Knot your basic jewellery
Macrame as an art form makes a cool comeback, with the fashionable embracing it to create chic accessories.
YOU may perceive it as old-fashioned, but there is more to macrame than meets the eye. Not just a 1970s fad, knotting twine together has become a modern thing – especially if done right and with careful attention to aesthetics.
Chinese-american artist Windy Chien gained fame for twisting ropes into beautiful art.
Her 2016 book The Year Of Knots, which documented how she learned to tie a new knot every day for 365 days, was a major hit among millennials.
Chien has been covered by Wired, The New York Times and even Martha Stewart Living, with companies like IBM and National Geographic Society commissioning her work for their offices.
Macrame has witnessed a revival within fashion too. With everyone keen on embracing cottagecore (a style trend based around the visual culture of life on a Western farm), the artform is trendy again.
It appeared numerous times as embellishments in the Spring/ Summer 2019 New York Fashion Week. Textured netting was seen decorating handbags, covering dresses and cascading off belts.
Stella Mccartney unveiled bags with macrame straps back in 2017. Last year, Gabriela Hearst presented luxurious ready-to-wear designs that made good use of twine detailing.
On the local front, we are seeing creative Malaysians using macrame to create stand-out jewellery pieces. They are proving that such a simple artform can be chic and would not in any way look out of place in a glossy fashion magazine.
Charmaine Kamal’s macrame creations are fun, while at the same time beautiful. What started as a personal arts and crafts project soon turned into a real business.
She started Nurtureknots on Instagram in 2017 to share her love for knotworks.
, she started receiving requests and to purchase her creations, as well as commissions.
“As a proud Malaysian, I am inspired by the cultures from the indigenous tribes of Malaysia,” says the Kuala Lumpur-born artist. She however believes that knot tying is very much a “universal language”.
“I’ve been making handcrafted artisanal weaving, mostly macrame pieces, available for art collectors and enthusiasts. They also take on various forms, as daily essentials, fashion accessories and interior decoration pieces.”
The jewellery pieces Charmaine designs have an ethnic feel to them.
But by playing with bright colours, she has also made them contemporary. Think modern contrast-blocking, which is a perennial trend on runways.
“It takes only a couple of hours to finish a small piece and up to a week or two for a larger one. What’s for sure is that they are all made with love,” she says of her creative process.
“Using my instincts and perspective, I usually start with a sketch and work with that. But sometimes, ideas would just pop up in mind and I’d just go with the flow and experiment.”
Charmaine, 31, says that she is lucky to be born into a creative family. Her father is an architect and her mother, a clay artist. She holds a degree in business and has never formally studied design.
“I guess creativity runs in my blood. Both of my parents really inspired me. They have been so supportive of me chasing my passion and doing things that I love,” she enthuses.
Although macrame can sometimes be seen as dated, Charmaine says there are many facets to it.
It is her belief that the craft can exist in various styles – some more innovative than others.
“Just like surface embroidery, quilting and needlework are seeing a bump in popularity, macrame is being transformed from a 70s relic into a hot, trendy artform.”
Charmaine says that the beauty of macrame works is that each one is unique. Made by hand, no two designs are ever exactly alike.
She says her creations are one of a kind, a translation of her nuanced aesthetics.
“I believe string art is like a painting, it has its own essence that you have to give it a try and explore.
“I’m still learning and understanding the process, while experimenting with different styles and textures.”
Tied to a tale
For Lorraine Lee, macrame is her way of expressing herself. The 28-year-old sees the jewellery she creates as a sculptural art form that tells a story, more so than the functionality and patterns it represents.
According to Lee, her knots are unique and can’t be found in any knot making books. The patterns are not sketched out first. She views this as more of an “organic approach” to creating knot designs.
“I don’t actually have any experience in jewellery design. I have to say a big part of creating these knots is adapted skill, and learning over the years from other forms of making,” she explains.
Talee (derived from the Malay word tali) was founded three years ago in Canada, wherein Lee studied and later worked. It moved with her when she returned to Kota Kinabalu in 2019.
“The art of knot tying, for me, is equivalent to the art of making memories. Instead of just creating knot patterns, it has become a form of healing and discovery of my passion in arts and design,” she enthuses.
The backstory of how Lee fell in love with tying knots tugs at heartstrings. She discovered the passion when she was helping her father recover from an illness.
In 2010, her dad was diagnosed with Brugada syndrome. He suffered from hypoxic brain injury, which resulted in short-term memory loss.
He was then encouraged to tie knots to help jog his mind. This was an activity that he had picked up as a boy scout when young. Lee and her sister later joined in as part of his therapy.
“Before the incident, my father, who is a boating enthusiast and a water skier, would take the family out in the ocean every weekend, ” Lee says, adding that he was the one who first introduced them to knots.
“All of my knots were founded from mistakes or discoveries during knot tying sessions I shared with my father. I would then deconstruct these knots into something wearable.”
Her creations require an average of one to two days to complete. Twining fibres repetitively to be knotted takes up the most time. Then there is the sewing, trimming and quality examination.
But it is more than just a process. You could say that the jewellery Lee creates comes from her heart. The knot that would best describe her journey is called hati.
“This knot in particular was the start of my passion for wearable knotted works, seeing it coming to life, from knotted mistakes to infusing my own creative technicality towards its overall aesthetic.”
Lee says that her mum was the first person who saw the first earrings she made from knot tying
Her mother is proud of Lee as she has managed to turn her passion into a purpose.
Her father is not fully aware of what is going on. His memory is still unable to retain any new information, including the understanding that he played a big part of Talee’s founding.
Lee however, chooses to remain positive about life: “As hard as this sounds, I take this as an opportunity to retell the story to him as if it was the first chapter of the book.”