Handmade in America, the Trevails and Challenges of Manila Rope

We make everything you see on our website ourselves.  Our team works daily to keep our shops stocked while custom making bracelets and other cool work for you when you visit in person at either our main workshop on Cottrell Street in Downtown Mystic or our amazing new spot on the corner of the Olde Mistick Village on Coogan Blvd just off exit 90.

We've been hiding a shortfall in our raw materials, but that is finally over.

This year has introduced us to a new problem I had never anticipated:  Pacific Ocean Typhoons.  We've talked about this in shop that the only fiber we buy from overseas is our manila.  That classic brown fiber that connects us back to the age of sail.  As we talked about in our Environmental Thoughts post, the manila takes months to arrive.

Back in December, the factory and dock in the Philippines that makes our rope was hit by a typhoon.  Thanks to amazing evacuation efforts and warning systems, only two people were killed, but thousands of pounds of manila rope and the abacá fiber that it's made from was also damaged beyond repair.  So the restock we were expecting in March from over 8,500 miles away just arrived yesterday, after clearing customs up in Boston.  I'm amazed how quick they bounced back into operation.

This container of rope was ordered back in 2025, but today we finally get to pick it up and get back to work at full speed restocking our shops.  Seven months we've been worried about running out of manila for our mats, doorstops, and wreaths, but thankfully we didn't quite run completely out, but we only had the material left for 10 more doormats when we finally got the call.

I'm proud that we continue our family and town's tradition of nautical knotwork. The stress of this shipment and the storm is just another reason we focus on sourcing our raw materials in America as much as we can.