On my online workbook this week: High-Strung

Dear

This week's inspiration is daydreaming of a summer vacation... a hammock gently swinging in the cool ocean breeze....

I wanted a barely there hammock for this design so I used the thinnest possible strands, knotted into almost more of a dream or an illusion of a hammock. It's not surprising then that my tip for you this week is a practical one: Measure out how big the part of the hammock you are knotting is going to be to make sure the polystyrene board is big enough before you start pinning the ripped strands. The ripped grass is delicate and especially once dried rather fragile. It should not be moved or adjusted once you start knotting. So get the positioning right from the first knot. And then… when you remove it, take special care. Lift the pin and not the knot. If any glue is stuck cut it away with embroidery scissors- don’t be tempted to break the bits of glue.

... and if a strand snaps you can connect it again by positioning it right where you want it and then placing a dew drop crystal between the two broken sections so that the gum on the crystal bridges the gap. It's painstaking work to fix a snapped strand so best try to avoid having to do this in the first place- but accidents happen.

Or if you want to avoid the hassle of such delicate work or simply craft a more robust hammock or even make a full size one, you can plait or braid all the strands… or I have a Tutorial in my book on page 45 to 63 that shows how rope is twisted and knotted.

Enjoy!

Every good wish,

Christine

Ps: the last little detail of the design- that braided strands of rope that dangled down the one end turned out to be my favourite part. I am so glad I did not cut it short! Without it the design seemed unbalanced somehow. Funny how that works, don’t you think?