I grew up in Mexico, the fourth of 11 children. My mom, who was super creative, home-schooled us, and it was clear from an early age that I was always her most creative and crafty daughter. My dad was a pecan farmer with a business based in Mexico, but we often made trips to El Paso and Phoenix when I was growing up. For me, this meant an opportunity to go to my favorite stores, Hobby Lobby and Michaels, where I would head to their yarn section and painting section and get myself new paints, new paintbrushes, palettes and canvases — so exciting!
As a child, I was always drawing, painting, sketching. I started painting at 8 and took up crocheting when I was around 11, learning the basic chain to make scarves, and later, I started making booties. As I got a bit older, I began to sew, working with patterns to create skirts and other wearable creations.
In my late teens, I made a trip to North Dakota and met my now-husband, Scout. We ended up getting married a couple of months before I turned 19. We lived in Las Vegas for that first year — a big change for me since I’d never lived outside of Mexico and was so used to being with family and friends all the time. During this time, I wanted to start a business, something I could do at home that would bring in extra income, but I could never quite decide what I wanted to do.
I had my first baby when I turned 20. When he was 6 months old, we ended up in Laverkin, Utah, for my husband’s work and found a temporary rental house. One night, I was on Pinterest, and this beautiful macrame wall hanging caught my eye. I debated buying it, but our rental was fully furnished, and we were only going to be there for a couple of months. It didn’t occur to me that I could make one — it seemed way too complicated with all the knots.
From that point on, I found myself going through the wall hangings and plant hangers every day on Pinterest. I remember asking my mom (who had done macrame with her mom in the 1970s), “Would you be able to do this?” She said yes. I just had the idea that I couldn’t do it … but I also couldn’t stop thinking about it.
I went to Ace Hardware and bought my first spool of cotton rope, about 100 feet long, and then got on YouTube and looked up a basic macrame knot. My first macrame project was a plant hanger. It was surprisingly easy, and I had so much fun making it. I was so proud that I went and took a picture in the mirror with it to show my sisters.
I wanted to continue creating! I went online and found some pretty natural cotton cord. I ordered three spools and spent about $60. I learned more techniques and realized: With just a couple basic knots, you can pretty much create anything. Every time I was on a nature walk, I’d look for a branch to take home with me. I’d sand down the edges, clean it up really nice, and start making a macrame wall piece with it, doing lark’s head knots and looping the rope around it.
My mom, who had also started doing macrame (again), was encouraging when I told her about my plans to start an Instagram page. And so, I created my Instagram page while I was in a theater with my husband. I don’t remember the movie we watched, but I just remember creating my page and thinking: I need to do this right away! I started posting the previous work that I had created.
Coincidentally, my mom and her creative sisters were planning to set up a booth at the Pinterest Pinners Conference in Salt Lake City. My mom was planning to do macrame, and I offered to help her fill up her booth with a bunch of my wall hangings. I quickly made 10 or 15 smaller wall hangings for the show … and ended up selling every piece that I brought! I was so excited — but I was even more excited to go home and start creating more.
From then on, all my free time was spent creating wall hangings. I loved doing it; it brought me so much peace and was very therapeutic. While tying the knots, I would listen to audiobooks or music, and I baby-carried.
I began putting together tutorials to grow my page on Instagram, starting with the very basic lark’s head knot. Once every three or four days, I would do a mini tutorial and show how to tie one knot. I started seeing lots of growth in the number of followers. People loved to watch the process, so I did time-lapse videos, and in many of them, you could see that I was pregnant with my second baby.
I had messages coming in every single day through Instagram asking, “Where do you buy your cord?” I was always sending people to places to get it and realized: I really need to supply this cord. I’m doing these tutorials, and it would be something more to offer everyone.
I found a really high-quality supplier for the cotton cord and rope based here in the USA. I had searched for a couple of months and had tried samples. I wanted to get the highest quality — stuff I would use. The higher the quality of the rope, the better the piece looks. I got a bunch of natural cotton cord in stock and sold out of it in one day.
I started packaging orders every day. I’d do shipments for the cotton cord and things I sold through my Etsy shop — wall hangings, coasters, earrings, plant hangers, all sorts of fun boho macrame items. I named my shop Holm Made Macrame because my husband’s last name is Holm, which is the name I took on, and it kind of sounded like “homemade.”
I had five-star reviews, and everyone loved the cotton cord I was offering, but then the next thing was, “Hey, we would love some color cord to add to our pieces.” I was then on the search for colored cord. I felt I needed to offer that, too.
