Geometric String Art

My daughter received a rainbow string art kit for her birthday this year from a friend and it made me think what if I could create something similar, but only using what I already have in the house.

I picked a geometric design because I absolutely love the symmetry but you could easily use any shape you wanted. I chose yellows and oranges because they contract so beautifully with the blue and orange just so happens to be my daughters favourite colour too.

What I was most surprised to find whilst creating this piece of art was how therapeutic it was. The long drawn out strands going from one edge to the other, really put me in a sort of trance.

Shall we see how I did it?

Supplies

• Thick cardboard 3-4 mm thick
• Crêpe paper
• Glue
• Cotton yarn
• Scissors
• Cutter
• Cutting board
• Needle
• Ruler
• Hammer
• Hole punch 1 mm

Step 1: Prepping the Cardboard

I decided I wanted to create a symmetrical piece so I cut my piece of cardboard to 21 x 21 cm wide.

I had to use a roller cutter to cut through as the card was quite deep. Make sure you but a cutting board underneath though.

Trace a border all the way around, leaving a 3 cm border, so the internal square measured 18 x 18 cm

Using the crêpe paper cut out a square, slightly larger than the piece of cardboard. Put glue all over one side of the cardboard and smooth down the crêpe paper.

Step 2: Making the Holes

Mark every 0.25 cm all around the border of the cardboard, this is where, this is where the holes will be.

Using the hole punch and hammer make holes all around the cardboard.

Once finished glue the edges of the overhanging crêpe paper on the underside of the cardboard. You will completely cover the back once all the stitching has been done.

Step 3: Time to Get Stitching

It's a very simple pattern following 1 vertical line of holes and 1 horizontal line of holes. You go 1 hole up and 1 hole across each time as you can see in the photos.

When you come to the end of a colour, tie a triple knot behind the cardboard and then attach a new colour.

Step 4: Continue Stitching

Once you've finished one side, you continue the exact same sequence of stitches all the way around.

Step 5: Watch It Grow

As you can see because I used a similar tones of colours, yellows and oranges, it created this beautiful gradient pattern.

Step 6: Finishing Touches

The back of the cardboard is almost as beautiful as the front, but I'd still like to cover it completely with more blue crêpe paper.

Glue all around the edge and in the middle and place a square piece of crêpe paper on the back. Trim off any excess blue paper.

Step 7: Display

So there you have it, a simple piece of string art. You could mount this on another piece of cardboard or even place it in a frame.

I'm even tempted to place a photo of my daughters in the middle and use it as a way to display my favourite photos.

Please let me know if you try this out and whether you are tempted to use a different shape altogether.