Hi Paul, from long experience and the desire to reduce your quivering in the corner as your one hundredth raft comes out with bits of rope missing
When applying round rod or wire to a flat surface make sure that there is a good solid join between them so that the join is both strong and helps the resin/metal flow into the rope detal negative. I use half round plastic strip for much of my beading detail, but sometimes you have to use true round material as a rope never looks right like that, but I always add a fillet using superglue or a slurry of MEK/Plastic weld and styrene. You can do the latter even on non plastic models as the slurry is a bit thick and stays in places the MEK wouldn't.
The three examples drawn below show the Half round method which as I mentioned can look bulky, then the round on round without fillet showing the small contact area, thus the small amount of space for resin to get through and finally round on round with fillets increasing the contact area greatly.
I hope this helps.