After acquiring a rope, the first thing I do is wash them. This takes a whole day to do. I use three buckets. One with soapy water, one with clean water, and one with holes in it for rinsing. I agitate the rope in the soapy water, pull it out, while ringing it out, directly into the clean water. Agitate. Pull it out, while ringing it out, into the bucket with holes. Rinse. Then I repeat this process at least three times or until the water is no longer dirty. The ropes are then hung out to dry, which can take up to two days.
The next step is to weave the rope into a unique pattern. This happens to be the easiest part of the whole process. This normally takes about a day or two. Depending on how many times I’ve made the specific pattern. With practice comes ease. I don’t use a peg board or jig because I want to make sure I use the entirety of the rope. They are not all the same length. Even if they are all labeled a certain size, over the course of their climbing life, they are stretched or even cut.
The final step is the most tedious. Sewing. With a quilters needle and a strong denim thread I spend up to five days making sure to sew the entire rug together so that it doesn’t come unraveled at any point. This happens to be the most painful part of the process as well. Some ropes are more dense than others making it difficult to get the needle through adding more time and effort.
The rugs I make are all unique and have a story that I wish to encapsulate within them. Saving the stories and the memories from rotting away in a landfill.
I hope that you enjoy my products and that your rug lasts a lifetime or more.
Thank you.
Summits Past