String Art Is My Craft

String art makes a bold picture that you can hang on your wall. Prick and stitch is a miniature form of string art used to make greetings cards. Prick and stitch cards are considered by many people to have developed from the string art techniques.

String art and prick and stitch cards (also called stitching cards) have a lot in common and some differences. Instead of nails you have holes pricked in the card. Instead of the string turning round the nails you have thread emerging from a pricked hole, going across the pattern and entering a second hole. The design builds up in a similar way with crossing strings (or threads) filling a shape with colour.

If you fancy trying your hand at prick and stitch card making there are a couple of free patterns on the Prick And Stitch Is My Craft web site.

The three qualities that I look for in a backing board are:

1. It should be strong enough to hold the nails when they are under the tension of the string.
2. It should not be too heavy since it is to be hung on the wall.
3. It should be readily available locally.

I guess that point number three will be the main determining factor in what you use. The first place to look is around the house. Maybe in the loft or the garden shed to see what off-cuts might be available.

The next port of call is the local DIY store. If you can find a material that is already the size you want to use then you are on to a winner. I have used 12 x 12 inch cork floor tiles. These are quite thin so I sandwich two or three together so that the nails can be knocked in a reasonable distance.

If you do not find something the right size then the next place to look is the flat board section. Begin by looking for the lowest price material. In my local store this is quarter inch MDF (Medium Density Fibre) board. It comes in various thicknesses. I have used 10 mm (about 1 / 3 inch) thick with success. MDF board is easy to cut with a wood saw. Better still if your local store has a cutting service then get them to do it. The probably have a large power saw that will cut it very accurately.

Other sheet materials to consider are plywood and hardboard. If it is thin you can always layer it to get the required thickness.

One of the most popular free downloads from the String Art Fun web site is the boat pattern. Here is a photograph of it.

String art boat picture. Pattern copyright © www.stringartfun.com.

The pattern instructions can be printed out on an A4 sheet (210mm x 297mm or 8 x 12 inches). The suggested method is to put the printed pattern over the backing board and hammer the nails through into the backing board. The paper is removed before starting to tie the string in place. Once the nails are in place the whole thing should go quite quickly.

As the title of the web site suggests I plan to write on the theme of string art. This is the craft of making pictures by hammering nails into a backing board and then winding coloured string around them. Geometric shapes work well for string art pictures. Circles, boxes and crosses all have their part to play.

Experimentation is the name of the game. It is great fun looking around the local D.I.Y and craft stores to find suitable materials. Buy small amounts of materials to try. Wood and board off-cuts, sample packs of wool and assorted packs of nails are a good way of starting. There are some free sample patterns on a web site that I am associated with called String Art Fun. These are a good starting point as an introduction to the technique.