Brielle's Avalon

I made them for Ojo de Dios, pillows, horse tack, clothes…all kinds of things. I learned how when I was a kid, one of those things Mom taught us as she was making cool stuff for random projects or making things for holiday decorations. She just made things as a matter of course. So we do, too.

One of my most recent projects was making a bench out of a broken queen bed. The break happened years ago but I only recently acquired a new roommate who has been helping me fix all kinds of stuff & clear out clutter. One of the 1st projects, after fixing my henhouse and chicken coop, was this cool bench. He facilitated the fixing and construction while I was in charge of staining and varnishing it. I chose spar varnish because it would be an outside bench and needed to stand up to the elements, even though it was on the porch.

Once we were done making the bench we realized that arm rests would be nice but we were hard pressed to come up with suitable wooden options. I suddenly had an epiphany and thought macrame could serve nicely. It could be knotted in place, right on the bench, and be comfortable while using the bench. The only problem was that I haven’t dome macrame in decades! No problem, I have books in my library and the internet!

The first task was to find cotton cord for the project. I covered this ordeal in my post on making arm rests for the bench, including dying, so…so much for that…

On to the small details. I had decided that tassels would make nice accents for the macrame arm rests. I already had cotton twine for home/garden/kitchen use so I grabbed that.

I wrapped it around me hand about 16 times,

then slipped the coils off my hand and tied them together at the top, leaving enough to attach or tie on to the project. Yes, beet juice and other things kind of stained my hands!

Then I stretched the loops tight together and wrapped then at the top, making a bit of a ball/head and trapping the strings at top.

Once the basic structure was secure I pulled the loops tight at the bottom and cut their ends free.

The tassel was compleat, now to make 3 more.

I dyed them with the rest of the bench project cordage, which is also in the macrame arm-rest post, but here’s the final look, after all the dying.

And all 4 together on the bench seat. Now to finish the arm rests and put them on.

Of course I’ll add a picture of them hanging from the arm rests when all the macrame is done…but a certain mattress needs to move 1st…I can wait, there’s other projects need doing in the mean time. If I find/make time I’ll maybe pull out some ribbon or something and make tassels that look different, maybe for the olive wreath I made from tree trimmings for the front door…