Not your grandma’s macrame: She once failed arts and crafts, now she makes one-of-a-kind bags

Unlike the other activities she had tried, the sense of calm lingered. “I couldn’t wait to get back to it.”

FROM A HOBBY TO A BUSINESS

It didn’t take long before plant holders gave way to something considerably more ambitious.

Chang had little interest in making the table runners and cushion covers commonly associated with macrame. Looking at the weave one day, she wondered if she could turn it into something she would actually use: a bag.

“So I researched materials and made a simple clutch bag in black. After that, I couldn’t stop,” she said.

She experimented with different colours, knots and materials, gradually developing bags that looked increasingly unlike the traditional macrame pieces that had first introduced her to the craft.

“The more bags I made, the better I got. I showed my girlfriends a few of my creations, and they all ooh-ed and ah-ed, so I ended up making a ton of bags for them,” she recalled with a laugh.

What began as something to occupy an anxious mind was slowly becoming something else.

Eventually, Chang launched Bound Designs, although she doesn’t describe the decision as some grand entrepreneurial epiphany.