Wisconsin Life

Maly Vang

I don't know where this journey is going to take me, but it's a journey that I'm willing to risk it all for, just to see what will happen and what will come of it in the end. My name is Maly Vang, and I'm a macram fiber artist. I discovered macram in 2007. I was working a full-time job, you know, working that nine-to-five. I just kind of fell into a slump, and I wanted to find something to retrigger that creative side of me. I really got into it around 2018, and that's when I started my business, malyMade. I think what I liked about it was that, first of all, that it's like home decor. So, at that time, I was living in a two-bedroom apartment, and I wanted to fill the space with like beautiful things. So, one, I, like, that it was something that I could make with my own hands that I can then showcase in my own home. And then, I also like that it was something that I was already familiar with. Growing up, I did make friendship bracelets. So, that kind of brought me back to my childhood with the knotting to make the friendship bracelets. A lot of my designs are focused on my culture, so the pieces are Hmong-inspired. The most popular piece that I have right now is my "sew inspired" pieces, and those are modeled after the traditional Hmong necklace that is usually worn with traditional Hmong outfits. I mainly use cotton cord. What I like to use mostly is the raw cotton cord, which is unbleached cotton that is then spun into cord or twine. The duration varies depending on the size of the piece. So, if it's a smaller piece, it may take me an hour to two hours. For my larger macram pieces, it would take me around six to seven or maybe even up to 10 hours sometimes if I'm doing a lot of reworking or trying to like figure out which designs work best together. In my real life, I'm a huge introvert so I don't really get out much. I'm usually holed up in my art room just making macram and connecting with others that way. So, because macram is such a therapeutic thing for me, I make pieces, and then I sell them, and then I kind of forget about them and move on to the next thing. So, it hasn't really been about sales for me, but more of, like, the being able to create something to use my hands, to create something that people will enjoy. So, that's kind of been highlight of this whole macram journey for me. I've never been very confident in my art, so creating these macram pieces and getting the positive feedback-- It's just it's very exciting, and it does definitely give me the confidence to do this full-time. So, as I-- as I mentioned earlier, I don't know where this journey is going to take me, but it's a journey that I'm willing to risk it all for, just to see what will happen and what will come of it in the end.