Silhouette Macramé Art: How to Turn Any Design Into a Wall Hanging

by Nicole Woo

📌 Save 🎥 Watch video 🧵 Materials 📐 Photo → pattern ✨ Community ▶ The method

One knot, and any drawing you can simplify. This is the technique for turning a photo, a sketch or a silhouette into rows of knots — including the arithmetic almost nobody explains.

By Nicole Woo · Founder, Bochiknot · 5+ years teaching macrame
Last updated: August 21, 2026

Some links in this post are affiliate links, which means Bochiknot may earn a small commission if you buy through them, at no extra cost to you. We only ever link to things we use ourselves.

A Note from Nicole

Every other pattern on this site tells you what to make. This one tells you how to make anything.

Silhouette macrame is the only technique I teach where the pattern comes from you. You bring a drawing — a bird, a cat, a face, your dog — and the knots translate it. There is one knot involved, the double half hitch, and you very likely already know it.

What people find hard is not the knotting. It is the translation: looking at a picture and working out how many cords it needs, where a curve should start, and how a shape on paper becomes rows on a dowel. That is a different skill from following a pattern, and it is the one I have written this guide around.

If you would rather follow a worked example before designing your own, there is one further down. Most people go that way round, and it works well.

Silhouette macrame is a wall art technique in which rows of double half hitch knots are worked across a grid of vertical anchor cords to reproduce the outline of a bold shape — a portrait, an animal, a leaf or a letter. The design comes from a reference image rather than a repeating pattern: each row is placed slightly higher or lower than the one above to bend the line, and the knots are then shifted together to sharpen the edge. It uses one knot throughout, works best with braided 4mm cord, and is sometimes called tapestry macrame — though silhouette work specifically means rendering a single bold outline rather than a full pictorial design.

Quick Answer

Knots: One — the double half hitch, worked at every angle.
Cord: Braided 4mm gives the sharpest edges. 3-ply works but softens them.
Skill: Beginner-friendly technique, intermediate judgement ★★★☆☆
How curves work: Place each knot slightly higher or lower than the row above, then shift the knots together.
Design source: Any high-contrast image with a strong outline and little interior detail.
Also inside: how to turn a photo into a macrame pattern — gridding, cord counts and sizing.
Want a pattern instead? The portrait wall hanging is this technique applied to one design, in 12 steps.

Silhouette macrame uses one knot and no pattern. The design comes from a reference image, and curves come from placing each knot slightly higher or lower than the row above.

Macramé portrait wall hanging of a woman in a sun hat | Bochiknot

Want a pattern to follow instead?

This guide teaches the method. The Macrame Portrait Wall Hanging applies every bit of it to one specific design — a woman in a sun hat, 12 steps, exact cord lengths, and a full guide to adding cords mid-project.

Most people make that one first, then come back here to design their own.

See the portrait pattern →

🎥 Watch the video alongside the steps. Curving a row of double half hitch is one of those things that takes one viewing and a thousand words.

What's in this guide

Materials, and why cord choice matters here
Choosing a design that will actually work
How to turn a photo into a macrame pattern
Watch the video guide
The method, step by step
Pro tips for cleaner edges
Design ideas, from simple to advanced
Troubleshooting
What to make next month
FAQ

Materials, and Why Cord Choice Matters Here

Very little kit. But this is one project where the cord genuinely changes the result, so it is worth a paragraph rather than a bullet.

Braided 4mm Cord

Recommended. The compact, non-fuzzy surface is what gives a silhouette its sharp edge.

Shop braided cord

3-Ply Cord

Works, with care. Softer edges, and more forgiving if you retie a row.

Shop 3-ply cord

12" Wooden Dowels

Or any straight rod. Five to a pack, so you have spares.

Shop 12″ dowels

Macrame Scissors

Clean cuts matter on fringe you will trim at eye level.

Shop scissors

Fringe Comb

For combing out the background cords behind the silhouette.

Shop the fringe comb

Measuring Tape

For cord counts and marking the centre of your dowel.

