Introduction: String Art

For a school assignment I had to make an instructable about a craft of my choice, I had a half done feather make out of string and nails on wood, so I finished it and did another piece as well.

Step 1: Materials

1. Wood, softer is better for hammering, and it should be about an inch or less thick. Not too thin or the nails will go through.
2. 6/8th inch brass nails, 36 count.
3. Yardstick for measuring and finding the center of the board. As well as placing the nails evenly.
4. Protractor (for circular) the nails in mine were placed every 10 degrees, 9 inches from the center.
5. White Embroidery thread. I ended up needing multiple things of it. I think it was 6 for the circle, and 3 for the feather.
6. A hammer for the nails.

Step 2: Drawing and Measuring

Once you have the wood, it is a good idea to either lightly sketch out your design, or do it on paper and tape it to the wood. This is what I did for the feather.

Step 3: Measurement for Circle

1.For the circle I had to find the center of the wood using a yard stick.
2. There were 36 nails, 1 every 10 degrees. To find this I used a protractor and placed it at the center.
3. I marked dots every 10 degrees.
4. I placed my yard stick at the center, aligned it with the marks, and marked dots that went 9 inches from the center.

Step 4: Nails

1. For the feather I simply placed a nail ever half inch or so.
2. For the circle I placed the nails where I had made marks in the last step.

Step 5: Removing Paper

Once you're done nailing, removing the template paper isn't very difficult. It should easily rip away from the nails.

Step 6: Pencil Removal

If you have drawn it directly on the wood, I suggest erasing the pencil marks.

Step 7: Stringing

FEATHER
1. For the feather I took my embroidery thread and wound it randomly between the "stem".
2. After this I went between the center of the feather and the outer nails, back and forth. This created a feathery effect.

CIRCLE
1. This is a more complex process, first I took the string and tied it to a nail.
2. After this I took the string and went straight across to the opposite nail and wrapped it around and back to the start.
3. Then I repeated the process looping the string around the nails to the immediate left and right of the opposite nail from step 2.
4. I went around the circle making sure that each nail had string going to three other nails directly across the circle.

Step 8: Finishing Touches

Once the string has been wrapped around every nail, take the left over string bits that have been tied off when the string was too short, and cut them.

Step 9: Optional 1

One option is to paint the surrounding wood, or stain it before nailing it.

Step 10: Optional 2

Finally you can mount it on the wall, but mine is just resting against it at the moment.