Handmade in Kailua, Hawaii
Studio Knotty didn’t begin with a business plan. It began with a move to Hawaii, a campsite, some rope, and the simple pleasure of making something by hand.
Where it started
When I first moved to Hawaii, I spent time camping at Malaekahana Beach Campgrounds in Kahuku, on the North Shore of Oahu. I started making macramé there and selling pieces right from my campsite. It was wonderfully simple: rope in my hands, Hawaii around me, and the chance to create something that someone else wanted to take home.
I didn’t know then exactly where it would lead. I just knew I loved the process—the knots, the textures, the colors, and watching a piece develop its own personality as I worked.
Every piece has a story
The names of my designs aren’t chosen from a list after a piece is finished. Every Studio Knotty design is named for someone I was thinking about while I was creating it.
Often she’s a dog I’ve photographed or loved. Sometimes she’s a cat or a horse, and occasionally she’s a person. They are always female.
A design starts taking on its own personality as I make it—and eventually, I know her name.
That means a Sierra, Juliet, Becca, Maggie or Andrea is more than a style name to me. There is a memory, a personality or a connection behind it. No two handmade designs are alike, and I like that their names aren’t anonymous either.
A creative life shaped by animals
Macramé is one part of a creative life that has always been closely connected to animals. For more than 20 years, I’ve also run my animal photography business, Every Dog Has a Story, photographing dogs, horses and the relationships people have with them.
Photography and fiber art may look like very different things, but to me they share a lot: color, texture, composition, patience, individuality, and paying attention to the small details that make something—or someone—distinctive.
Animals are part of my life beyond photography, too. I’ve spent years helping with fostering, rescue and TNR—Trap-Neuter-Return. In fact, Malaekahana Beach Campgrounds, where I was making those early macramé pieces, was also where I discovered feral cats that needed help. In a way, two threads of my life that are still important to me today began in the same place.
Made by hand in Hawaii
Today, Studio Knotty has a real studio in Kailua, but the heart of it hasn’t changed much from those first days at the campground. I still make the pieces by hand. I still love experimenting with color, rope and design. And I still want what I make to feel personal rather than mass-produced.
My hope is that when one of my pieces finds its way into your home, it becomes part of your story too—holding a favorite plant, filling an empty corner, bringing in a color you love, or simply being one of those things that makes a room feel more like you.
From my hands to your home
Studio Knotty is about making something beautiful, making it well, and making it with a story behind it.
Thank you for being here—and for becoming part of the story.