New Micro Macrame Mandala Necklace Tutorial!

Look who finally got busy and finished a tutorial!  I'd recommend this Micro macrame Mandala Necklace tutorial for intermediate macrame enthusiasts with a working knowledge of double half hitch and larks head knots.  As long as you can do those, you should be able to follow these instructions.  I've included over 60 photos like this one:

See why it takes me a while to put together a new tutorial?  I spend a lot of time photographing each step with really close up shots so you can see what's going on.  My goal is to make everyone who tries the tutorial successful!

You can find the new tutorial in my Etsy shop along with 17 (yes, I'm up to 17 different tutorials now!) others.  There's something for everyone - even if you've never tried macrame before.  Happy knotting!

Gobsmacked!

To quote a friend of mine, "I'm gobsmacked!"  There's a new love in my life:  laser etched Kite beads.  They come in different patterns (I sense more in my future) but I chose the ones with the leaf design.  They have a soft metallic finish and the colors are absolutely incredible - shades of blue and green with flashes of turquoise and even purple.  

I've been working on a new tutorial for this necklace design with a circular mandala pendant using the new Kite beads.  I started with an incredibly vibrant blue and thought I couldn't love any of them any more than these.  And then I met the laser etched guys.  They're sexy and they know it.

Just look at that detail!  It's hard to get a good photo of the depth of color on them (might help if I was a better and/or more patient photographer, but that's another story).  I seem to be picking up mostly the blue and a bit of light green in the pictures, but trust me, the other colors are there.

Anyway, stay tuned for a new tutorial.  I hope to have it available in a week or so.  I'd promise sooner, but I've got another project going on right now:

We are putting new carpet in about half of our house (1008 square feet to be exact) and painting as well.  I've got nine different colors on my wall so far with no clear winner, but I think we've agreed on the taupe carpet.  I wanted gray, he wanted tan so we met in the middle at taupe.  Seems fair, right?  I also wanted hardwood and he wanted carpet, so the bedrooms and the family room are getting carpet and living room, dining room, kitchen and den are getting hardwood.  The wood floors won't happen until we figure out exactly what we're going to do with the kitchen:  I want to tear out a wall to open up the space and move everything around.  He wants me to stop wanting things.  *grin*

I've been trying to balance the time I dreaming up stuff to do to my house and the time I spend doing macrame, while throwing a good bit of time spent playing Words With Friends.  It's tough being retired.

Until next time...

Winter and Beaded Micro Macrame

 OK, I'm just gonna say it:  winter in Nebraska sucks unless you're a fan of cold wind and snow, which I am most definitely not.  I've been spending a good deal of time indoors lately (translate:  all my time) so I've had lots of chances to play with my cord and beads. 

Currently, I am in love with GemDuo beads.  They're diamond shaped and have two holes which I love for micro macrame because it keeps them from flipping over or turning around. The closeup above is from this cuff bracelet:

It's worked across instead of lengthwise like most micro macrame bracelets which allowed me to create this tiled pattern with the beads.  There's something about the rows of knots that just really appeals to me, too. (If you want to try your hand at a piece worked this way, there's a Leafy Cuff tutorial available in my Etsy shop.)  I also used the white beads in a mandala necklace design:

Don't they look fantastic?  

I did a tutorial for another bracelet using these beads that will be available through The Beadsmith (no definite word on the date yet).  It's this one:

As I look out the window, I can actually see the ice coating the driveway and the wind sounds absolutely awful.  Looks like I won't be going anywhere again today - I've stayed home so many days in a row my husband is starting to refer to me as "the recluse".  Then again, I'm not the one who fell out there this morning so it seems to me maybe one of us is just smarter, right?   If you're looking for me, I'll be downstairs with my feet up, probably watching something on BBC while I knot in front of the fireplace.  Ahhhhhhh....

Dia De Los Muertos - A Celebration of Life Challenge Reveal

Today is the reveal day for Karen McGovern's Dia De Los Muertos - A Celebration of Life Challenge over at Love My Art Jewelry and I'm so excited!!!  I've been dying (hahaha - see what I did there?) to show you the necklace I've been working on.  

I love the sentiment behind the Day of the Dead traditions as demonstrated in this post and this one.  Heck, I even made Day of the Dead shoes!  So of course I was excited when Karen suggested a Day of the Dead challenge at Love My Art Jewelry.  I started with a sweet little sugar skull bead by Heather Powers of Humblebeads:

How stinkin' cute is that!  I knew I wanted to go crazy over-the-top with color on this piece, so I pulled all the colors from her bead and started knotting a little rainbow micro macrame section:

Then I transitioned into some flowers with colorful glass seed beads (because what's a Day of the Dead sugar skull without flowers?).

Finally, I added some braided square knot sinnets to make a strap and made a tassel to hang underneath for a little swingy movement.

Ta da!  

Links to other people's posts will be here - I can't wait to see what everyone made!!

Starfish Collection Macrame Jewelry

I really need to get a beach fix!  I do love this time of year in Nebraska when all the hills are greening up and the trees are filling out, but it's still not warm enough to suit me yet.  I'm dreaming of this:

I pulled beads and cord a month ago and turns out that must have been what was in my head!  Look:

This palette has inspired a bunch of new pieces (you can see them here and here and here if you missed them) like these:

I played a bit with the starfish theme and sprinkled them down the center of a cuff (made from my Marquise design, online class available here):

Then I decided I needed to try these colors out in the Leaves pattern, which was a lot of fun.

That led to the Falling Leaves thing (leaves, leaves....), and it turns out if you use turquoise and tan you get a very summery version of the bracelet, especially with a starfish bead attached!

The whole time I was making these macrame bracelets, I was trying to come up with an idea for a necklace in this color palette.  

