Yule Tied

“I had made ornaments years ago for a small tree in my house,” Jesse Scott Eaves recalls thinking when he was approached by folks from the Louisiana State Archives to see if he’d make some for a most unusual tree they had in mind for that institution’s lobby.

The idea was to have a nautically themed tree to complement the current exhibit on display at the Archives, “Louisiana Seafood: A Gulf de Lis,” which touts Louisiana’s bountiful seafood—from the processes used in production to the lifestyles of those who make their living on the Louisiana Gulf Coast.

The 71-year-old Eaves from Denham Springs is the only known Louisianan skilled in the art of marlinspike, amazingly fancy rope work, which he learned while serving as a U.S. Navy boatswain’s mate from 1958 to 1964.

“I learned early on that if you were good at it you didn’t have to paint as much; you didn’t have to swab the decks,” recalls Eaves wryly of a skill that was useful at least to him back then, but no longer has much application in the modern navy.

Yet he never lost his love for it.

His work, which is currently on display at the Archives, ranges from an astonishingly elaborate 40-by-40-inch knotted frame for a 1920s picture of two sailing ships, to highly decorated pins and mallets used on ships.

And when he was also asked to make ornaments for the tree, he was happy to oblige.

“I started making more—and one thing led to another—and I ended up making probably close to a hundred different items for the tree.”

Eaves works with nine different string sizes, plus quarter-inch rope, to tie a complex mix of different knots, including one of his favorites, the Star Knot.

“There’s any number of combinations that you can incorporate into those kinds of knots,” he explains.

The process can take anywhere from a couple of hours for a small ornament to six months for one of the intricate picture frames.

But says Eaves philosophically, “It really doesn’t matter how long it takes to do it because I get satisfaction out of doing it.”

And right there is a perfect little life lesson for the holidays, about how we all should choose to use our time.

Details. Details. Details.

The ten-foot marlinspike ornamented tree, along with the rest of the “Louisiana Seafood: A Gulf de Lis” exhibit will be on view through December 30 at the Louisiana State Archives, 3851 Essen Lane, in Baton Rouge. Admission is free. Archives hours are Monday—Friday, 8 am–4:30 pm and the first Saturday of each month, 9 am–5 pm.