If you want to make your own hammock and you have not ever made one before, be prepared to make more than one. I have some very amusing memories as to how my first hammock manufacturing attempts went. If I remember correctly I think I even sold the second one. I hope they didn’t hurt themselves too badly.

Before you start the process you must make a decision as to which type of hammock you want to make. And a word of warning here. If you are going to do this project as a labor of love, then great carry on, but if you are doing this to save money – beware. You are unlikely to save money doing it yourself. I am not joking. Experience has taught me that about 75% of all first hammocks break tear or collapse in the first minutes of use. However if you are doing it to startup a hammock business, then you need that failure experience. It will stand you in good stead in the future.

The most popular type of hammock is the standard type of two point canvass or rope style. These are probably also the easiest to make. Most of these are so basic that all you really need is 2 meters of fabric and 2 poles. You need to consider the hammock chair type of hammocks, and the very popular hiking and camping types. Once you have a good idea as to which general direction you want to go in, you must break down the details even further.

You will need to decide on whether to go for lightweight or for heavier padded or canvass types. This would depend on how portable you need the hammock to be. If you are going to manufacture it on the spot it is going to hang, you have no restrictions at all. You could use steel cable and chains. Then couple that up with chunky wood and industrial strength canvass. My opinion is you would end up with a great looking avant-garde industrial hammock. Whether it will be comfortable or not is a good question.

Perhaps the best advice I could give you is to use the following items and to keep the whole process as simple as possible. So, get some ripstop nylon, also known as parachuting fabric, do not get the crackly type. It must feel soft and silky to the touch. Some of the “crackly” types have been treated or have had a backing attached and you might find it is weakened a bit. Then make sure that you do all the sewing with industrial cotton, and preferably on an industrial machine. Just one small tip here, take care it is important. Set your stitch length wide. If you have the stitches very tiny it creates the same effect as that “tear-along-the-dotted-line’ thing and you run the risk of tearing it easily.

If you feel confused at all, rather buy a hammock, hang it up and lie in it while you contemplate what to do next.

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Hammock accessories are essential. Without the clips and hooks you would not be able to hook up most hammocks. The care and maintenance of your hammock is very important. It does not help you if you pay for a hammock hang it up and leave it there to rot. Things like clips to be able to remove the hammock easily, and covers that you could pull over the hammock to protect it all work very well. I have compiled a brief list of the more common accessories that are available to you for the use with and care of your hammock.

Wall hooks.

Wall hooks come in many shapes sizes and strength. But essentially they do what they say. Clip your hammock to an eyebolt mounted onto the wall. It allows you to remove and re-hang it quickly. It also allows you to have a few places that are pre setup to hang the hammock.

Cushions.

Cushions are something that if you do not have and use then you run the risk of getting a serious pain in the neck. There is a large variety of cushions that you can get. Choose wisely, it will affect your happiness.

Footrests.

Footrests generally are for the hanging chair or hammock chair type of hammock. These have the advantage of turning a chair shaped experience into more of a lying down hammock. The beauty of this is that when you have got tired of lying down you pack the footrest away and bingo, back into a chair.

Ceiling hooks.

As I am a little larger than the normal sized person, the strength of ceiling hooks are very important to me. I prefer the bigger rawlbolt type hook. There are many options. Choose with care. I did pullout a ceiling hook once, bounced flat onto the floor, and never spilt a single drop of my beer. And the beer was in a mug, and full to the brim.

Springs.

Springs are a personal choice. I found that they tended to make the experience a little too busy. Everything bouncing and swaying, until I wanted to scream. Having said that they save the hammock from tearing as a huge amount of people think a hammock must be dived into. Why they blank out and lose all their brain cells beats me, but I have seen it happen millions of times. The spring will absorb that initial shock. Naturally that specific individual with an IQ of 12 will probably jump into it again as it bounced. Kick him out and send him home!

Hammock stands.

These not only work very well, but generally look fantastic. The fact that you very seldom have two perfectly placed trees means that this stand is a must. And fairly portable.

Hammock chair stands.

Same principle as the above, with one added advantage. You can put this stand in front of your T.V. so now would somebody telephone my wife and please tell her that you give me permission to put my hammock back into the lounge.

Smart rope & outdoor straps.

This term covers an ingenious pre built but adjustable attachment and works very well. It would be best if you simply go and peep at the picture. It will make sense.

Tree straps.

These are designed to give you two functions, one they protect the tree by not cutting deep into the tree, and two, they allow you to hang the hammock up easily and quickly. They do also tend to grip the tree very well.

Hammock storage bags & protective covers.

These hammock storage bags are simply a way to keep your hammock and all its clips etc in a single well cared for bag or a cover that pulls over a hammock that you leave hanging out permanently.

Hammock canopy & Mosquito nets.

