It looks like each spindle is wrapped and glued by hand. I would think if you marked each spindle where you wanted to start and stop it wouldn't be that hard to do, time consuming but what isn't these days.
There is a glue called Gorilla Bond that would probably work with both these materials. Very cool looking

thanks! i tried it with a wood spindle and a glue gun - it looks really good but might try the gorilla glue to save my burnt fingers!

Ginny4464, I don't think the hot glue would hold up over time, I think I would cover the entire spindle with the glue and work that way , please take pictures I am sure everyone would love to see your end results.

here it is...

@ginny4464 Those look great! Was it hard to do? Where did you buy the rope?

Rope is from home depot. It was a new staircase so i got the spindles in advance, painted them and then wrapped them. it was not hard - just tedious. I started hot gluing each wrap then slowly increased the number of rows before gluing again. it was just taking too long and i had a deadline! They have been up for 9 months and i have had to do a little maintenance on the ends - just re glue a little fray. I love them as does everyone that sees them!!

i love the use of rope on both the poles and banisters. adds an interesting use of contrast as well as adds to the color pallette