Micro macramé can be utilized to add detailing on larger pieces as well as making handmade jewelry. Using the micro macramé technique leaves no end to the possibilities of the types of jewelry and crafts that can be created. Some of which can be necklaces, bracelets, belts and clasps. Because this style of macramé is created with finer thread, the possibilities of the color and texture of the thread are endless.

Micro Macramé allows artists to capture the style and techniques of this classic craft and spice it up with beads, elegance, and intricacy to create items that rival pieces made years ago. Regardless of the added intricacy, these pieces are easy to make and are updated with a modern appeal.

The Half hitch is rarely used alone. It is the beginning of another knot known as the double half hitch knot.

The Double Half Hitch used in all kinds of macrame projects. Watch bands and bracelets commonly use the double half hitch knot. It is made by doing two half hitch knots right next to each other.

The Josephine knot is a more advanced type of knot. It is a pretty knot that goes well with other knots and is great to finish off necklaces and bracelets.

Mounting knots are used to secure one cord to another. They are done with the loop in the back or done with the loop in the front

One of the easiest knots to learn and one of the most used knots is the Overhand Knot. A simple, but very important knot, the overhand knot is used in macrame jewelry and most other types of macrame.

A Square knot is a twisted knot with a few more steps. This is another knot that is used a lot in macrame jewelry.

There are many other knots used when making macrame. Too many to list in one place. The key is to learn a few knots and go from there. You can start with the basics and work your way to more complicated knots in no time!

Mac´ra`me
n. 1. the art of tying knots in patterns.
2. a coarse lace, made by weaving and knotting cords; macramé lace. a delicate decorative fabric woven in an open web of symmetrical patterns.

The Macramé Project wants to be the definition of the word and all of its meanings. On the surface we are producing macramé. This macramé is beautiful and while it is an accessory for us, it means much more to the person who produces it.

The idea of the project is the string. The string is used to teach a skill that can help sustain a better way of living. Through engaging the community with free education and skills programs, we help create an environment where change of one’s position within a community and elevation of values, ability, and aspirations. This becomes the new cultural operating norm for all individuals without regard to class, race, sex, culture, or situation. This gift starts with the materials and knowledge we give.

The knots are the people that live in these communities. They are people in need of help. The Macramé Project helps provide the people in the community with the basic needs for life. These basic needs should be available to everyone. That is our goal.

The end result of the string and the knots is a woven piece of fabric. This fabric is a beautiful piece of art. The Macramé Project aims to create a woven pattern of communities that benefit from programs we provide. We want to create the beautiful piece of art that is life.

Phytelephas is a genus of six species of palms, which all grow from Panama south along the Andes through Ecuador, Bolivia and Peru. They are known as ivory palms, ivory-nut palms, or tagua palms. Their scientific name means “plant elephant”. This refers to the very hard white nut produced by the plant. This nut is called the tagua nut. It resembles elephant ivory. A full-grown tagua tree can reach up to 65 feet in height and will yield several very large, knobby wooden fruits. When it is picked from the tree the tagua nut is covered with skin or pericarp. The pericarp usually gets removed by various animals. When the fruit is cracked open, it reveals several hens’ egg sized tagua nuts, the seeds of the tree. The kernel is covered with a brown flaky skin and is shaped similar to an avocado about 4 to 8 centimeters in diameter. The tagua seeds can be allowed to grow into seedlings to perpetuate the trees, or carved into vegetable ivory products.

Since there are trade restrictions on elephant ivory as well as the concerns with animal welfare, the tagua nut is often used as a substitute for elephant tusk ivory. It is regularly traded as vegetable ivory, palm ivory, corozo, or tagua. When is it dries out it can be carved just like elephant ivory. It is often used as a material for beads, buttons, figurines, and jewelry. Tagua can be dyed to make it any color. Palm can be used for bagpipes.

In small South American communities tagua can be provide a valuable economic and cultural service by helping to provide the people with a source of income which allows them to live a traditional lifestyle. It can stimulate the local economies and micro enterprises in South America by giving them an alternative to cutting down rainforests for farming, and it prevents elephants from being killed for their tusks.

In South America, there are several rain forest preservation that have taken advantage of the economic value of tagua. The cultivation of these trees and the sustainable harvesting is encouraged. In many places the tagua is grown in a rain forest environment rather than growing it in a plantation. The seeds are harvested naturally as they fall to the ground. The trees are not traumatized by climbing. This allows the tree to provide valuable habitat to the rain forest animal, and it also assists with rain forest preservation. It makes the rain forest more valuable standing than it is cutting it down. Keeping the rain forest intact allows scientists to explore it. They can catalog new plants and species, finding other plants with potential economic, medical, and decorative uses for humans.