I started playing around with a brass ring, adding chevrons of color.  I intended to hang one of the howlite starfish beads to the ring as the pendant, but it just didn't have enough impact.  I went back to the pile of beads I'd originally pulled and it turns out the answer had been right there all along!

The starfish pendant is from Summer Wind Art and I can't believe how perfectly it goes with the rest of the necklace.  My subconscious must have been working overtime on this one.

Inspired by David Bowie - a Blog Hop Reveal

Today is the David Bowie tribute Blog Hop being brought to you by Love My Art Jewelry and I wanted to participate, but I really struggled with this one.  The intention of the hop was to honor his memory, his boldness and his art.  I tried really hard.  I studied the lyrics to his songs and pored over hundreds of photos of him online.  I looked for a connection between the music he created and the pieces I create, and you know what I found?  Nothing.  His style is not my style.  I cannot recreate "him".  

And that's when it hit me!  The inspiration I found from the life and work of David Bowie was to be me, and not try to be anyone other than myself.  He was not afraid to be different from everyone else; he had his own look, his own style.

So for today's hop, I made a piece I feel very much reflects me and my style.  I chose a handmade ceramic lotus pendant from Gaea in a soft turquoise color.  It's such a pretty piece and so serene.  I knotted a spiral macrame cord in tan from which to hang the pendant, then added a tassel I made of the same cord.  I added a little color on the wrap of the tassel and threw in some handmade jump rings to give the necklace a little detail.  This piece is everything I love and it makes me smile just to look at it.

I hope you will take the time to visit the other blog hop participants.  I can't wait to see what everyone else made!  You can find the links here on the Love My Art Jewelry blog.

Happy Accidents

Don't you love it when a plan comes together?  Or when some lucky accident leads to what you can claim as a plan coming together?  In my case it started with this bracelet:

Waiting for some custom order raku pieces to arrive, I made this bracelet playing around with some of the lighter colors in typical raku pieces.  (I'll give you a taste of what I ordered, but if you want to see all of the lovely pieces, you'll need to pop over to Love My Art Jewelry and take a peek at the post I did there - hint:  it's worth the click.)

Look at me getting distracted by the pretty things.  Where was I? 

Raised to be thrifty, I always keep the excess cord I trim from projects if I think they are long enough to use for something else.  Which is how I end up with a mess like this:

But that, too, is a whole other topic.  Back to this story...  I trimmed excess cord from the ends of that bracelet and started knotting what I intended to be a pair of earrings, but the one I started got kind of large, so I decided to turn it into a pendant instead.   

I went digging through my stash to find larger ring to anchor a necklace onto and a drop bead or something to add to the bottom of the pendant.  But when I found a ring, I decided to incorporate it into the pendant instead of hanging the pendant from it and the pendant ended up upside down with a big(ish) ring knotted into the top.  Still with me?

Still looking for a drop or something to hang from the bottom (which used to be the top), I came across this:

No way this could match any better if I had designed my color palette around this it!  I have no idea what this pendant is made of - I don't even remember who I bought it from.  I do remember that it was from someone destashing, so if you recognize it, let me know!  I am guessing it's made of bone, but that's only a guess.  I did take a photo of the back side, if this helps someone identify the material (and if you do know, please tell me!):

Anyway, there I go again, veering off topic.  Well, I guess I'm still mostly on topic, just slightly left of center, but back to the main story:  I love this fun wizard pendant and it looks awesome with the pendant piece and I probably couldn't do that again in a million years because the colors are pretty much spot on.  

At this point I pretty much  just had to knot some straps on this puppy and put it to bed, but you know me - I can't leave well enough alone.  I wanted to use the soft green colored cord for the necklace straps, but I thought I needed to bring some of the colors from the pendant and the... what would you call that?  A knotted pendant holder?  From that thing, anyway... I wanted to bring some of the color up into the body of the necklace, so I added a bit more knotting to the topside of the ring and then transitioned into the solid green knotting on the straps.

And that's how this necklace came to be.

I wish I could tell you that this fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants design plan is an anomaly for me, but sadly this is more the rule than the exception.  I'm not a sketcher and even when I do try to be a planner, it often veers off track.  Sometimes, though, things come together just perfectly!  I guess maybe we'll have to call "going with the flow" my plan.

Macrame Owls for All

Let's face it:  it's just not a macrame party until somebody busts out an owl.  There's nothing more iconic than the knotted owl; in fact, mention macrame to many folks and this is what comes to mind:

I couldn't resist a while back and made my own version of the cliche, but in a smaller (palm sized) version meant to be hung on a person rather than a wall.  I made the original version using .5mm cord.

The other day I got some coin beads I'd ordered for eyes and discovered they were smaller than what I'd been using (I think these are 8mm), which made me wonder what would happen if I tried making the owl with smaller cord.

For comparison:

It's surprising just how much smaller the owl turned out using the C-lon fine instead of the "regular" .5mm cord.  (Need help on cord sizes?  See this post.)  Of course I had to try pushing it just a little bit further:

The tiny misshapen khaki owl is done with C-lon micro.  I have trouble knotting with cord that small.   Theoretically it should work, with adjustments to the size of the beads and something smaller than the split rings at the top.  But, it took me nearly three times as long to make the small one as it did to make the large one!  Lots more fiddling - and that's from a professional fiddler!  Maybe I'll just wait for one of you to try it and let me know how it turns out.

If you'd like to try making your own owl, you'll find the tutorial here in my Etsy shop.  And don't forget, I have a whole page of videos knot tutorials here.  

If you're looking for ideas on how to make your owl pendant into a necklace, there's an easy idea in this post, or you can add a simple macrame spiral or a little chain.  They're all cute!

Have fun!!