I admire beautiful packaging and love to collect inspiring ideas. When the time came for me to decide how I should pack orders for the Sunshine bracelets, I went with brown paper bag sealed with a handmade recycled-paper seal (not shown) and to that, I designed a tag-cum-bookmark (with a quotable quote behind) that gets tied up with washi string. I wanted a simple package with some uniqueness.
I made a few knotted brocade brooches which were sold to benefit Project Sunshine as well.
In the meanwhile, thanks for taking part in the giveaway. I’ll be sending set A to MandaPanda and set B to JaimeM.
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Thank you for your kind comments on our fund raising effort for the 2 families who lost their homes due to the floods in the Philippines.
Last week I was making as many bracelets as my supplies allow me. After completing some 10 over pieces, I found that I wasn’t pleased with the way they were knotted to hold the clasps, and that happened in the evening before I was to hand over 20 bracelets the next day. Thanks to me for picking on myself! So I had poor hub help me de-string, then re-string, while I took care of the ends and made more to fulfill the balance. It was surely troublesome + tedious but at least I don’t feel uneasy as I continue stringing a new batch this week.
These bracelets are called “Sunshine” with the hope that as we take steps to rebuild our lives, our homes after a disaster, the grey skies over us will clear and sunshine will come around again.
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I bought leather lace thinking that I should try knotting something wearable, but procrastination slowly set in because I wasn’t sure if the knotwork would turn out nice. This is a 3.5mm thick leather strip and its squarish perimeter doesn’t make it suitable to even begin to consider jewelry knotting. Normal people knot with thinner and roundish cords.
Well, I don’t know what came over me (maybe work stress…) that I finally had the courage to pull out the leather and do a clover knot, as a start.
I’ve shown the clover knot here before but haven’t taken the opportunity to elaborate more. This 2-leaf clover looks like a bow tie, doesn’t it? But of course it’s not. It’s more secure than a bow once the 2 loops are pulled to their optimum tightness. Like most of the knots in Chinese knotting, its origins go way back to ancient imperial times.
I’ve made the clover into a pendant (adding a pink brocade near the clasp) and am happily wearing it whenever it matches my outfit.
That’s not all, having conquered the clover, I was UNSTOPPABLE and carried on to knot a 6 petal brocade!
I’m liking these knotty results VERY much.
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These 2 knots are identical, both are tassel knots. I gave the one on the right an explosive hairdo by snipping apart the loops and spreading out the hemp fibres…turning it into a weed of some sort!
Pretty huh, the weeds? :-)
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Here are 2 Celtic knot designs.
-:- Square knot -:-
Front
2 square knots on the left and a double on the right.
Back
-:- Rectangular knot -:-
Front
The one on the right is a double.
Back
Not strictly right-angles, of course but 2 of very few squarish assemblies.
[p.s. they are the same on both sides!]
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I’ve used a total of 3 knots for these 2 pieces of pendant-cum-wall art: modified clover leaf for the 5-petal blooms, a 2-leaf clover and reverse 2 half hitches.
✿ DETAILS
Cord material: cotton
Cord size: 1mm
Width: 10.7cm (widest)
Height: 17.2cm
Inspired by cardboard and cardboard colour, I decided to use unpolished (and verrry pricky) hemp for that rustic feel.
✿ DETAILS
Cord material: hemp
Cord size: 2mm
Width: 14cm (widest)
Height: 19.7cm
For me, there’s nothing better when knot power transforms into flower power!
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-:- 2 half hitches -:-
Front view
* A knot that attaches a rope to a rail, bar or any object is called a hitch.
Back view (aka reverse 2 half hitches)
-:- Alpine butterfly -:-
Front view
The alpine is a mountaineering knot. It’s other name is lineman’s loop.
Back view
-:- Simple Simon over -:-
Front view
Developed by Harry Asher and published in 1989, this knot is used to secure 2 slippery cords.
Back view
-:- Ring and Prusik -:-
Front view (L:Ring, R:Prusik)
The ring hitch is a common way of looping a string on a ring. The prusik, which is also a mountaineering knot, is named after Dr. Karl Prusik, an Austrian music professor who initially came up with this knot during WWI to mend broken strings of musical instruments. He later published the tying instructions for mountaineers to be used for self-rescue.
Back view
Thought I’ll end this week with more pictures of the knots I like to use, not for climbing though :-) .
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More basic knots
-:- Button -:-
Front views (yellow knots from L to R): button knot, button with loop, a flat button
* The green knot is also a flat button.
Back views
-:- Double coin -:-
Front view
* The 2 smaller knots on the left are double coin knots tied twice.
Back view
-:- Clover leaf (2 leaves) -:-
Front view
Back view
Here’s part 1, if you’ve missed it.
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