Design Your Own Macrame

Niki's "Why Macramé?" Page.: "Why do macramé?

Well, you need to find your own reasons, of course. :-) All that I can do here is to tell you why I do macramé.

Obviously, it's nice to do hand work and come out with something that you made yourself, and that you like. But, for me, that's not the main attraction.

I like the idea that if I need something and if it can be made well using macramé, I can not only make it myself, I can design it myself (after maybe a false start or two :-D) with very modest materials. I love being able to play with color in macramé. It's also interesting to see how the arrangement of knots can make a section strong or weak, thick or thin, light like a spider's web or heavy like gnarled tree bark.

Photo shows fine-gauge macramé: a black cotton necklace with tulip-cut shell pendant and a V-shaped écru cotton necklace with a sliced-shell pendant.

But I think the general theme that really draws me to macramé, with its weave, its shapes, its textures, and its endless possibilities, is the same force that draws me to most of my interests, work or otherwise:

the wonder of pattern.
Finding and expressing pattern from looking at materials, nature, and life around me; learning about it and wondering at it. (Origami, too, is very much like this.) Even the ways in which our lives interact "

Macrame is something that you really can make work for yourself - its fun when you get into designing for yourself. I have made many a pot hanger that developed in my minds eye and then just started to take shape - its about trusting yourself and letting go enjoying the process of knotting. Carolyne :)