In part one of this post, I talked about how I’ve fallen in love with off-loom weaving this summer. The combination of finding perfect objects in nature and pairing them with crafting material I’ve already got stashed from other projects is irresistible to me. Now, in addition to sticks (and acorns and grapevine and sea glass) everywhere I go I’m on the looking for interesting rocks.
Why rocks? First, because geology is cool. I’ve been very much enjoying learning about the geological history of my part of Ontario, from the Grenville mountains to the Ottawa Graben to the Champlain sea. But mostly I want to know about all that so I can understand the types of rocks I am finding and collecting and wrapping in bits of cord and yarn. Wrapping rocks, otherwise known as zenstones, is my new happy place, and it’s a perfect marriage with my new love of off-loom weaving.
The first rock wrapping project I tried was a simple one, based on a tutorial I found on YouTube. It was fiddly, but I was able to make this stitched spine wrap work on the first try, with a nice rounded rock (gneiss, I think?) and some macrame cord.
Around that same time, I had discovered @larkandbower and instantly fell in love with her take on off-loom weaving. She has some examples of weaving on rocks on her Instagram account and I was in love with them.
Weaving on rocks is a perfect summer afternoon project. It takes only an hour or two, can be done anywhere, and I have no shortage of embroidery floss, macrame cord and yarn around the house to try weaving various textures. Weaving off loom became weaving on rocks and I couldn’t get enough.
In addition to weaving with embroidery floss and wool, I started trying other types of rock wrapping beyond weaving patterns, and added things like keys and buttons and beads. I found the squared rocks were better a better base for weaving but the rounded ones made for good wrapped rocks.
I love everything about this. I love that it’s reasonably easy to do simple rock wrap designs, but you can make them complex. I love that the results are colourful. I love that you can knock one off in a relatively short time, with supplies you can throw in your bag for a project-on-the-go. I love the look of a pile of wrapped rocks sitting on the shelf, though we are in danger of being overrun by piles of colourful pretty stones. And I love that they make perfect little “I was thinking of you” gifts.
Next up, I’m thinking about ways to personalize them. Could I work an initial into the weave pattern? I think so! The marriage of rock wrapping and off-loom weaving has nearly endless potential!
You know what’s hard to find, though? Tutorials. I’m going to be working on some how-to wrap rocks and how to weave on rocks videos and step-by-step lessons over the next little while. It’s easy enough to figure out, but I found it hard to get enough basic information to get started. Check back here or follow me at Curious Crone on Instagram if you’d like tutorials and how-to on wrapping rocks. And once I get a few more wrapped rock designs under my belt, wouldn’t this make for an awesome workshop?