Supplies:
Wood
Map that fits on the wood
Short, small-head nails
Copper or other wire, yarn, string, or thread
Years ago, I was fascinated with string art. I would buy the kit, and follow the instructions, to produce a ship in the night, the Golden Gate Bridge, and other pictures. Did you ever try one of those string art kits? They turn out beautifully – provided you followed the instructions to the letter. It was challenging, though. After hammering in all of the tiny nails, you then had to do a lot of counting, and a lot of wrapping. “Go around nail 9, up to nail 57, over to nail 42, down to nail 8”, and so on. String art has sort of faded away but I don’t know why. The strings, wrapped around nails, still produce beautiful pictures t oday. You’ll love one that isn’t a kit; you make it yourself. Use a map to create a string art shape of the state in which you live, and turn it into a nice wall plaque.
Start with a smooth board. It can be painted, covered in fabric, or covered in decorative paper, like a map. When the plaque looks the way you want it to, lay a state shape on it, and use it as a pattern for the small nails. You can use a map that you already have or print out a map section from the internet. Choose to do the state where you live or do a string art picture of the entire country. Just be sure that the state or other shape will fit on the board, with some space left around it.
Use a hammer to tap short nails, with small heads, into the boards. Hammer them in just far enough so that they are secure, and won’t wiggle, but not far enough so that the head touches the board. Remember that there will need to be enough room between the board and the head of the nail to wrap the yarn, several times. Each nail should be hammered in so that it stands as tall as all of the others. Space them evenly around the outline of the map.
Start where you want to on the map and use wire, string, yarn, or thread. Tie the end onto the chosen nail and then take the string over to another nail. Wrap it around that one, go over to another nail, and wrap the string around it. Continue to wrap around this nail, and that one, until you’ve wrapped around all of them, and the strings crisscross each other all over the state shape.
Hang the string state up on your wall; people who see it will fall in love with it. They’ll all be fascinated, and in disbelief, just knowing that you made it yourself. Hey, maybe you should start creating kits to sell!
Reference:
- String art bookshelf: voices.yahoo.com/string-art-bookshelf-11445244.html?cat=30
- String candles: voices.yahoo.com/string-candles-9035535.html?cat=30
- Paint clothing and accessories with string: voices.yahoo.com/paint-outfits-accessories-string-5332621.html?cat=46
