Art appears in the most unusual places. Like on one’s doorstep.
The porch of Donald Allen’s character house in Victoria showcases the roots and the reach of his artwork. Look down and you’ll see an intricate handwoven rope doormat with a Celtic flavour, one of Allen’s latest designs. Look up and you’ll see a Japanese shimenawa prayer rope strung between two posts.
“I like uniqueness. I like being unique. I like having unique things,” says Allen, a.k.a. the Rope Doctor, who sells his work through his website.
The shimenawa is believed to mark the boundary between the sacred and the profane, Allen explains. It keeps impurities out of the home and purifies the space within. The doormat also serves to sanctify the home, but in a more simplistic way: you use it to wipe your feet.
At the outdoor entrance to Allen’s studio workshop in the basement of his home, the Rope Doctor wipes his shoes on the relatively small and simple mat, one of the first he made and a reminder of how far he’s come. The mat has greyed from being out in the rain its whole life and is in stark contrast to the warm honey hue of the impressive assortment of mats on display in his studio.
“I’ve been playing with shape a lot lately. That’s my latest theme,” Allen says as he effortlessly weaves a single piece of manila rope into a semicircle mat, his most popular shape. His hands are clad in white cotton gloves that have lost their fingertips from use and are darkened from the mineral oil the rope is treated with. Allen loops the rope around pegs in the circular board he designed and built, the pattern committed to memory.
One of Donald Allen’s doormats.
Allen’s interest in rope and knots started in 1994, when he moved from Aylmer, Ontario, to Tofino, where he lived for 14 years before settling in Victoria. In the quaint costal community, he admired a few of the Tofino homes, boats and businesses that were adorned with fancy, nautical knotwork, and he even spotted a few doormats. Living in a cabin on a nameless island off Tofino, Allen was inspired to make doormats for his own home and boat. “I had no electricity and lots of rope, so this was my Saturday morning cartoon and crossword puzzle,” he says. “Just being out there, it’s hard to not be inspired to do something creative.”
In 2003, Allen started selling a few elementary mats at Tofino and Ucluelet markets. The response was overwhelming. For the first few years, Allen stuck to basic designs he learned in books, and in 2007, he created his first original endless-knot doormat. Since then, Allen’s designs have mushroomed, literally. In addition to rectangular and circular designs, the Rope Doctor has created heart patterns and even a mushroom shape, for a total of about 150 unique prototypes. “I could design them infinitely,” Allen says as he takes a break from weaving to flip through his impressive photographic portfolio. “When I create one design, there are usually five or six that follow. I just modify things slightly.”
When Allen is not working on fresh doormat designs, he’s developing new products. To date, he has made bumpers and fenders for boats, sailor bracelets, fishing floats and wreaths. Allen points to a hammock he’s working on, then picks up a large package ready to be sent to the U.S.; in it is a shimenawa for an undisclosed film set. “Making movie props is something I would like to be doing more of,” he says with a grin. “Setting up obstacles for Survivor or props for Pirates of the Caribbean.”
This is just one of the many directions the Rope Doctor envisions taking the business to see it grow. “Over the years, at the markets, I’ve seen so many people stop dead in their tracks at my table,” Allen says. “I feel this has the potential to be huge.”
