If You Go
What: Live Nautical Knot Demonstration by Artisan John Trevvett
When: Saturday, June 20, 2026, from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Where: Mermaid Market at the VisitNorfolk Visitor Center, 232 E. Main St., Norfolk, VA
Cost: Free and open to the public
Exhibit Details: Trevvett’s handcrafted nautical knot art collection will remain on display at the Visitor Center throughout the month of June as part of Norfolk’s Sail250® Virginia celebrations.

For generations, sailors on square-rigged vessels spent their retirement translating their time on the water into art. Using traditional techniques like coachwhipping, plaits and Turk’s Heads, they fashioned complex decorative rope borders known as sennit frames. In 2026, this historic maritime craft is increasingly rare, with very little documentation existing from the 18th and 19th centuries. Only a handful of artisans worldwide still practice it.

“This was a dead art till the internet,” sennit artisan John Trevvett says, recounting how the craft was nearly lost to time. “There were people doing it, but they weren’t social media conscious.”

Based in Williamsburg, Trevvett is a Navy veteran whose history with ropework began practically, learning basic sailing knots to navigate the waters of the Chesapeake Bay. His focus shifted completely in 2020 during the pandemic shutdown. While watching the survival television show “Alone,” he noticed the contestants using paracord and decided to buy a few hanks (coils of rope) to try making simple military bracelets.

It didn’t take long for the YouTube algorithm to do its thing and he was soon going down a rabbit hole of traditional knot tyers. It was then that Trevvett experienced an unexpected breakthrough. 

“What really blew my mind was, I understood it and I could do it immediately,” Trevvett says. “I could all of a sudden understand extremely complex knot tying.”

Trevvett quickly moved from simple bracelets to recreating historic sennit frames, an intensely demanding process that requires weaving a variety of traditional nautical knots (including star knots and intricate decorative weaves) into a single structure. 

One collaborative frame co-created by Trevvett now hangs on full-time display in the Pentagon behind the desk of the Chief of Naval Operations. It required more than 5,000 feet of rope and weighs 82 pounds.

Trevvett’s work turns functional maritime utility into fine art, but he says it remains strictly a labor of love.

“It’s a passion. When I’m not playing golf or at church or with my grandkids, I’m tying knots.”

To help preserve the craft, Trevvett serves as an executive committee member for the United States for the International Guild of Knot Tyers and documents his methods on his YouTube channel, opening up once-guarded sailor secrets to a global audience.

For the month of June, a collection of Trevvett’s handcrafted nautical knot art is on display at the VisitNorfolk Visitor Center, serving as a featured exhibit during the city’s Sail250 celebrations. Trevvett will host a live nautical knot demonstration at the Visitor Center’s Mermaid Market on Saturday, June 20, 2026, from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. The event is free and open to the public, offering a rare opportunity to watch a master artisan keep a centuries-old naval tradition alive.