Hi, I'm Ellen, and today I'm going to show you how I made this string art.
Now this is a project I've been wanting to try for quite some time,
and I'm happy I finally got around to it, because it was pretty easy it gives a very nice result.
The first thing I did was to print out a picture that I liked for my pattern.
And I tried some different sizes to see what I liked best.
I'm just cutting out my shape to see how the proportions look on the wood.
Yeah, I'm quite happy with that.
So then I can mark the line on the wood where I want to cut it.
And I'm just going to use a saw to cut off the piece that I don't need.
So off to the basement I go, where I can use a saw without getting sawdust all over my carpet.
And all I'm doing here is cutting it to size and then smoothing out the edge with some sandpaper.
Watch your toes!
And then I'm using some sandpaper to smoothen the edge.
Now to see if I got the size right...
That's looking pretty good.
Before I start putting in the nails, I'm going to put some hooks on the back on the wood
so I can hang it up on my wall.
These nails are really tiny, so I'm just using this pair of pliers to hold them in place, instead of my fingers.
And it's much easier to do this before you put all the nails in. It's going to be a bit tricky to do it afterwards.
I found this great tip online to just tape your pattern onto your wood and then hammer the nails straight through it.
It's really easy to follow your pattern that way and you can just remove the paper afterwards.
Again, these nails are really tiny and my fingers are too big to hold them,
so I'm just using the pliers to hold them in place.
You don't have to put them in very deep, just make sure that they stay in place.
And I was starting to make a lot of noise and I was worried about my neighbours, because I live in an appartment
so I just put a towel underneath to dampen some of the sound.
The strategy I used was to put nails in all of the cornerpoints first
because there's going to have to be a nail in that place anyway
and then just space out the rest of the nails evenly between those points.
Then, once all the nails are in place, you can remove the paper.
And you want to be a bit careful here. I actually pulled some of the nails out when I was doing it.
But of course you can replace them afterwards, so it's not a big deal.
So here I am putting one of those nails back.
Now, there was some paper that stayed attached to the nails, very closely around them.
And my first attempt to remove it was to use a pair of tweezers, but that didn't work so well.
So my next attempt was to use a dishwashing brush, and that worked great.
The bristles are strong enough to be able to tear out that paper from the edges,
and the bristles are also long enough that you can just run the brush straight over all of the nails without anything getting in the way.
And now it's time for the string.
The way I started off was by tying a simple knot in the end of the string
and then looping that around one of the nails as a starting point.
And I left the tail in place, because that's what I'm going to be using to finish of the end of the string.
And I started by just doing the outline of the shape.
The winding is quite straightforward, you just loop it around each of the nails,
and I made sure for the outline that I kept the string on the outside, because that gives a nice clean edge
When I made my way back to that first nail, I just tied another knot in the two ends of the string and cut it off.
And I made sure this knot was placed on the inside of the shape
because that way, once we fill up the shape with string, you're not even going to see it.
The string does put some pressure on the nails, and one of them actually kept coming loose,
so I just put a little bit of superglue in the hole to keep that nail in place.
So I've gotten this far, and I'm pretty happy.
I've got the outline all done
and the final step is to fill it out completely with the yarn.
Again I just tied a loop in the beginning of the string and placed it around one of the nails.
And then I just went back and forth between the pins, filling up the shape.
And in the beginning I thought I might try for a very organized, geomatric pattern
but I abandoned that pretty quickly and just went random.
I thought it looked much better.
The tricky thing here is that there is tension on the yarn, so it keeps wanting to jump off of the nails
so if you're not careful, it will unravel.
So it's best to hold the yarn down with one hand while you place it around the next nail.
To finish it of, I made sure I ended up at the same nail as where I started again,
tied a little knot in the ends,
and then I threaded the yarn through a big needle
and then pulled it through to the underside of the yarn to hide the ends.
I cut off my yarn a bit too short before threading it through the needle,
so it was a bit difficult for me.
But if you leave the ends a little bit longer and cut them off afterwards, it will be much easier.
And that's it.
Now if you like this video, please let me know by leaving a like or a comment below
and the same if you have any questions.
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and I'll see you next time. Bye!
