Micro Macrame - The Latin American Version

ARUMI design by Martin and Ugne from Spain www.facebook.com/ARUMIdesign or www.arumidesign.etsy.com

While Macrame got its latest renewal as Micro Macrame in the US, Canada, Europe, and Australia, another macrame revival has been taking place in Latin America.

The re-emergence of Macrame has been centered around jewelry, renamed Micro Macrame for short and mostly features knotted cords with beads or gemstones. DIY books have been published by artists and authors such as Joan Babcock, Kris Buchanan, Sherry Haab, Anika DeGroot and Marie Le Sueur. Websites such as Macrame Collective have been showing Macrame as an art form. The availability of materials to work with has been a major factor. You need cord. In 2005, I had difficulties finding bonded nylon in a wide range of colors for myself and my students, so when I discovered C-Lon, I decided to promote them.

At the time C-Lon made 24 colors of C-Lon Bead Cord and the C-Lon Bead Thread Size D and AA collections. Marion Jewels in Fiber, my supply website, was born in January 2006. Over the years I have helped C-Lon expand their collection and now they have 4 sizes of cords, with 72 colors of C-Lon Bead Cord Tex 400, 104 colors of the standard C-Lon Bead Cord, 24 colors of C-Lon Fine Weight Tex 135 Cord, and 32 colors of C-Lon Micro Cord. C-Lon is planning to add 16 additional colors of the Fine Weight Tex 135 cord in 2013. They added 24 colors of Tex 400 last year, so they keep expanding!

In the meantime, another macrame revolution has been taking place in Latin America centered around Settanyl and Linhasita, two brands of Brazilian waxed polyester cord. These cords have been difficult to find until recently when KnotMore.com started importing Settanyl. After sourcing Linhasita a number of years ago, I had considered importing it from Brazil, but I was already busy enough and running out of room to store cords, plus I found that I am allergic to the wax coating, so that idea was nixed. So it is great that someone else has taken the baton.

The work featured on this page is made with waxed polyester cord, artist names are listed.

Nicole Medema

Percy Palomino Tomayquispe

Teleisthai Macrame

Merlina Textile

Here is fun sculptural piece made with this waxed polyester cord by Merlina Textile. 

KnotMore.com was founded by Dawn Standera of Macrame Collective and Karen Forbes. Both Macrame artists were frustrated by the lack of availability of this type of cord, so they decided to venture into providing this cord for knotters, Macrame artists or anyone wanting to experiment with this cord. KnotMore carries 75 colors of Settanyl, a 1mm 2-ply waxed polyester from Brazil. The spools have 175 yards, so plenty of yardage for projects such jewelry, knotted sculptures, and basketry.

More : Read about comparisons between the Settanyl Brazilian Polyester cord and C-Lon Tex 400 Bead Cord at http://jewelsinfiber.blogspot.com/2013/01/comparison-between-settanyl-brazilian.html.