Macramé for the Modern Home

Isabella Strambio is a self-taught macramé and natural dye artist. She is half Italian and half Japanese and she grew up by the sea in Italy. At 18, she moved to the UK to learn English and study Interior Design. Isabella has always been attracted to design, hand-made products, natural materials and textures, and her passions are reflected in her work. She is also a big advocate of using recycled materials for her macramé work and food scraps for her natural dyeing. She started her blog www.isabellastrambio.com, to document her personal journey to learn 12 new crafts in 12 months. In 2017, she took the leap and quit her career as an Interior Designer to work full-time on her small creative business.She has been featured in the Sunday Telegraph, the UK TV series Kirstie's Handmade Christmas and regularly writes macramé tutorials for magazines like Mollie Makes, In the Moment, Hobbycraft and Origin. In 2019, her Natural Dyed Japanese Apron was one of the finalists for the Etsy Design Award. She runs workshops, events and teambuilding classes in London and across the UK. She also teaches macramé and natural dyeing online for people that cannot attend her workshops.

The book is well illustrated with easy to follow diagrams. There are 16 projects for varying proficiencies. The advanced rug making one I particularly liked but as a beginner I would try the curtain tieback and the tassel first. Items are given an approximate time it would take to make ranging from 1 hour to 8 hours and I found this useful to know.There is an interesting article on natural dyeing too which may be of interest for people wanting a different effect. A very enjoyable book and one I will look forward to using in the future.

• Introduction 6How to use this book 8Tools 10Materials 12Looking after your body 13Knots 14Patterns 22Macramé tips 28Dyeing equipment & ingredients 34Natural dyeing techniques 36Macramé on the wallWreath 42Bunting 48Wall hanging 52Diamond wall hanging 58Curtain 64Macramé to hangPlant hanger 72Wall plant hanger 76Mirror hanger 80Bedside table 86Macramé for indoors & outdoorsTable runner 92Tealight cover 98Lampshade 104Macramé to decoratePillow cover 108Curtain tieback 114Rug 118Tassels 124Acknowledgements 128