Woven Constellation Map of the Night Sky

With our anniversary coming up, I wanted to make a meaningful handmade gift for my partner. This woven constellation map reflects the exact night sky from the date and place where our relationship began. It’s a moment that means so much to us, and now it has become a beautiful piece of décor in our home.

Each embroidered line and beaded star represents actual constellations visible in the sky, transforming astronomical data into a personal work of art.

In this Instructable, I’ll show you how I created this macramé constellation map using weaving, embroidery, and beadwork techniques.

Let’s get started!

1. 3 mm Macrame Lurex Cotton cord - it's a beautiful deep navy colored rope that has shimmers in it
2. Scissors
3. Silver thread
4. A needle
5. A hot glue gun
6. A wooden dowel
7. Silver beads - bigger and smaller ones
8. Invisible thread

Begin your project by taking the cord and cut 105 cm long strands.For my dowel i used 33 strands in total.The length of my dowel is around 31 cm.

Next,set your wooden dowel on a flat surface and tie a Lark's Head Knot.

Take a strand of cord and fold it in half.Place the loop you have created under the dowel.Reach under the loop and over the dowel and grab the two loose strands.Bring them down through the loop and pull and tighten the knot. Repeat this step with all 33 strands of cord.

Refer to the video for a clear demonstration of this knot.

The next step is to start weaving the sky background - you'll be making a vertical double half hitch knot.

Take a long strand of the navy cord and wrap it to create a small bundle of cord.This way it'll be easier for you to work with it.

Place the cord underneath the first strand of rope.With the small tail end on your left and the long tail on your right you are going to form a loop on your right,wrap it around your cord and pull it through.

Repeat the same process again:

1. Make a loop on your right
2. Wrap around and through the loop
3. Pull everything nicely together and secure the vertical double half hitch knot

Continue working your way through by tying this knot until you get to the end of the row.

When you get to the end of the row do the same process but in reverse - from right to left.

Now you'll be placing the cord underneath the last strand of cord and forming a loop on your left.Wrap it around and pull through.

Repeat the same process again:

1. Make a loop on your left
2. Wrap around and through the loop
3. Pull everything nicely together and secure the vertical double half hitch knot

These two steps are the base of the project - it's a long way of making endless vertical double half hitch knots until you have the night sky ready to embroider some stars.

For reference the size of my weaving is 29.5 cm by 31.5 cm.You can make the backgroung as big or as small as you want.

At some point you will run out of the bundle of cord.When that happens make a new bundle and continue the weaving process wherever you ran out of cord.

Place the small tails in the back and tie a small knot to keep them nicely together.

Repeat this step however many times you run out of cord.

Now comes the fun part - embroidering the constellation map.

To make this project as real as possible I used a webside called https://stellarium-web.org and wrote the specific date and place to see what the sky looked like.

Using the constellations as a reference begin embroidering.Take the shimmery silver thread and thread it through your needle.Pull the thread from under the weaving and place it where the constellation has a star.

Repeat this process until you have embroidered each constellation and you have a map.

To make the map as realistic as possible add beads where the stars are - bigger ones for the big stars and smaller ones for the small ones.

Use invisible thread to embroider in the beads - this way you will have a nice and clean look.

Cut a strand of cord and tie it to the dowel to have a cord you can hang your project to the wall with.

Add some hot glue gun to the back of the weaving and glue the short tails of cord from the beginning and end of your project.

Finally hang your project to the wall and cut the fringe - as long or as short as you want.

There you have it - a beautiful constellation map of the night sky from a meaningful moment.The photos don't do this beautiful shimmering cord justice - it's just the perfect cord for a night sky.

I love the way this project turned out and I hope you love it too!

Thank you for reading my Instructable!