Hammock canopies are 99% of the time designed for the hiking and camping lightweight hammocks. These create a sort of tent over you as you lie in your hammock. It protects you from rain dew, insects and fish that fall from the sky.

Carabines & swivel hooks.

Pretty self explainetory. These are important as they tend to stop your hammock having strain placed on it in the bunching areas. Carabines also allow for the easy removal and re-hanging of your hammock.

Tripod stands & tripod & portable trees.

The tripod stand is something I use very often, as it allows me to pile up the chairs around a fire or similar place. Now I must say the “portable tree” thing is brilliant. I once designed the idea from scratch, without having ever seen one and was so pleased with myself when it worked so well. And was so sad to find out that it was already all over the hammock world already. Either way it is very clever.

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The two words outdoor and hammocks fit together perfectly. While I have got hammocks indoors in my home at the moment, the bulk of hammocks are used outdoors. There are three main places or types of areas where most hammocks are used. If you discount other niche areas where I have seen hammocks hung up, like music festivals and the beach, these three groups tend to cover the bulk of the uses.

There are other people that use hammocks on a daily basis and I have not allowed for these types of people in this article. For example truckers in Thailand all have hooks mounted in the back of their trucks and when they stop they simply hook it up and sleep.

Resorts

I think that resorts cover all different types of hotel and holiday accommodation places. It is great that it is generally the advertising agencies that promote hammock sales for us manufacturers by doing adverts with hot bikini girls in hammocks. Having said that I found that it was the smaller more personal type of bed and breakfast or backpacker that tended to place the real orders. These resorts knew very well that this lifestyle-quality detail gave them huge repeat business.

I am based in South Africa and the game lodges are perfectly suited to a high quality hammock. My personal experience found that the hammock chair tended to be more popular as it was more social than anti-social. A few of the lodges that tended to not skimp on the details around the Boma or fire areas were the ones that were receiving the most results. It makes sense that if someone sits comfortably around a blazing fire in the bushveld that they would have fond memories of that resort.

Private home use.

The biggest market for hammocks is in the general home use category. There is not a particular type of hammock that is more prevalent here. There are equally as many lightweight parachute type fabric hammocks, as there are large family sized double padded luxury hammocks. The size of the entertainment areas in the yards of your home generally helps make the decision as to which hammock to buy.

As we are discussing outdoor hammocks here I would like to point out that there are other huge hammock populations around the world that use their hammocks every night to sleep in.

Hiking and camping.

The final large group of hammock users are the hiking and camping crowd. This portion of the hammock market is probably the most loyal (fanatical). The reason it is safe to say this is that even the guy that really uses his hammock a lot at home generally only lies around in it a bit on the weekends. Now a hiker or camper spends many a happy weekend tramping around in the-great-outdoors and other beautiful places, and living in their hammocks.

These guys can tell you the real stories about their hammock adventures. They live life large. Good for them. Outdoor hammocks are perfectly suited to this pastime. Go and get yourself fitted today.

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Aren’t all hammocks for fun? I have to say that if you are not having fun in your hammock, there is something seriously wrong. Perhaps you did not load enough toys into the hammock before you got in. aah, maybe you have been there so long that the problems is that you really need the loo.

Seriously there so many ways to use your hammock to enhance the fun part of your life. In fact while I think of it there are some fantastic forums on the internet all with the sole purpose of talking hammocks. If you visited any of those forums, I am pretty sure that someone will have a great idea to give you as to how to enjoy some time somewhere with your hammock. The chances are even that they might even be local. I am in Africa, and can give you a list of brilliant places to hammock in, just ask.

Make up a list of activities that you enjoy doing, and then cross refer that list to places where you know that you will be able to hang up your hammock, and bingo, you have a new favorite spot to visit.

If you are using your hammock properly then you would have hooked it up to your hobbies long ago. An example is, I love nature, so what I do is combine nature and some activity. Say fishing or a picnic. If you take your hammock along to a good fishing spot, you will find that the way you relax and enjoy the day is completely different to any other way. I find that when I used to do that, I was not putting bait onto the fishing line, so as not to be disturbed by the actual fish. I also discovered the art of sleeping behind sunglasses. When you do that nobody’s sure if you are asleep or awake. Either way they tend to be fairly quiet, which is great.

After many years of using hammocks I am very sure as to which activities I prefer. First prize is a quiet beautiful place and a really good book. Second choice is the hammock chairs in a group around a fire, and then good company. I am one of those fools that think ridiculous thoughts up about aliens and corriolis force as soon as I get to sit around a fire. I think that I can hook up with my ancestors if I stare into a fire long enough. If I drank less wine then I would remember. But then why would I want to drink less wine?

It would be remiss of me if I did not remind you all that one of the most fun activities that you can get up to in a hammock is sex. If not full sex the very fact that you are piled up together in a hammock gives you the chance to at least talk about sex. That on its own can be a lot of fun. (Just a word of warning here – if your wife AND her sister are in the hammock with you, stay away from the subject).

