This past weekend, I had the ultimate fiber arts experience with famed Aussie artist, Natalie Miller.  I took a 3-hour Macrame Wall-hanging workshop and it was all here in beautiful Columbus, OH.  Honestly, I still can’t believe I had the chance to take this class without having to leave home!

Natalie resides in gorgeous Kangaloon, Australia and has the most visually delicious Instagram feed.  It is filled with colorful images of her home along with all of her amazing weavings and macrame.  You can even pick up all the supplies you need from her online shop…which includes her hand-dyed wools!!!

I initially discovered this class through my friend, April Rhodes.  She co-hosted with Sam Van Der Puy and Michelle Parson to organize  these workshops. April is a big fan of macrame and suggested I follow Natalie on IG….I’ve been drooling over her work ever since.

Unfortunately, two days of classes overlapped with my family’s trip up north to Lake Leelanau, MI.  I really wanted to try tapestry weaving…especially with the wool roving (swoon!) but they were both on Friday and Saturday.  Luckily, I also wanted to try macrame and decided on the wall-hanging course.  My house is still in need of serious decor even after 5 years of habitation….so this was perfect!

The workshop started with (a bellini!) selecting the colors of 100% cotton rope shipped directly from Natalie’s supplier in Barcelona, Spain.  In addition to natural rope,  we were asked to select one more color…and boy, they were all calling my name.  It was hard to select one.  I ended up with a navy…a safe neutral that would stand the test of time.  After everyone had their turn, there was ample leftover rope so I was able to select an additional color. *SCORE* I selected a warm mustard to go with my vision and was not disappointed at all.

We learned basically three knots and the different variations of them to create our own design.  I’m still trying to get over the fact that macrame is based on only a few knots!  Who knew?!? I stayed with a bunch of square and diagonal half hitch knots on mine.

Natalie brought us some macrame “bling” to sauce up our hangings.  There were choice of wooden and copper pipe pieces.  I selected the smaller copper ones to add some bold contrast.  I thought after my pegboard, I was done with the hardware store…but now I have another reason to go!

Many of us were able to finish with some time leftover.  While we were enjoying our bellini’s and snacks, Natalie broke out a bonus project for us….bib necklaces!  These all use the same knots as our hangings but we used different “fabric” rope instead. Some of my classmates chose an almost shoelace (but thinner) rope and I selected a thick recycled jersey knit for mine. Can you say, “scrap buster project?!?”  I’m in LOVE!

Wow….what a day…I’m still reeling over the fact that I got a once in a lifetime opportunity to learn from such an amazing artist and person.  Most importantly, I learned macrame was WAY easier than expected!  I want to make more of these wall hanging and necklaces in the future.  Yes, I totally snagged a frame (IKEA clothing rack) from the workshop too 😉

Still knotting on a Macrame Cloud,

Cristy xx