String art is not a new concept. This craft form has been around since the early 1900s. Mary Everest Boole, a teacher, invented this art style to help her students understand algebra and geometry. String art is still as popular today as it was back then!

String art is a delightful and relaxing pastime. It’s an easy and inexpensive craft that many people enjoy doing. Your projects will look quite trendy when you use barn wood boards. You can either stain wood boards yourself or buy them premade from the craft store.

This tutorial teaches how to make a beautiful barn wood plaque adorned by a lovely heart. It’s not as hard as it looks! Once you have your supplies gathered you can make it in less than thirty minutes.

Objectives:

To engage in creative process and create with hands
To create a heart-shaped string art
To learn the string art technique and be able to use it in the future for other forms and images

Materials:

Computer and stable internet connection

Hammer
Scissors
Piece of wood (stained or unfinished)
Linoleum nails (depending on the size of your project, 40-80)
Embroidery thread/wool thread
Tape
Paper (white, A4, to draw the heart) or printed image

Description:

The facilitator introduces themselves and the activity they are going to do. Then ask the participants to tell their name and one adjective that starts with the same letter as their name. This will make participants acquainted with each other and will create a relaxed atmosphere. Before the facilitator starts with the instructions and while the participants are working, they encourage them to ask any questions they have. The facilitator shares their screen and shows them images of the process. Also, they can have their own materials and show the process by video in live time.

Instructions for the workshop:

Prepare a piece of wooden board into a square or any other shape. The heart size should be relatively smaller than the wooden board size, making sure it fits inside the board nicely. You can draw the heart with a pencil directly on the wood or use a paper to draw it first. Of course, if your drawing skills are not the best, you can use a printed image of a heart. The facilitator should get to know the participants before the workshop and communicate this with them, in order to have the printed image ready for the workshop.

Start drawing your heart on the wood. Or, if you have a printed image, cut the heart out, and you will use it as a template. Place the heart template onto the center of your barn wood plaque, adjust it into place and secure it with painters tape.

Trace the heart pattern on the board. Grab some nails and a hammer; start hammering the nails along the traced heart pattern on the board, keeping some gap between every 2 nails.

After removing the heart template,get your string and tie a knot around the head of one of the nails. Keep stringing the string around nails. There isn’t a right or wrong way – just keep going until you like the pattern you created. You can also then outline the entire heart to make the outside line pop a bit more.

You can experiment with the lines or follow some of these patterns:

Draw the open end of the yarn towards the opposite nail and then draw the yarn to the next nail (of the opposite nail). Draw the yarn from the outer side of the nailed heart.

You can stop wrapping once the yarn reaches near the first nail and Tie a tight knot with the yarn around the last nail.

You can start at any nail head and continue wrapping the cord around any other nail head. Just remember to keep the cording tight, so that it doesn’t slip off the nail. Continue wrapping and filling in the center of the heart with cording until you are pleased with the design. The more layers you have, the darker the design will be in your finished product.

After the center is filled, make sure to wrap the cording around the edge of the heart to define the border of the heart. When you are satisfied with the look of your string art heart, tie the end of the cord into a knot around a nail head and cut the end of the string. You can use a bit of super glue or clear nail polish to secure the knot and keep it from unwinding.

Expected outcomes:

Each participant created e a heart-shaped string art
Participants gained knowledge about the string art technique and are able to use it in the future for other forms and images