Here’s the thing about macramé: I love doing it. I thought it was cool in the 70’s, but I wasn’t interested in it back then. It wasn’t until I was reading beading magazines and teaching myself to make jewelry much later on that I considered attempting it myself. I think it looks great, and there are a lot of things that can be done to make knotted cords and bits of pretty glass look amazing. It has interesting textures. It can be a mixture of different knots or techniques. And you can make a lot of different things with it, too. I was drawn to it as a challenge, in a way, just to see if I could do it at all. I bought books, I watched tutorials, I just plunged in. And it wasn’t hard, but it was tricky. I used up a lot of cotton cord as I practiced. The thickness made it easier to learn the knots, but I didn’t like it as jewelry. Too thick, and the knotting made it too stiff. But as I read up on new trends in micro-macramé (which means using skinnier cord) I discovered a kind of knotting cord made of plied and bonded nylon thread called C-Lon.
There are two thicknesses of cord in the picture of my favorite colors above. The thinner cord is C-Lon Tex 210 bead cord, and the thicker is called C-Lon Tex 400. The breaking point of the skinny cord is 35 lbs, and the breaking point of the thicker cord is 75 lbs. Gorgeous color, durable, flexible, waterproof, different sizes to work with? SOLD. And there are a lot of colors to choose from. I buy all my cord from a store called Jewels in Fiber.
I use the two sizes of cord for different things. The skinny cord works very well for accessories like eyeglass chains, because I like to use super-small #10 beads by the knots:
Anklets, too
And wrap bracelets!
The thicker cord, because it handles the weight of larger beads better, I use for lanyards like this one:
and this one:
Well, all of them, actually, because I like the relaxed drape of the cord when used as a necklace. I also like it for actual macramé knotting like these keychains:
I really like that funky bumpy macramé look of those keychains! So I’m going to make more (I have a lot of cord to use up!), that’s next on my Big Project list, definitely more keychains, and more knotted accessories, too. I can’t keep my hands off the cord!
You can find all of the jewelry/accessories at JuicybeadsJewelry.com, with lots more pictures, and please feel free to contact me if you have any questions – I’d love to hear from you!
Til next time, jool lovers ~
Juicybeads Jewelry 