I leave you with this statement; I would love it if you all shared your fun times spent in a hammock with me. Please.

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A hammock pillow is perhaps more important that the hammock itself. I have a very good reason for this statement. If you have the perfect hammock hanging up, in the perfect place, and then have to spend the whole time holding up your head, it would be very, very bad. I dare you to try to spend just one night in your bed without your pillow. Right, just as I thought.

The reality is that it is impossible to enjoy the full experience of a hammock without a pillow. So – having got that fact behind us, the really hard part is which type of pillow. I personally am a huge believer in doing anything that I do, properly. Why go to the trouble of doing something at all if you are not going to do it correctly. I declare myself a total hedonist. If I am going to sit I want to sit comfortably. Equally if I am going to lie down, hey! – do it properly. Now for the general choice types.

Lying Down.

If you are lying down fully, you are going to need a fuller type of pillow. This type will be more of the type that you would use when you sleep at night. The pillow must be a normal type. I do not need to go into detail here, remember your favorite pillow works best here.

Sitting up.

The advent of the hammock chair and its popularity is huge. There is however a very large variety of these hammock chairs available. While a large amount of these are adjustable, you will have to judge for yourself as to which angle the specific chair reclines at. I am going to presume that your chair here is more upright than not. The perfect pillow for this type of chair is that type of aircraft pillow that goes behind your neck. If you have a pillow that is too large it tends to push your head forward and ultimately give you pain. The shape of this pillow is often a hourglass shape.

Slouching.

Sorry I cannot think of a better description. What I really mean with this one is what a normal hammock should really be used for. In my opinion, the best hammock experience is in fact in a hammock chair. I feel that a full hammock is perfect for sleeping, but a little difficult for serious drinking. Having blurted out that fact, if you set up a full hammock properly it can become a fantastic nest. I love nesting. Pillows are very important here. I really mean plural. A large variety of pillows are needed to make this experience work. All sizes and all types of fabric. In fact a mixture of softness is equally important.

Finally, I would need way more space to go through the other 5 important items to make the experience perfect. Let me just leave you knowing they cover, location, direction, company, supplies and attitude. Without any of these very special extras you will find yourself stretching your neck looking for at least one of those items. Always be properly prepared, in my case I am never without at least two books. And your pillow. In fact I always instruct people that I have supplied with a decent hammock to supply their local delivery person with a spare set of keys to their house. Think about it. If you are really comfortable and need anything it pays to telephone that person from your mobile and have them do the work on your behalf. logical. And do not forget your pillow. That was where we started.

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Celebrities are just like you and me, in that they also love to sit or lie in hammocks.

The point to this article is to show that a little kindness to a celebrity can get you some business. Furthermore if you use friendly and real life stories in the body of work that you submit to all the different places that allow you to record and hold content referring to your website, then this is a good place to start. And NO I am not going to out the celebrity here in this story.

In fact that particular person has had a little bit of a bumpy ride lately. So here is the celeb story. I was at a country show trading in the hammocks. Hammock chairs are always more popular at the shows and I had my display well set up.

I had been given a direct view of the stage from my stall and for a change it didn’t bother me. Usually I start to go stark raving mad as the music played at these shows are a far cry from my favorite heavy metal tastes. The trading chugged along as it normally did at these shows.

I had started to become friends with a great performer whom I has admired in his previous guise as a half member of a brother duo band called Georgia. The two brothers has split to do there own thing and Ghapi was born. What a fantastic performer.

But I digress.

This story is not about Ghapi but a well known female singer.

Towards the end of the show this celebrity person had found out that if she “sat’ in my hammock chairs she could keep an eye on her fellow performers. She had to hang around in a manner of speaking to wait for another singer. Needless to say as soon as she stood still crowds formed around her and she was signing non stop.

I watch this for awhile and couldn’t believe how patient she was. So polite. Crap I would have started to do bad things to people after the way they jostled and stuff. But being that it was late (about 11 pm) I realized that I could save her, so I turned off the lights in my stall. It didn’t make a difference business-wise as it was unlikely that I was going to be selling hammocks in the middle of the night.

Anyway it took ten or fifteen minutes for the crowds to dwindle and disappear, and along the way this fantastically patient person thanked me quietly. She had seen what I had done and was tired and grateful. A quiet 45 minutes was gained gently swaying in the night “shade” of my hammock chairs.

Now finally I am going to get to the cool part of my story.

I had a great friend and fellow trader, a guy younger than my third child, and amazingly it was never noticed at all. We were great friends. He and his family are truly of the good people, willing to stop and help anyone at anytime. And do it willingly. However this particular night my buddy came over to chat and probably sneak a smoke away from his family and we chatted for about ten minutes…. when suddenly he stopped talking and bent down and peered closely at the face of the “celebrity” and immediately he stood up and pulled me away from her and whispered loudly at me saying “rob- did you know that that is xxx in your hammock?”

