It was
Sally England's macrame work that first got me hooked on this style of fiber art. When I first saw her work, it was the piece at the bottom of this post, and I didn't know what to call it. I remember I first called it a "net," because that's what it looked like, I hadn't heard the words "macrame wall hanging" used together yet. When I found her website, I was amazed at what I saw. She said she learned everything she knows by purchasing vintage macrame books at thrift stores and teaching herself the knots. It really inspired me to learn that this wasn't something she started in art school, and that she didn't have a long, extensive background in the fiber arts. Like me, she found something she loved and began reading and learning as much as she could about it. Now, her business has grown, and her work has become more and more impressive.
A lot of times, I can look at a macrame piece I see, and I can recreate it. In fact, this is how I taught myself. I would just try to recreate everything I saw, learning and practicing new knots along the way. One thing that amazes me about Sally England is that I look at many of her pieces, and I can't figure out how she did it. Studying her work is both inspiring and frustrating, but on the few occasions I've had a breakthrough and discovered how to replicate her knots, it's so satisfying.
Isn't she incredible? Visit
her website to see more of her amazing macrame skills. I'll just be over here studying her knots and trying to figure out how she did that. :)
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