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Introduction
Knotwork began in the work of the Celtic silver and goldsmiths of over 2000 years ago and was used to decorate weapons, war helms and high status drinking and eating vessels as well as torcs and personal jewellery. Only in the Middle Ages did what we today think of as 'Celtic knotwork' evolve. These were used by the Christian scribes to decorate the volumes they were copying and illuminating.
Yet the methods used by the Medieval scribes do harken back to the work of those early metalsmiths and the actual techniques used to create the basic knot forms are the same. However, if you've ever tried to reproduce a sample of Celtic knotwork on your own you will probably have found it a very frustrating experience. The patterns are very intricate and despite their ordered appearance they are complex and it's east yo get lost.
What you don't know is the trick that those ancient metalsmiths and ancient scribes used to create their own notwork. The regular pattern is actually what gives the game away as to how it was done. The whole thing is mathematically regular and you can use simple geometry to help guide you in the basic pattern. Which is exactly what the scribes did.
Indeed, if you look at an illuminated manuscript from 1500 years ago you will see patterns of lines and dots on them. These are the guide lines that you need to create your on knotwork! I am going to show you the exact technique you need to employ. Admittedly, this will be a simple repeating knot with a few variants. But once you know the basics and have practised them a few times you will have the confidence to move on to bigger and better things.
Start with the basics and everything else will follow from there.
First of all, the basic rules. In traditional knotwork he cords that form the knots are of uniform width and the pattern has an over and under construction. If the knot starts by going over the knot adjacent to it then the next time it will go under. This pattern is repeated throughout the knotwork, This means that for a complete knot you need an even number of elements.
Note that this exercise is intended to teach you how to draw knots on paper. For computer work just draw one basic knot element (one set of over and under overlaps) and repeat this the desired number of times). In my opinion, however, unless you learn the technique on paper you will never fully understand how it works and the more complex knots will always stump you.
Starting is simplicity itself. You need ruled (or preferably grid) paper. On most graph papers an unit is typically a grouping of 4 squares together. Mark-off a rectangle 2 units high and 22 units wide. Mark the centres of each unit in the top and bottom lines with dots (22 dots spaced 1 unit apart on the top and bottom). Now mark the two outside dots at each end (again in the centres of the left hand and right hand units. This gives you a rough oval shape, as below. Do this as lightly as you can with a pencil so you can erase the marks later!
Now begin at one corner and join all the dots at a 45°C angle. Basically, you're intersecting the middle of each square in the grid. Once you've made it all the way across (from bottom right to top left, for example) turn your ruler around and repeat the process from top right to bottom left. You will now have a messy page! But I hope you can now see that the basic knot forms (at least their centres) are defined.
Next you need to join all the open ends of the lines together... Start with all the middle sections and wherever you see two adjacent lines or dots draw a curved line to join them. Repeat this at the top and bottom. That's most of the knot done. All you need to do now is to draw in the corners. Which is best done as shown below. Again, you're linking the two corner dots that aren't joined to anything together.
If you erase the distracting dots and re-draw the lines there what you will get is a nice knotwork or criss-crossing lines. Now comes the part where you need to concentrate. Remember that Celtic knotwork follows an over and under pattern. Start at one corner and follow the knot. At the first intersection erase one cord's lines so that the cord you're following seems to go over. Erase the next set of lines so that the cord you're following seems to go 'under'. Repeat this over and under pattern all the way along the cord until you're back at the starting point.
You've now drawn a basic endless looping knot and if you like you can just begin filling it in and you will have:
But for something more exciting then break the plait at the third and ninth intersections (the top row, above) and the sixth intersection at the bottom (in the middle) so that you have four loose ends. Now re-draw those loose ends so that they join back to themselves on the same side of the break (previously they would have joined to the opposite side of the break.
Now continue to fill in and you will have the pattern below... It's still an unbroken knot, it's just that those breaks and re-joins make it more interesting to look at and adding that extra level of complexity really wasn't hard, was it? The thing is that the basic pattern can be any size you want.
For example there's one of he smallest units you can make which is two units high and three wide:
This can easily be doubled up to give a design that's three units high and four wide:
It's much more complex and pleasing to look at, but it's only one unit larger in each direction than the preceding knot and the construction method is exactly the same as that of the original knot you worked with. You just start with a differently-sized grid.
