The Wall Hanging: A unique and creative journey into the world of macrame

By Lyndsay Bilodeau of Sparrow & Whale Macrame

For the past 5 Wednesday afternoons, I have had the pleasure of teaching and working alongside my wonderful group of macrame students. While I have taught many other workshops before, this one was very special to me . This macrame wall hanging workshop was unique in that it allowed each student to create something different than the others and to learn the skills needed to create their own designs in the future. Running this course over several weeks allowed my students to their develop their own macrame style and improve their knotting skills with each and every class. This is something I had envisioned to do for quite some time; stepping away from the typical workshop format where everyone makes the same piece. I felt like offering something more in-depth, more involved and more personalized; something that would really cause that creative sparks to go off in each of my students' minds.

For our first lesson, each student selected an image of a piece that they wanted to recreate or use as inspiration. This class focused on design, materials, measuring cord, and learning a series of basic macrame knots.

During week two, the students began to cut their cords to length, and slowly started to work on their patterns. This was is a very exciting and challenging stage, as it is the process in which an idea comes to life. Figuring out where to place a knot, which knot to use, and keeping even tension, are just some of the steps that each student dealt with diligently and patiently.

As the weeks progressed, we really started to see each piece take shape. Row after row of knots, each maker's personality was injected into their pieces.

By week 4, most had the majority of their pieces completed. By this stage, my students were quite comfortable doing their knot work at a steady pace. We stopped for a bit to have a quick lesson on embellishments, where the ladies were shown how to make tassels, feather tassels, and fringe. And on kept the knotting!

Our last class together was focused on completing the pieces. We were cutting the cord, so to speak! Working those last few knots, cutting and combing out the fringe, steam pressing the pieces, and yes, after all of that, having something really beautiful and special to hold in our hands. Let's just say, this was the best class of all and everybody had huge smiles on their faces.

There's a real sense of accomplishment looking back on something one has made themselves, and perhaps and even greater one as their teacher. The hours it takes to learn a skill, and the courage it takes to actually use it, is in and of itself, a great accomplishment. I am absolutely proud of each of my students. I am also incredibly grateful for their patience, their presence, their efforts and and all they have taught me in this process.

A great big thank you to my wonderful group of creative ladies, Jess, Sheryll, Tiffany and Laura.

Want to learn to macrame? Join me on one of my upcoming workshops. Visit www.plantrevolutioncostarica.com/workshops for info and sign up today!

Stay knotty!

Lyndsay

Sparrow & Whale Macrame