Continuous Line knots in tempered metal forged by Doug Eglen. Photo by Doug sent to Mick Burton, April 2025.
Doug Eglen contacted me in March 2025 to say that he had recently started having an interest in knots and unknots and came across my painting of Haken’s Gordian knot, which you can see in my earlier posts of 9 May 2018 and 5 June 2015
Continuous Line Artist view of Haken’s Gordian Knot.
How do you construct Haken’s Gordian Knot?
He asked for my permission to paint his own version of the Gordian knot, based upon my painting. He intended to exhibit his painting, along with the new metal knots which he was producing in his forge. Doug has an exhibit case at Purdue University, Indiana, in the Math department library. I agreed, and answered his questions about assumptions he had made about the construction of my painting.
Doug later sent me a copy of his painting. This is impressive, as are his metal knots, and you can see them on his website
https://http://www.deglen.org/math-art
I particularly liked Doug’s photo of his 3/8″ square metal, in what I would call a sort of “double boomerang” shape without any twists.
Doug Eglen square 3/8″ metal without twists in a continuous line, copied to Mick Burton.
The alternate over and under style, like Celtic knotwork, produces great highlight graduations as well as suggestions of colour that Doug achieves with his firing treatments. I like the dark shade of the sides of the metal compared with the shadow of the piece. I would like to draw this.
At school, when I was 12, I produced a metal poker with brass handle which has a half twist. I have had no further experience of metal work.
Brass handle with half twist on my poker, made at school when I was 12. Mick Burton, continuous line artist.
I did do some wire bending to produce a single continuous line wire horse in 1967. At first I placed it underneath a piece of clear glass covering the dining table, to hold it down. Then I secured it to a wooden board through a centre page magazine photo of a horse grazing in a meadow.
Continuous line Horse in a length of garden wire done in 1967. Mick Burton.
Next, I went sculptural and used cardboard strips to take the Horse a stage further in 1970 when I lived in Nottingham.
Continuous line Horse using strips of cardboard 1970. Mick Burton.
I showed it to someone at work who’s Dad owned a company which produced steel castings. He said he would ask his Dad about the possibilities of doing a metal horse. The answer was a “Yes”, but it would cost me £3,000 ! I now know someone who’s cousin does 3D printing, so maybe I can get a more reasonable quote now.
Of course, this is all “small beer” compared to Doug Eglen’s metal workings.
Mick Burton 