Tagua is a sustainable alternative to elephant ivory. It is harvested from Ivory Palms. The cultivation and harvesting of tagua helps with rain forest conservation in South America. It also can help curb the illegal killing of elephants and other animals for their tusks. Now that you know more facts about tagua, you can see it is not only identical to animal ivory, but it can also help communities and the preservation of rain forests as well.

Tagua is exactly the type of material the Macramé Project likes to use. Not only is it a great material that can save elephants from poachers, but it can save the rainforests by creating a reason for them to grow rather than be cut down. It also can stimulate economies in South America which is exactly the goal of the Macrame project and The Eden’s Rose Foundation. We are working hard to incorporate tagua into our macramé collection. If you want updates on when we carry macramé with tagua put your email in the subscription field found in the side bar on the right. Until then, please check out our collection here. Thanks!

1. Hemp cord is easy to work with and easy to undo knots. Learn the basic knots with it.
2. Once you have the basic macramé knots down, use nylon cording for your initial jewelry projects, rather than silk. It’s much easier to remove knotting mistakes.
3. Singeing the ends only works with nylon cording.
4. Make a simple project board to use as your work area. It’s easy to make, it can go anywhere and makes your project very portable. It should be thick enough that pins won’t go through. It could be a padded clipboard, cork board, or even a piece of polyurethane foam.
5. Always double check that the cord you plan to use fits through the bead holes before you start.
6. To keep the ends from fraying, tie a knot at the end of the cord.
7. You can use clear nail polish on the ends of the cords to keep them from fraying as well, and this also stiffens the ends, making it easier to string those tiny seed beads. (You can also use a “no fray” liquid found in fabric stores to do the same job.)
8. Save leftover bits of cording to practice new knots with.
9. The key to a polished look for your piece is uniform knotting. Practice makes perfect!
10. If you don’t have any t pins on hand, use corsage pins to secure your work. If using leather cording, make an x with two pins to secure the cord in place so as not to puncture the cord. Place the pins on either side of the cord crossing in a diagonal manner, like an X to secure the cord in place.

Now that you have these tips you are ready to start a macramé project! Keep in mind that macramé is hard but it can be a fun and rewarding activity. Good luck with your first macrame knots!

The Macramé Project is a Direct Trade project of The Eden’s Rose Foundation. The purpose of this blog is to raise awareness of a community development program in the low visibility areas of Ecuador. The Projects are funded primarily through the sales of our macramé, made by the People our programs help. In addition to purchasing macramé, we have lots of ways for you to offer your help to aid People in need. We have outlined many options for Supporting  The Macramé Project. Each option is a viable way of helping and making a real effect in the lives of people and families in the Eden’s Rose Foundations direct trade community projects.

A Little effort is all it takes to help People in need! Read on

Talk about the Macramé Project:

Word of mouth is a powerful tool! Ask Questions, Get informed, and Get involved by sharing with friends.
The “sharing is caring buttons found at the bottom of every post (including this one) are the easiest way to do just that. By simply going to the bottom of this post and clicking the Facebook or Twitter button you will have made a contribution that can have exponential effects. The more posts you share the better we can aid our people in obtaining access to basic necessities like food, water, emergency shelter, and child and infant basic needs services. The more social networks (i.e twitter, FB, email, ect…) you share on the more children will have a brighter future.

Be active on this blog:

People may not realize just by visiting our website helps create awareness. Every time you visit The Macramé Project blog you add to our status as a web site . The more views we receive the more the search engines think we are worth visiting. Search results are one of the best ways to help increase the effect of our cause. Here is a short list of things that you can do to help with this (doing any one of these will help).

1. Visit The Macramé Project blog often (the longer the visit and the more pages viewed the more effective this is).
2. Leave comments at the bottom of the pages that you visit (we need your feedback to grow).
3. Subscribe to Macramé Project (you can add to this by liking us on FB or following us on twitter)

Subscribers will receive a $10.00 discount code. Additionally you won’t miss any new products or special offers.

 Link back to the Macramé Project:

There are many opportunities for leaving  links through out the internet. If you spend time on forums or other blogs you can easily do this. Some blogs/forums only need you to copy and past the address in the URL bar at the top of your browser. Some forums require that you use there BBCode (Bulletin Board Code). Others forums (and most blogs) allow the use of HTML. To make this as convenient as possible we have included prewritten code below. You may select the one that fits your needs and copy/paste it into your comments and replies. For web masters that own or operate blogs and websites we have included an array of buttons that you may choose from to fit your website. By including one of these links anywhere on the web you will contribute to our success. Just think, doing this will help young children have a basic needs center to go to and stay out of dangerous environments.

