Folk Heritage Award recipient Marvin Grant knows exactly how many hammocks he’s made

Hammock maker Marvin Grant of Pawleys Island received the Jean Laney Harris Folk Heritage Award in 2012. Watch Grant at work in the video below.

From WPDE.com

Report by Joel Allen

Pawleys Island is well known for its hammocks and hammock weavers, like Marvin Grant, who has been doing it for 22 years and knows exactly how many he’s made.

It’s up to 21,217 hammocks for Grant, as of National Hammock Day, July 22.

With swift and effortless motion, Grant does his hammock handiwork, demonstrating the craft to anyone who stops by his little shop.

“To keep them from asking me a thousand questions, I prefer to teach them how to do it, so I don’t have answer all of their questions,” Grant said.Madison Martin, 17, said she absorbed quite a bit from Marvin in just a few minutes.

“Learned how to make a bracelet, I learned how to end a hammock, the weighted knot. He just is full of knowledge,” Martin said.

Grant said it really doesn’t take a lot of artistry or hard work to make a hammock. He says all it really requires is patience.

“If you don’t have patience, you ain’t gonna be doing this,” Grant said. ” ‘Cause it’s the same thing, over and over and over and over again.”

In the late 1800’s, riverboat captain Joshua John Ward designed the original rope hammock with a wooden crossbar that’s still being sold in Pawleys Island today.

For keeping the hammock weaving craft alive, Marvin won the Jean Laney Harris Folk Heritage Award from the South Carolina Arts Commission and McKissick Museum a few years ago.

But does he enjoy relaxing in a hammock himself after a long day?

“No, I don’t want to see none. That’s all I do all day,” Grant said with a smile.

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