commercial jobs. Aaron also carved a gauge stick that was needed for their netting projects, the gauge stick is used to keep each mesh in the hammock the same size. Public presentations of their learning took place at an Open House at Barbara’s shop The Marlinspike Artist in Wakefield RI on 9/15/2012; and at the Working Waterfront Festival, New Bedford MA 9/29,30/2012.

Biographical Note: Barbara Merry is a marine rope worker with decades of experience in the splicing trade. Founder and owner of the Marlinspike Artist in Wakefield RI, she has worked on projects for boats of all sizes, from small traditional sailing craft and working schooners to commercial fishing vessels and US Coast Guard cutters as well as for the US Navy in Newport RI. She has taught at the WoodenBoat School and the Northeast Maritime Institute, and has written on rope and rope technology for “WoodenBoat” and “Invention and Technology” magazines. Barbara is co-author, with John Darwin, of The Splicing Handbook. Her studio in Galilee is visited regularly by fishermen (and women), as well as by tugboat and tanker workers who want to learn a particular knot or a rope splicing technique. Barbara learned marlinspike seamanship from Alan Merry in the late 1980s; she is particularly adept at making "fancy work" (ornamental knotting and ropework). Barbara demonstrated rope work at the Working Waterfront Festival for many years, and served as a mentor in RISCA’s Folk Arts Apprenticeship Program. She later served as a teaching artist for the Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program as well as in Rhode Island and Massachusetts schools.

Subject Note: The Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program is a CCHAP initiative since 1997 that fosters the sharing of community-based traditional (folk) artistic skills through the apprenticeship learning model of regular, intensive, one-on-one teaching by a skilled mentor artist to a student/apprentice. The program pairs master artists from RI, MA, or CT with apprentices from one of the other states, as a way to knit together members of the same community or group across state lines. Teaching and learning traditional arts help to sustain cultural expressions that are central to a community, while also strengthening festivals, arts activities and events when master/apprentice artists perform or demonstrate results of their cooperative learning to public audiences. The Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program at the Connecticut Historical Society manages the program in collaboration with the Folk Arts Program at the Massachusetts Cultural Council and independent folklorist Winifred Lambrecht who has a deep knowledge of the folk arts landscape of Rhode Island. Primary funding for the program comes from the National Endowment for the Arts, with support also from the Connecticut Commission on the Arts, the Institute for Community Research, and the Connecticut Historical Society.

Additional materials exist in the CCHAP archive for these artists and this project.

Cataloging Note: This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services MA-245929-OMS-20.

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