Hemp jewelry design is a great way to create fun, unique pieces of jewelry. And who knows? You may even be able to create your own cottage industry! After all, hemp jewelry is a staple at all outdoor music festivals, street fairs and college campuses worldwide.
Hemp jewelry design is based on various macrame knots. Learn some of these knots, add a little bling and you can create some very personal and heartfelt designs. A personally created gift of hemp jewelry would no doubt be appreciated and valued by family, friends, and don’t forget your fur friends! Working with hemp is great for beginners because if you make a mistake the knots are much easier to undo than other cords.
- Materials
- Getting Started
- Basic Hemp Knots
- Hemp Bracelet Patterns
- A Great Resource For Hemp Jewelry Design
Materials
The beauty of hemp jewelry design is it’s elegant simplicity. All you need is some hemp twine. If you want to “splurge” a bit, get a clipboard and a binder clip and you’ve got a portable workstation (I’ll explain below). Beads and charms of various mediums can be used to add some pizazz to your design. These embellishments can help define your style and unique flava.
Hemp Twine: Come in a variety of gauges, or thickness. It is measured by lb. test. One of the most common thickness is 20 lb. test, approximately 1 mm. thick. You’ll need to know the thickness if you want to include beads or other embellishments.
Other common gauges include 45 lb. test (approx. 2 mm thick) and 80 lb. test (approx. 3 mm thick). The heavier twines are great for men’s jewelry, belts and pet collars.
Beads and Charms: Your only limitation to the beads and charms is your imagination. Beads come in numerous mediums such as wood, acrylic, glass, clay, stone, resin, metal and shells. However, what you do need to keep in mind is that you’re able to string the beads onto your twine. You also need to keep in mind that you will often need to pass two strands of twine through your beads so you may want to look for beads with 2 to 3 mm holes if you’re using a 20 lb. test hemp twine.
Consider bringing your hemp twine with you if you’re shopping for beads at a brick and mortar retailer. This will ensure your hemp twine will fit through the holes and help you visualize the colors. If you’re like me and prefer to shop online there are bead suppliers to fit every budget and style.
Pugster.com is a great place to look for your fancier centerpiece beads and spacers.
However, you can go to Create For Less to get your bulk beads. You can find some amazing deals and other really cool crafting supplies at Create For Less.
Getting Started
The basic knots for most hemp jewelry designs generally require four strands of hemp. The two inner strands (black) are your base strands. These should be slightly longer than your finished product. If you add beads or other embellishments to your hemp jewelry, you will string them onto these inside base strands. This is why it’s important to have beads with a diameter large enough to pass through two hemp strands. Of course the process can be easily modified to use only one base strand as illustrated in the hemp bracelet pattern provided below.
You will use the two outside strands to tie your knots. Therefore, these outer strands should be about 3x longer than your inner base strands. It will take some trial and error, but 3x outer strands is a good start.
Once you get your strands to the proper length, tie a double overhand knot in the middle of the strands. You can make the loop as large (for a belt or collar) or small (bracelet or necklace) as you need it to be.
The knot can be clipped onto a clipboard. You can also mark the clip board in one inch increments to help you measure strand lengths. Use your binder clips to secure your base (center) strands.
The beauty of hemp jewelry design is you can get started by just knowing the square knot. Depending on how you tie it, you can get two different looks – flat or twisted.
Hemp Knots
To start the square knot, take the strand on the far right side (red) across the base (black) strand (illustration #2). Click to enlarge images.
Then take the left strand (blue) over the loose end of the red strand, under the base (black) strands and through the loop of the red strand and tighten (illustration #3). You’ve just created a half knot.
Now take the left strand (red) across the base strands (black) (illustration #4).
And take the right strand (blue) over the red strand and thread under the black base strand and then back over the red strand illustration #5. Tighten. Congrats! You just tied your first square knot!
If you want a flat pattern, simply tie your knots alternating starting strands as illustrated in the diagrams 2-5 above. I’m right handed so I think about starting with the right strand then finish the square knot by starting with the left strand. As you do this, you’ll see the pattern emerge. So if you happen to forget which side you just tied, you can look at your pattern.
To get the twisted pattern, always start each half knot with the right (red) strand. Your pattern will twist to the right. You can also start this knot with the left (blue) strand. If you always start your hemp knot with the left strand, your pattern will twist to the left.
