The Author

An early career as a fashion model led Lois Rose Rose to involvement in all aspects of costuming, including designing and making costumes and ornaments, each of which required development of skills with many materials. A venture into silk screening added other skills. Making jewelry became a hobby, then a sideline. The same sequence occurred with greeting cards. And magnetic bookmarks et with much cetera.

Producing fashion shows and programs was an outgrowth of those activities. Clients include The Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History, the Craft and Folk Art Museum, The Bead Society, The Pomegranate Society, Sephardic Temple Tifereth Israel, various Women’s Clubs, Elderhostels, and TIME. A course in design was developed for UCLA Extension. As the author of Seeing Solomon’s Knot, Lois Rose Rose has begun presentation of several kinds of programs on that subject.

The Knot

At some time or some other time, the author encountered Solomon’s knot. Oh, Solomon. King Solomon of Israel. Must be a Jewish symbol. Symbol of wisdom, perhaps. But in twenty-five years of traveling, Lois Rose Rose seemed to see Solomon’s knot everywhere. It was in an old Celtic carving and elsewhere in Europe. It was on an African king’s headdress. On doors, floors, and carpets throughout the Middle East, there was Solomon’s knot.

At first, the assumption was that the knot went back 5,000 plus years. Then earlier and earlier uses were discovered. There were references to 30,000 years ago. Now, it might be asked: Is the knot 100,000 years old?

The knot is carved, painted, sculpted, stitched, crocheted, knitted, inlaid, beaded, and, one supposes, tattoed.

The knot has other names and appears in various forms: rounded, squared, mitered, embellished. It provides lessons in art and geometry. Ideal proportions have been proposed; freehand is always possible. Perhaps, before geometry had a name, the knot was a universal step that followed circle and oval.

The knot has gone from geometry to chemistry. Recently, chemists
who were creating molecules for some other reason produced a
Solomon’s knot molecule.

With all that to see, a designer had to think of pulling aspects and
images together.

The Book

Pulling aspects and images together produced the book,
Seeing Solomon’s Knot.

It’s a big book filled with information and illustrations in glorious color: over eighty images of Solomon’s knot, text to narrate the author’s quest and explain what was found, poetic commentary, an extensive annotated bibliography, and more.

The author calls it a “read aloud art book” that makes the “grandfather of knots” memorable.

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