Macrame Candy?

  So lately I had been playing around with the idea of weaving a knotted candy cane. Set my mind to ponder and think about how exactly I wanted this to work out and doing sketches of ideas of thread movement and striped patterns. Hours were spent researching online to see if anyone had attempted to do anything like this before and looking to see if perhaps I could adapt some kind of cross stitch pattern as a rough guide. But, alas, I found nothing.

   It would have been fairly easy to just do some kind of half hitch alternating around the length of the candy cane, but I thought that would have been too easy. Good enough for a Christmas tree decoration, but I wanted something that I could back with white ultrasuede and turn into an eye-catching pendant.





  A few days ago, I decided to take my drawn pattern and give it a test run. I used a ton of double and single half hitch knots to knot the entire piece. It measures about 3" long and about 1 3/4" wide. And I must admit, I am quite proud of how it turned out. So here you go internet... a Macrame Candy Cane!

Etsy Holiday Boot Camp!

Two weeks ago, Etsy began a Holiday Boot Camp campaign to help sellers get ready for the holidays. There have been weekly emails with tasks to complete and tons of helpful articles to help you know what to do, as well as get geared up with motivational reading as well. The first couple weeks have been great and they even have encouraged us to start getting to know our fellow crafters better by encouraging us to get our own boot camp buddies. It's been nice being able to network and compare notes with a friend.

I'm excited to see what will come in the following weeks. The advice is great and very helpful. And I love getting to network with fellow creative souls!

Gearing up for the season!

Haven't spent a whole lot of time working on projects lately. I have finished a Sandstone and glass giraffe spotted beads strung on fine hemp, and a nice pair of green, red, and white cavandoli macrame nylon earrings. These I will post later in the week.

Main activities for this week has been decorating the house for Halloween. I love this time of year and like to go all out. So my best friend and I have been hanging creepy cloth and cutouts and trinkets, hanging bats and skeletons, and I've been separating that spider web stuff all out in various places. But we had a lot of fun today when we got home from the Dollar Tree with a couple of inflatables.  One was a skeleton, and the other a scared black cat.

Well, one of my cats, the crazy momma, Luna, decided that she didn't like this THING from the minute it got out of the bag. So after it was fully blown up, she stared at the thing menacingly with ears back and fur on end. For fun I put in on one of the levels of their cat tree. She scaled the thing growling with every increase because the scary cat above her "moved" (wobbled) with her every step. And she absolutely refused to let the thing have any kind of shot at her back. It was very entertaining to watch her square off against her pseudo-foe.

Ahh what a help learning can be...

   So I have been a busy little night owl lately. Hasn't helped that my job had shifted my regular hours somewhat and it really threw me off. As if working third shift wasn't already bad enough. However, in my spare time, I have been doing a lot of social networking for my craft business and looking around at what I consider the master artists of my craft. Recently purchased Joan Babcock's micro-macrame book for patterns and to learn cavandoli macrame. Some truly beautiful geometric designs. This has been both awe-inspiring and an excellent tool to help me focus and really hone my skills.

I've had the joy of using new materials, like the joy that is C-Lon Cord. Between the crazy big color selection available and the texture of the cord sliding between my fingers... well, it is just a pleasure to weave with. I'm looking forward to collecting more colors than I currently have (red, black, white, navy, and teal).

This weekend I finished a bracelet and earring set. The bracelet is here. The earrings are still photo-less for now  :)

A few of my favorites

I enjoyed making him, my fantasy color owl. Later I plan on making some more bright vibrant versions of him, including a Halloween black and orange owl. And if I could get a great lampworked pumpkin or jack o'lantern for his talons to grasp it would be perfect!

 

I love Labradorite. The way that it flashes and glints in colors of green, gold, and blue are mesmerizing. This pendant in particular has wonderful iridescence. It has an even more bright form, Spectrolite. Beautiful to behold. Oh to have a cabochon of it, but it is a little pricey.

This one has such a nice color shift against a nice soft white hemp. The flame point design is just a fun one to work with and really shows off variegated cord well. I have taught this one recently in a small macrame class.

Welcome to my blog!

Finally entering into the world of blogging. I'm here to post pictures of my latest projects, random musings, interesting related pictures and articles, a soundboard for new ideas and projects, and to help other artists get noticed out here.   :D

I'm here to help promote Knotty & Nyce, my macrame jewelry shop which I have had at Etsy since 2009. I've been crafting for over 11 years now. Originally I used to collect Breyer model horses so I spent a lot of time crafting tiny leather tack like saddles, bridles, and Arabian costumes that were embroidered and that had embroidery floss knotted headstalls with tassels. This was my first foray long ago into the knotting techniques. It wasn't long before I was digging around for vintage macrame books and patterns.

Over the years I have had lots of opportunities to experiment with a lot of different materials, and look forward to continuing to do so. There are so many amazing beads and gemstones that are incorporated so well into macrame. From there it has been learning about different types of knots, and learning all the fun ways that you can manipulate the cords into beautiful designs.


Today I just recently posted my beautiful Belly Dancing Macrame Hemp Belt on Etsy. Sultry, hypnotizing in motion, and tantalizingly tinkle-y.