Chinese Knotwork – a Lovely Project

A little break from our Etching Blog Hop with Armour Etch here. My friend Carmi Cimicata (the Resin Blog lady) has got me into trouble again.

This time her little surprise blog hop included some great products from Dazzle It! The players each received a spool of Dazzle It Lovely Knots Cord, A Kumihimo Findings Kit, and a copy of the book Lovely Knots – An Introduction to Chinese Knotting by Fernando DaSilva.  Wow!

The goodies in the envelope.

Of course I started by looking through the book…”piece of cake,” I decided…Ha…hahaha…hahahahaha… can you hear the hysteria? Chinese knotting is very much like Origami. It looks super easy, and I’ll tell you Fernando DaSilva’s instructions are beautifully photographed, step-by-step, and crystal clear. And, well, it’s not as easy as it looks! As one girl in the blog hop said,”I clearly have no Chinese blood and there were no sailors in my family.”  But persistence paid off, and on my 10th try my Pippa Knot was, I thought, pretty darn good. (ok, it’s a little loose and Ancient Chinese people are probably spinning in their graves in frustration, but it looks a lot better than the first 9 tries! One problem was that I made the top loop do double duty and hold my bezel.) I put a Double Button Knot on top of the Pippa for stability.

Very Messy Pippa Knot by Laura Weed

I will whisper to you the secret – it’s glue on the back of the knot – I used Beacon Adhesive’s Quick Grip to secure the knot. DaSilva also uses it in his book on a few of the projects.

Quick Grip holds my knot in place. Do not look at the back of my double button knot where the cords cross. That’s a no-no.

Then I used some Single Button Knots to act as spacers to secure some beads. My beads came from my local Michaels Store.

Single button knots make great spacers!

Of course there has to be stamping! I used Stampendous’ Charm Collection Perfectly Clear Stamps (available at Michaels Stores) to create a tiny collage for my Lisa Pavelka Bevel (yep, Michaels again!). I glued it into the bezel with Elmer’s Glue then sealed it with more Elmer’s. I added some Green Glass Glitter and some Silver Glass Glitter with glue to the collage, then I used EnviroTex Jewelry Resin (you guessed it, Michaels Stores)  over the collage to finish my pendant.

Charm Collection Pendant

I finished my piece with a couple of Sliding Button Knots instead of a clasp. These knots allow the piece to slide larger or smaller so the necklace can go over my head.

Sliding Button Knots

And  TaDa! A really fun necklace I’ll wear again and again! I wouldn’t have thought of trying it, but now that I have, I recommend it highly! It’s pretty astonishing that all of this is one piece of cord!

Chinese Charm by Laura Weed

Product wise, this cord was beautiful to work with and stood up to my tying, loosening, tying, loosening, tying, loosening, fixing, fixing, fixing just beautifully.  The cord also comes in the most genius packaging ever. The top of the spool literally folds up so you can use the cord, then folds down to keep it clean, free from unraveling, and safe from cats!! The book is full of very clear directions beautifully photographed, and I think it would be a valuable resource in any crafter’s library. At some point in any craft one of these knots would be the perfect finishing touch. The bracelet findings are beautiful, and I can’t wait to use them on another project.

Thanks, Carmi, for yet another challenge!! Carmi’s got the links for the entire Blog Hop up over on the Dazzle It Blog. Do go see the creations the other crafters have made. I was impressed at how easily some of them took to this craft. They made amazing pieces of jewelry!

If you’d like to know more about the extremely ancient art of Chinese Knotting, visit the Chinese Knotting website – they have a gallery of unbelievable images and projects as well as a tutorial for many knots.

And then get back to hopping on our Etched Glass Blog Hop! We’ve got some super fun stuff going on today!