It took me about six months to find the right supplier. I couldn’t find anyone in the USA, but I found a supplier overseas from Turkey. Their cord was extremely high quality and beautiful and the exact colors I was looking for. I made my first order and started selling the color cord in small spools I would spin myself.
My husband helped me out so much. I don’t know what I would have done if I didn’t have him — especially during my pregnancy. He was always loading all the boxes and helping me package the rope and cord. He was amazing.
The shipping part of my business became easier when we moved to Sand Hollow, Utah. It was a bigger city, and USPS and UPS were able to pick up straight from my door. I got to know the postmen and postwomen really well. They knew my house would be the one with 50 packages outside every morning.
When 2020 hit, as bad as it was for COVID, it was actually a really good year for me, businesswise. Most everyone was staying home, so everybody got really crafty. I sold a lot of cord and made a lot of tutorials during that time. I think it kept a lot of people busy.
I created wall hangings in my home with my children next to me, and I packaged orders early in the morning or after the kids were in bed so it wouldn’t take too much time from them. And before I went to bed at night, I would schedule a pickup for the next day. By the time I was pregnant with my third baby, I was super busy creating wall pieces and packing my orders for the rope and cord. And social media kept me busy.
I found myself doing more and more custom orders, which I love. For most custom orders, people will give me full creative freedom. They usually send me a message through Instagram, show me a few samples of my work that they like, give me the dimensions, and send a photo of the space they want it to go in.
One woman from Alaska wrote telling me about a really awesome caribou shed she wanted to ship to me to create a wall hanging on. She sent me photos of some of my other designs and asked me to mesh them together. When the shed arrived, she had also included a bunch of antique glass floats from the shores of Alaska to add to the piece.
I didn’t want to let people down. I wanted to make sure I had the best customer service and make sure people were happy. So when I had my baby two weeks early, which I hadn’t anticipated, I enlisted my sister to help me do the orders from my kitchen — and bedside!
From 2017 to 2022, I created so many wall hangings and was really busy doing the rope and cord business. But with three children, I realized that selling the rope and cord was taking too much of my time. I wanted to give more time to my children. So, in July 2022, a woman and her husband drove from Indiana to Utah, and she took over my rope and cord business. I was so happy and relieved. She had been doing macrame for years, and I felt she was the perfect person to take it on.
I’m currently pregnant with my fourth child, and my focus is on my children and my art. I was recently commissioned to create my most massive wall hanging yet — 15 feet wide and 10 feet high — for a hotel in Salt Lake City. It’s a huge project to take on, and I know it will take me a couple of months.
People ask me where I get my energy. I have this drive in me: I want to do something I’m passionate about but also bring in income and be helping people at the same time. Every time I have a custom order, I never let it drag on for weeks. I feel like I have to get it done right away.
In the beginning, I made and sold lots of small things — coasters, earrings, baby pacifier clips and rearview mirror charms — pretty much anything with macrame. I slowly stopped stocking my shop with little things but started sharing my designs and making tutorials on my YouTube channel so people could make them themselves. Most days, I try to set aside time to create content for my channel and have new videos lined up to post each day.
I still love to make plant hangers.
To start my plant hangers, I usually get a metal ring from a hardware shop, 3 to 4 inches in diameter, and I wrap that with 100% cotton rope. I use 5 mm, three-ply twisted cotton rope (I prefer natural colors, which look great against the green of the plant) to wrap the ring continuously — really tight with no gaps, then I tie a square knot at the end.
I then cut four pieces of rope, all measured at 10 feet long. I fold them in half, and I put them over the ring, through the ring so it covers up the square knot. I then do a Chinese crown knot. You need four pieces of cord, and you weave each cord through each other.
I tie 17 of those Chinese crown knots, making a long row of knots. Once I get to my desired length, I then pull the pieces of rope and get my planter pot to see how the plant’s going to hang. I pull the rope down and give it a foot and a half of space, and I tie a barrel knot. Then, I wrap and get the top and bottom rope and hold them tight. I cut the bottom to my desired length, leaving a half a foot or foot of rope.
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
— PHILIPPIANS 4:13
What’s next:
My husband and I are building our dream home in southern Utah, and I can’t wait to do a custom macrame wall hanging for it. We plan
to have a large family, and I am so grateful to continue spending my days as an artist, a homemaker and a mom. My goal is to continue to grow my YouTube channel and let other women know that they don’t have to choose between a family and a business.
You can do whatever you set your mind to.
“Doing what you love is the cornerstone
of having abundance in your life.”
— WAYNE DYER
