I love to see colorful macrame projects - especially the micro macrame jewelry designs.  But I never thought one could attempt an image conversion and knot a portrait. 

Check out the tutorial by eliscety on Instructables and see how she did it. The key step is to convert an image into pixels and thus into a useable chart. The instructor made it easier for herself by using a black and white image and limiting the color palette to just 4 colors.

What interested me was the use of a cross stitch software program. They could be used by beaders although you will have to assign bead colors that are available.  Dedicated beading software programs save you this trouble as many have commercial bead colors choices their program.  I have reviewed a few some years ago - see links below. However, the useful beading programs are generally not free.

I have not tried any of the software programs for cross stitching - there are so many out there! But if you are game to try out free ones and adapt for beading, check out this review by Michelle of The GiddyStitcher.  She put in a lot of work looking at 15 such programs. The tabulated results, including lines, are here.  Bear in mind, these are cross stitching programs so the users generally look for floss colors.  Let me know how you get on!



Beading Software Reviews 
Please also check Youtube for other beading software.


Before You Go: 

Disclosure 

This blog may contain affiliate links. I do receive a small fee for any products purchased through affiliate links. This goes towards the support of this blog and to provide resource information to readers. The opinions expressed are solely my own. They would be the same whether or not I receive any compensation. 
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Original Post by THE BEADING GEM