Here is the HTML code for a text link that looks like this:

<a href=”http://macramebracelets.com” title=”Direct Trade Macrame Bracelets” target=”_blank”>Direct Trade Macrame Bracelets</a>

Here is the BBCode (forums/bulletin boards) for a text link that looks this:

[url=http://macramebracelets.com/[/url]

Here is the BBCode (forums/bulletin boards) for a text link that looks this:

[url=http://macramebracelets.com/]Direct Trade Macrame Bracelets[/url]

Here is the HTML code for a button link that looks like this:

<div align=”center”><a href=”http://macramebracelets.com/” title=”Direct Trade Macrame Bracelets” target=”_blank”><img src=”http://macramebracelets.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/accessorizing-button-2.jpg” alt=”Direct Trade Macrame Bracelets” style=”border:none;” /></a></div>

Here is the HTML code for a button link that looks like this:

<div align=”center”><a href=”http://macramebracelets.com/” title=”Direct Trade Macrame Bracelets” target=”_blank”><img src=”http://macramebracelets.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/accessorize.jpg” alt=”Direct Trade Macrame Bracelets” style=”border:none;” /></a></div>

Here is the HTML code for a button link that looks like this:

<div align=”center”><a href=”http://macramebracelets.com/” title=”Direct Trade Macrame Bracelets” target=”_blank”><img src=”http://macramebracelets.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/MP_ad_2.gif” alt=”Direct Trade Macrame Bracelets” style=”border:none;” /></a></div>

Here is the HTML code for a button link that looks like this:

<div align=”center”><a href=”http://macramebracelets.com/” title=”Direct Trade Macrame Bracelets” target=”_blank”><img src=”http://macramebracelets.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/animated-accessorizing-button.gif” alt=”Direct Trade Macrame Bracelets” style=”border:none;” /></a></div>

Here is the HTML code for a button link that looks like this:

<div align=”center”><a href=”http://macramebracelets.com/” title=”Direct Trade Macrame Bracelets” target=”_blank”><img src=”http://macramebracelets.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/button.jpg” alt=”Direct Trade Macrame Bracelets” style=”border:none;” /></a></div>

Here is the HTML code for a button link that looks like this:

<div align=”center”><a href=”http://macramebracelets.com/” title=”Direct Trade Macrame Bracelets” target=”_blank”><img src=”http://macramebracelets.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/macrame-s-and-d-button.jpg” alt=”Direct Trade Macrame Bracelets” style=”border:none;” /></a></div>

Here is the HTML code for a button link to The Eden’s Rose Foundation (edensrose.org) that looks like this:

<div align=”center”><a href=”http://edensrose.org/” title=”The Eden’s Rose Foundation” target=”_blank”><img src=”http://macramebracelets.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/erf-button.png” alt=”The Eden’s Rose Foundation” style=”border:none;” /></a></div>

Donate to The Eden’s Rose Foundation:

We accept donations of any size. The money we receive does not simply get spent on a single need. We take the money and invest it into our direct trade efforts. This produces more funding while providing the people in need with methods of increasing there household income. Where does your money go? Click here to find out more.

 Purchase beautiful macramé products from our online store:

Last, but certainly not least is the purchasing of the items that the Macramé Project is all about. Our unique macramé items are made by the people who benefit from the money spent on our products. This gives them the opportunity to earn income for their families. We train them and set them up to produce this merchandise. We buy these items at a price that allows them to live at or above the subsistence level. The money raised from the sale of these products goes directly back into their community and developing new direct trade people projects. To visit the Macramé Project’s online store click here.

The macramé products are mostly made of a polyester coated Brazilian linen used for tying and seating or bonding the knots. These multi colored strings are very strong and won’t fray. They never dissolve like hemp. They don’t have dyes that run or fade like cotton. They are built to last. The strings are just the right make up to feel comfortable on your wrist and still stand the test of time, sun, and water.

We have been incorporating different local seeds into some of the new designs. Seeds such as Tagua (sustainable alternative to ivory) and other local seeds traditional for crafting have given way to simi precious gemstones from the area and beyond. We now include over 50 types of stones into our work including a range of agates, jaspers, opals, feildspars, turquoise, onyx and even a very special and rare Colombian amber.

These macramé are made in a series of community’s surrounding the small outpost community of Tosagua, Ecuador. These are low visibility areas with people living at or below the subsistance level. These individual communities each bring their own unique dynamic. The macramé is made in many different home style and community group productions. This adds diversity in resources and socioeconomic structure. Some are made as part of cultural preservation classes designed for skills training and job creation.

We use the community to produce a product that we use to raise funds for that community and others like it. This gives the community hope and alleviates helplessness. When the product is made it is made with love. In addition to this when you make a purchase here at Macramé Project it is showing love back.