Monday, July 23, 2012

Made in Oregon, Assembled in California - Part 2

And here we are again, with Gail's beads.

Here is part 1, in case you missed it.

Now that I had the tulip done, I was on a roll! I just had to make something else with the other beads too.
I picked the flower...the yellow green one.

I had wanted to learn macrame knotting for the longest time. And as with everything, I was stalling. Beginning something new is always such a blocking point for me. I decided to take the plunge with this flower. Looked at all the stringing material I had: mostly at the waxed linen cords. None of the colors I had spoke to me (black, brown, white and aqua. Nah, not going to work ;-)
I was impatient, so pulled out my crochet supplies and picked out yarn! Not sure if this is the best thing to use with macrame, but it sure is so much softer then waxed linen.

I went my merry way learning the square knot from some YouTube videos (does anyone even remember what life was like before YouTube??). I had a rough start, but then got comfortable with it. One trick I used was to thread the "active" end of the yarn through a tapestry needle. This helped me figure out which end goes in which direction. Before that, I was messing up the knots.

A sneak peek...I added some seed beads to the band as well


Square Knot
My biggest fear with using thread/yarn is about finishing it. I keep worrying that the knots will open up. I had asked a couple people on the Creative Bead Chat group whether they glue the knots, and they said they did. So that is what I did too. I glued it tight, and then cut off the ends. I wanted to leave the ends hanging like I had seen others do. But mine did not look that pretty. So I decided to cover them up. Like this, with wire:




That was done, and I was happy with it. But everything looked too green. So I decided to add the chain you see sitting next to the band. Ok, so far, looks good. Then, I thought the flower just by itself looked kinda boring. I wanted to add another one of Gail's bead caps on top of the flower, but realized it was not drilled, so could not do that. But I did need to cover up that empty space, so I "tied" down a Vintaj bead to the center.

The flower still looked a little "lonely", so I added a cascade of tiny donuts. And ta-da...here's the final piece:



Can you tell that I love it? I have it listed in my store if you are interested in taking it home:
http://www.luulla.com/product/34188/green-yellow-square-knot-macrame-necklace-with-hand-enameled-iron-pendant

And here are a few more shots of the necklace:









2 comments:

  1. That is awesome! Loving the colors, and the mix of yarn + metal .... what a great piece

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  2. This a beautiful necklace Kashmira. I love it!!!

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