Shop measuring tape

Cord type	Good for silhouette work?	Why
Braided, 4mm	Recommended	Compact, non-fuzzy surface gives sharp, clean edges when double half hitch rows are shifted together
Twisted 3-ply, 4mm	Works, with care	Slightly softer edge, but springs back if you undo a row — kinder for a first attempt
Single-strand, 3mm	Usable	Finer detail per row, but holds a crease once undone and frays more at the edge

🧵 The trade-off in one line: braided gives you the crispest silhouette; 3-ply forgives your mistakes. If this is your first silhouette, that forgiveness may be worth more than the sharpness. More in the complete guide to selecting macrame cord, and our supplies also ship from Amazon US and Amazon Canada.

Choosing a Design That Will Actually Work

The success of a silhouette starts before you tie anything. Your knots define the outline, not the fill — so interior detail is simply lost, and an image that depends on it will never read.

What makes a good silhouette design

Bold, recognisable shapes — animals in profile, human portraits, leaves, birds, bare trees.
High contrast — the design reads clearly as a dark shape on a light ground, or the reverse.
Smooth or gently curved edges — jagged, highly detailed outlines are far harder to reproduce in knots.
Simple composition — one central subject, no busy background.

The thumbnail test. Shrink your image until it is about the size of a postage stamp. If you can still tell what it is, it will work in macrame. If it turns to mush, it will turn to mush in cord too — and you will not find out until three hours in.

How to Turn a Photo Into a Macrame Pattern

Bochiknot macrame Silhouette Macramé Art

This is the step almost every silhouette tutorial skips, and it is the reason people give up. Choosing an image is easy. Translating it into cords — knowing how many you need, how wide the piece will be, and which knot corresponds to which part of the picture — is where it gets vague.

Here is the whole process, with the arithmetic.

Step 1 — Flatten the image

Convert your reference to a high-contrast black-and-white silhouette. Any phone photo editor will do it: push contrast to maximum, drop saturation to zero, then raise the black point until the interior detail disappears and you are left with a solid shape.

What you want at the end is a shape you could cut out of paper. If you can still see a nose or an eye inside the outline, keep going — those will not survive the translation anyway.

Step 2 — Decide how wide the piece will be

Width comes from the number of anchor cords, not their length. So this decision comes first, and everything else follows from it.

Cord	Working strands per inch	Cords for a 12″ piece	Cords for an 18″ piece
3mm single-strand	3–3.5	18–21 cords	27–32 cords
4mm braided	2.5–3	15–18 cords	23–27 cords
4mm 3-ply	2.5–3	15–18 cords	23–27 cords

Count in working strands, not cords — each cord mounted with a Lark's Head gives you two. So 20 cords becomes 40 strands, and 40 strands across a 12″ piece is a little over three per inch. That is the density silhouette work needs: enough columns to draw a readable edge without the piece turning solid.

Worked example: the portrait wall hanging mounts 20 cords of 3mm and finishes at 12″ wide. That is 40 strands — your grid is 40 columns wide, and every one of them is a place a knot can go.

These figures are for full-grid silhouette work — where every cord is mounted on the dowel before you start drawing. Patterns that build outward from a centre point, like a half mandala, mount only a few cords at the start and add the rest as the shape grows, so their cord counts won't match this table.

Step 3 — Grid the image to match

Print your flattened silhouette at the finished size, then draw a grid over it with as many columns as you have anchor cords. Rows can be roughly square — each row of double half hitch is about as tall as it is wide, so square grid cells map cleanly to knots.

Now each grid square is one knot decision: inside the shape, or outside it. That is the entire translation.

Width comes from the number of working strands, not cord length. Silhouette work wants roughly three strands per inch — so a 12-inch piece needs about 40 strands, which is 20 cords mounted.

Step 4 — Simplify to the grid

Redraw the outline so it follows grid lines rather than cutting through squares. Curves become small steps. That looks wrong on paper and correct in cord, because a shifted row of double half hitch smooths those steps out on its own.

This is the point where a detailed image reveals itself as too detailed. If a feature is narrower than two grid squares, it will not appear in the finished piece — delete it now rather than discovering it later.

Step 5 — Work out cord lengths

Anchor cords want to be 2–3× the intended finished height, folded — so a 20″ tall piece wants cords of roughly 40–60″ before folding. Working cords that travel horizontally need about four times the width they cross, because each double half hitch wraps twice.

Our free cord calculator handles the length side of this if you would rather not do the arithmetic.

Step 6 — Tape it up and start

Print the gridded version at full size and pin it to the wall directly behind your work, at eye level. Not on a phone — a screen that keeps sleeping is a genuine obstacle over three hours.

