DIY : String Art

It was our second wedding anniversary this year and I wanted to get Matt a gift that followed the traditional pattern. Last year it was paper and we found each other a map and a lino cut. This year it was cotton, which actually made choosing a gift really difficult, because there are so many things you can make from cotton! I loved the idea of using cotton thread in an inventive way and finally settled on something that I have been wanting to try out for ages, string art! I settled on our surname as my word and got to work!

String art is one of those crafts that is really simple in principle, but you need the right tools and quite a bit of time to get your project looking how you want. Essentially you are wrapping cotton or yarn around nails that you have positioned into a design. To make your very own piece of string art like mine you will need a nice piece of wood, your template on paper, some nails, a hammer, a pair of long nose pliers and some nice yarn. I spent some time sanding my piece of wood to make the grain show nicely.

I found and downloaded from dafont.com a lovely script font called Lilly Belle. Then I experimented with different sizes so that it fitted nicely on my piece of wood. I also tried out 6 different types of nail before I found my favourite type! The nail you pick needs to have enough of a head for the string to stay put but not so huge that you can’t get a nice outline around each letter.

So once you have your template printed out, spend a bit of time arranging it onto the wood. Once you have started hammering in those nails there is no going back! Secure the edges of the paper down with some easy to peel off tape. Use the pliers to hold each nail in place, exactly where you want it to be. Gently hammer it down, straight through the paper. Keep going until you have completed the whole outline and also any middles of letters, like in the centre of the ‘e’, ‘a’ and ‘d’. Try and keep the nails as evenly spaced as you can.

Once you have completed your outline you can peel off the paper. Any pieces of paper that get left behind can be picked out with a pair of tweezers.

Now you can start to wrap your string around your letters. Tie the piece of string to one of your nails at the start of your word. Leave a tail and wind this in too. If the tail doesn’t get hidden then use a tiny dab of fabric glue to hold it flat. Start winding your yarn around the outline of the word first, then go back and fill in the middle. The beauty of this craft is that if you don’t like the look of a section, you can simply unwind and start that bit again.

When you get to the other end, tie the yarn tight and stick the end down with another small dab of fabric glue.

Happy making!

If you fancy trying out my DIY you can buy some useful supplies from Amazon. If you purchase anything through the links in my post you are helping to support my blog as I get a small referral fee from Amazon. Thank you!

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