It was a great cameo, and while is wasn’t some sort of stage shock – remember that he also was at the shows regularly and met performers often – it was more about his discovery that was so funny. So finally if you are curious – yes she did order two chairs and after that I have no idea what happened to them.

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Hammock

Hammocks are a Luxury in some places and a necessity in others.

Worldwide there are still a very large number of people that sleep every night in a hammock. These people all treat these hammocks as a daily part of their lives.

Now in other parts of the world the hammock is traditionally seen as a leisure item.

You will find hammocks strung up at the top resorts around the world. They will be at backpackers and beach resorts.

The well publicized picture of a beautiful woman lying comfortably in a hammock in a bikini sipping a colorful drink with an umbrella in it is well known. We all aspire to being part of that idyllic picture.

Now while I do not say that that specific setting does not exist, you have to carefully decide your style and think of the different uses that you want to apply to your own hammock use for yourself.

I very strongly suggest that you work backwards in the planning of your hammock purchase.

First you need to think very carefully as to what exactly you want from your hammock. For example in my case I would have only three different hammock applications in my life.

One where I can sit in the shade during the day – and then light a fire in the evening. This would definitely be a hammock chair, and a padded one at that. This would be my social chair and I would have at least 4 other similar chairs in a cozy design. This setup would be for living loving and laughing. Thank you.

Two would be a traditional lying down hammock hidden far from everybody deep into a shady place so that I can enjoy a siesta whenever I want to.

Three would be another hammock chair, but this one would be my personal one and I would be very selfish with it. It would be for deep thought dozing and reading.

Meditative stuff

Brilliant

Putting my years of happy hammock use into written advice is easy. I have personally used hammocks and hammock chairs for hundreds of different things and can happily tell you that most of them worked brilliantly.

One specific use that I used to use my hammock for was to sit in a hammock chair when I went fishing. I need to tell you now that the hammock chair worked very well, but my fishing suffered very badly.

Well think about this carefully – you are sitting very comfortably totally relaxed for quite awhile and then suddenly you get a strike on one of you fishing lines. Are you going to bolt up out of your chair?

I can tell you categorically that it didn’t take me long before I had cast out my fishing lines onto the water without any bait at all. It was important that I actually had some lines out into the water so that any visitors were convinced that I was actually fishing. But I was really sitting and dozing in a hammock chair.

I suspect that you didn’t visit my hammock website here to have to listen to all my ramblings about all the cool hammocky stuff I have done in the past.

What I can tell you is that I have been a hammock manufacturer for more than 12 years, perhaps even 14 or 15 years – that does not matter, what does matter is that I have a wealth of facts and information that I will share with you.

I am going to create a different page for each topic so you would need to scroll down the different options available in the pages section down the side of the website.

Please do not hesitate to email me if you have a query about anything related to hammocks.

I am probably going to be adding pages of totally irrelevant hammock stories over time and I am not sorry about that.

Some of the happiest times of my life have been spent in a hammock.

You see I am of a very sure belief in the given that your life is always “RIGHT NOW” and if you are not trying to enjoy every conscious waking moment of your life then that is so sad.

So sad

Now for me, I am happiest just sitting and chatting with people that I love and love to spend time with. Now does it not then make 100% sense to do that sitting in the very best chair that was ever invented?

Equally I absolutely love to simply sit and enjoy all aspects of nature. Mother Nature is the most beautiful part of my life and I am constantly enjoying all her different moods and most often from a comfortable hammock.

Finally I have an incurable addiction to both food and reading. Do I really need to tell you that it is obvious that both of those addictions are perfectly matched with hammocks?

Just to end off this introduction page I will be adding and subtracting to this website as time goes on. The main change will be that I am going to stop manufacturing the products that I have developed myself over the years.

No big reason other than it has had its day.

I have a very inquiring mind and I am always seeking answers to all sorts of unimportant things and with this problem that I have comes a constant need to design things.

I designed so many new hammocks that I have totally exhausted my creative juices in that department.

If you had to ask me “what was the best one that I designed” I would say the baby crib, but more importantly the “drinking” chair.

I loved that chair. No, I really mean that I loved that chair.

I digress.

So sooner or later you will arrive here at this website and not be able to buy any of my own products.

I will very likely still be able to offer South Africans local hammocks and international visitors will be sent on to buy from the very extensive ranges from Amazon.

From my side I am possibly going to convert my products to a how-to-format as some of them are extremely unique. Also the standards that my wife and I set on the quality were of an extremely high level and I would be very pleased to see someone take the templates and styles further.

Great – enough for today.

Rob Anderson

rob@designsmith.co.za

0116161072

082 572 5446