Zen and the Art of Celtic Knots

I spent a lot of time drawing Celtic Knots this summer, in a little journal. It helped me meditate, as it were. And it’s been a while. But the journal was here, lunch time was here, and my embroidery was a 10 minute drive away.

I have been reading about Fresnel lenses, and wondered what would happen if I started similar structures in a knot. This first knot is still fairly straightforward, and I already have several ideas on how I can expand/improve it for the next version. So let’s look at the in-progress pictures where I’m using the method described in the Celtic Knots Class Handout.

Basic skeleton drawn in pencil on graphic paper.

Added dots — Adding dots in the center of every square.

Added ribbons in one direction — Adding ribbons in one direction; each ribbon has two sides that each go from a point in the center of a square to a corner square.

Added ribbons in second direction — Adding ribbons in the second direction.

Begin inking the ribbons — Now that all the ribbons have been penciled in, I begin inking the ribbons, and now I follow one ribbon around the knot at a time.