So far I’ve been mostly talking about and practicing “large form” macramé pieces—daydreaming of making giant wall hangings and considering plant holders and that sort of thing. But then I checked out the book Bohemian Macramé (Lark Crafts, 2016) from the library and now I’m dabbling with other ideas!
I did what every new crafter probably does—I went to the craft store and bought inexpensive things with which to practice. I found these pretty purple large beads (maybe not quite cabochons, but I don’t typically do jewelry-making, so what do I know?) and some cord that is similar to what Gwenaël Petiot describes in the book), and then I went home and tried my best.
It didn’t go well. I don’t have a photo of the finished attempt because I couldn’t really finish it—and that’s entirely user error. The book outlines quite clearly how to create the wrap for the cabochon and then how to add it, but I think that the combination of just being new to macramé in general, and not having really worked with fine-ish thread (this cording is thinner than the white and brown cord I was practicing with before), was just a recipe for not quite getting it right the first time. You know, the yoosh.
That’s what it sort of should have looked like, according to the book, and just trust me, it looked nothing like that.
I’m going to give it another go, because I’m completely in awe of some of the pieces in this book and I really want to try to make something like them, but I ran out of time to experiment with this over the weekend. I’m pretty sure I know what I need to fix—my wrap wasn’t quite wide enough to fully catch the stone, so it just kept slipping out no matter what I did. Photo below from Bohemian Macramé showing one of Gwenaël Petiot’s gorgeous pieces made from beads and string!
I still want to make giant pieces, but now I also want to make little “sparkly” pieces, and I’m so torn!
