Clifford Ashley (1881-1947), an American painter and writer, is probably better known as an expert knot tyer and the author of the magnificent The Ashley Book of Knots. You could do no better than to go to that source for thousands of intricate drawings of knots and the process of tying them. Since I can't tie a bowline without consulting a manual, I admire Ashley mainly as a drawer of knots. Ashley includes many knots that are primarily decorative. Some of these are closed loops (as are mathematical knots).
I call the knots on this page "Ashley knots", but of course many of them were invented long before Ashley. Please consult Ashley's book to see the origin of each of these knots.
Click on one of the following links to examine the knot in 3D with an interactive viewer (requires JavaScript support in your browser).
