Business booming, Mystic Knotworks opens second store
Matt Beaudoin and wife start another shop just down the road from first
Mystic — Matt Beaudoin opened the second retail location of Mystic Knotwork at the end of June, and amid growing demand for bracelets, coasters, keychains, dog toys and table holders, he is not slowing down.
He said he will probably be shopping for a third location in a year or so. Mystic Knotwork has made more sales this month than it did in all of 2010. It has more than 200 wholesale accounts across the country, up from 70 in 2015.
“We’re ready to break out,” Beaudoin said. “Right now we’re building a team and getting ready to really rocket this thing.”
With business booming, Beaudoin and his wife, Jill, opened the second store at the corner of East Main and Holmes streets, where Puffins gift shop had space before downsizing. Its manager is their daughter, Christa Clarke.
“I’ve always liked the lighthouse, I’ve always liked this corner,” Matt Beaudoin said. He jokes that Jill wanted a place closer to her family in Hampton. How much closer is it than the first Mystic Knotwork location? According to Google Maps, 446 feet.
The first store opened at 25 Cottrell St. in 2015. Beaudoin said its purpose had been about 80 percent retail and 20 percent workshop, but with the addition of a second store, that is now flipped.
One of the company’s biggest sellers is the sailor bracelet, which costs $5 or $6 each. Mystic Knotwork has been making sailor bracelets nonstop since 1957, when Alton Beaudoin — Matt’s grandfather — started the family knot shop out of his house.
In 2008, Matt Beaudoin left his corporate job and changed the name from Beaudoin’s Rope Locker to Mys-
tic Knotwork. Jill began making sailor bracelets in color the same year, and Matt eventually invested in custom-made, professionally dyed cord.
That has been a major expense, as is the hours Matt loses by training each new employee for 20 hours.
One worker is 17-yearold Voluntown resident Eli Lachapelle, who is working at Mystic Knotwork full-time this summer before starting college at the University of Rhode Island. His involvement in the Boy Scouts and interest in fishing got him into knot-tying.
One day this week, he sat in the new shop working on a shackle bracelet and a floating keychain, which is made by tying a monkey fist knot over a pingpong ball and keeping the whipping in place with Duco Cement.
“What I like about working here is being able to contribute to handmade,” Lachapelle said. “I like to see that things are still being made in America.”
It’s important to Beaudoin that his employees be able to carry on “pleasant, interesting conversations” while they’re working, he said, because “this work is rote. Once you’re into it, it’s really a muscle memory process.”
He spent his conversation with The Day making coasters, with navy, pink and gray rope slung over his shoulder.
In addition to products made at Mystic Knotwork, the new store will be selling woven bags from Colonial Mills in Pawtucket, R.I. The Holmes Street location also will have Manila rope doormats and paintings by Joshua Prescott, and nautical clutches Sarah Rodriguez makes from marine vinyl.
Beaudoin said that while there are Etsy sellers and other manufacturers of knotwork, he runs the only retail knot stores in the country. This makes him believe that the Artisan Knots sketch on the IFC satire show “Portlandia” is a jab at his business, though he hasn’t gotten confirmation.
In the 3-minute sketch, a couple enters a knot store seeking a housewarming gift for a friend. Slightly confused, the woman asks, “Is it a utilitarian thing, or...?”
The owner, played by Jeff Goldblum, replies, “Nope. Nope.”
Two years ago, Beaudoin commented on a YouTube video of the sketch saying he actually runs a knot shop in Mystic, with “2,000 square feet of knots but sadly nothing underglass. His shop is much more upscale than ours.”
And Beaudoin’s handcrafted goods serve a purpose far beyond decoration.
“Every knot we tie in the shop here had a practical purpose at one point,” Beaudoin said. Coasters were used as pads to protect the pulley and deck from damage, while a doormat would be placed under the fluke of an anchor or across the top of the ship, so ladders wouldn’t chafe or dig in.
One-third of the business is nautical-themed weddings, with products including boutonnieres, spherical knot holders for the cards on tables, napkin rings, centerpieces and favors.
Places where Mystic Knotworks products can be found include L.L. Bean, the Mystic Army Navy Store, the JFK Library in Boston, Nantucket Whaling Museum and Sea Bags.
The hours for the new store are 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Wednesday, 10:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, and noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday.
“Every knot we tie in the shop here had a practical purpose at one point.” MATT BEAUDOIN, OWNER OF MYSTIC KNOTWORKS