📐 See this applied: the portrait wall hanging is exactly this process carried through to a finished piece — 20 anchor cords, a 12″ width, and a woman in a sun hat rendered in 12 steps. If the gridding above feels abstract, that post makes it concrete.

Watch the Video Guide

▶ Watch full-screen on YouTube →

The Method, Step by Step

Six stages. They apply to any design — the drawing changes, the method does not.

Step 1

Mount the anchor cords

Measure and attach as many anchor cords as your design needs — these act as the vertical "columns" that your horizontal double half-hitch rows will connect to. Lark's head knots on a dowel are fast and secure.

💡 Nicole says: Use a masking tape mark at the center of your dowel before mounting any cords — this makes it easy to find the center starting point for Step 2.

Step 2

Start at the top-centre

Identify the top-center of your silhouette (this is where most smooth designs begin).
Use a working cord to form a horizontal row of double half-hitch knots across the middle anchors. This first row sets the heading for the shape.

💡 Nicole says: Pin or tape your reference image to the wall directly behind your work so you can glance between the design and your knots — this makes it far easier to judge proportion as you build each row.

Step 3

Build rows and bend them into curves

Make a row of double half-hitch knots across several adjacent anchor cords.
To curve a row, lower (or raise) the position where you place the knot relative to the row above — even a small shift nudges the line into a curve.

💡 Nicole says: Practice curved rows on scrap cord before starting your final piece — tie 5–6 rows and practice bending them both up and down. You'll feel the technique click within a few minutes, and that confidence carries into the real piece.

✓ Halfway

Step back three metres

Three rows in is the first honest test. Silhouettes do not read up close — walk away from it, then compare against your reference from the same distance.

Adjust now while a row still costs five minutes.

Step 4

Shift the knots together for a clean edge

After tying, slide (shift) the double half-hitch knots together so they sit snugly in a straight or smoothly curved line. This helps the silhouette read clearly instead of looking ragged.

💡 Nicole says: Always step back after each row to compare against your reference image. It's much easier to adjust a row before moving to the next one than to untie several rows later.

Step 5

Add new working cords as you go down

When a row finishes, either continue the same anchor cord as a lead for the next row or swap to a new working cord.
The key is to keep the rows stacked and maintain the intended curve as you move vertically.

💡 Nicole says: Use separate working cords for distinct sections (hair, shoulders, background) to avoid bulky knots in one cord. This keeps each section's edges crisp and the overall silhouette clean.

Step 6

Trim, tidy and mount

Once the silhouette is complete, trim and tidy the fringe, add backing if you like, and mount. If you want softer edges, comb or brush the background cords lightly to blend.

💡 Nicole says: Use masking tape to mark your trim line before cutting. Run the tape along the fringe at your intended cut height, trim along the edge, then peel away. You'll get a perfectly straight line every time — no ruler needed.

🎉 Finished

You drew that with one knot

Hang it, walk to the far side of the room, and look again.

Tag #BochiknotSilhouette on Instagram — and post your reference image beside it. Seeing what people choose to make is the best part.

Pro Tips for Cleaner Edges

Always work top-to-bottom. This keeps your leading cords manageable and makes the silhouette stack correctly.
Use separate working cords for distinct sections (hair, shoulders, background) to avoid bulky knots in one cord.
Pixelate complex images — simplify the silhouette into broad, readable shapes before knotting.
Practice curved double half-hitch rows on scrap cord before starting the final piece.
Step back from your work after every 3–4 rows. Distance reveals shape in a way that close-up knotting never will.
Keep a reference print taped to the wall at eye level throughout the entire project — not just at the start.

Design Ideas, From Simple to Advanced

Once the technique makes sense, the only limit is your reference image. These are good places to start, ordered by how forgiving they are.

Design	Difficulty	Why it works in macrame
Leaf or feather	Beginner	Simple symmetrical curves, forgiving at the edges — a great first attempt
Bird in flight	Beginner	Bold wing arcs translate beautifully with row shifts, and the shape reads instantly
Side-profile portrait	Intermediate	Strong curved silhouette with no internal detail needed — the outline does all the work
Cat sitting	Intermediate	Rounded ears and a curved back are excellent double half hitch practice
Tree or bare branches	Intermediate	Branching shapes teach multi-section cord management
Two-colour portrait	Advanced	Dark silhouette cord against light background cord — striking, high-contrast wall art