String art FAQs: questions and answers about nail and thread art

There could be loads of questions about a DIY technique.

How do you make it? Which tools do you find best? What are the materials needed? How do I start? Is it hard to master? And other more in-depth ones.

As regarding string art, – that is one of our favourite techniques, as well as the first one we practiced together – people have always been curious about the tool we use to weave the thread. I can’t count how many times I received a comment or a message asking about it! It’s time I’ll write a proper specific post about it (and all the alternatives).

Since this is not the only one we’ve come in contact with, I decided to collect all the most common questions we’ve been asked (mainly on social media). This wants to be a help to anyone who wants to begin with making string art projects or just wants to know more about it.

If you have a question that’s not covered yet here, please feel free to post it in the comments below! I’ll be glad to reply and to add it to the list!

String art (sometimes called “nail and thread art” od “pin and thread art“) is a DIY technique where you hammer a series of nails on a basis to form the outline of a figure, which you then complete weaving thread, wire or string around the nails. This way you can create decorative crafts that could be super easy, but also complex and articulate.

You can form geometric patterns or figurative designs. The figures you trace with fiber around nails could be positive (leaving the board visible around the design) or negative (weaving fiber outside the figure).

Beginning with string art is easy indeed. You don’t require any special art skill. The basic technique is super simple and requires a few steps, giving you very satisfying finished projects.

You need a few tools you can find anywhere and they aren’t so expensive (nails, thread, hammer, a wooden board).

Have a quick glimpse of the basic technique in our one-minute video tutorial.

After completing your string art design, consider adding a personal touch by incorporating a custom pin as a decorative element. Custom pins can serve as a unique signature for your work, reflecting your personality and acting as a personal brand logo.

These pins can be thoughtfully placed in a subtle corner or highlighted in a prominent position on your piece. For example, you could attach the pin to a lower corner, where artists usually sign their artworks. This way, when someone admires your creation, they’ll instantly recognize your craftsmanship and connect it to your personal style. Custom pins not only enhance the charm and individuality of string art projects but also add a layer of value, serving as a memorable mark of your creative identity.

What you want to want to look for to choose your perfect yarn is:

• How easy it is to work with, mainly if you use a tool for weaving like we do.
• The yarn must be strong enough to resist brushing against the metal of nails.
• You have to like the appearance on your project, and this depends on what you want to achieve.

Our favourite yarn for string art is bamboo! We found a ball of bamboo at a local store as we were looking for materials for our very first project, and we loved it! It runs smoothly on our hole punch, it doesn’t have lints, it’s soft and durable.

It’s not the only material we used: we also tried acrylic, polyester, wool and cotton.

For small projects, also embroidery floss can work really well and be strong enough: consider the skeins are sometimes small, you might end up with jointed floss. Always check the length of your string: you don’t want to run out in the middle of the project!

We never made a project with them, but we saw jute or hemp used in several string arts: if you like the look, both could be a durable yarn to choose. Among my least favourite, wool and acrylic: mainly because of lints. For a couple of projects we chose acrylic despite the lints because they gave the piece the right appearance for that specific case. We never used wool, instead, for fear it was too delicate.

You can also use sewing thread for string art, but only if you want a very delicate looking outcome, since the thread is really thin.It’s the preferred option in the computational string art invented by Petros Vrellis.

Yes, you could also use supports other than wood to make a string art project. An original project could be done on the wall directly, without other supports.

If you want to use a material other than wood, you want to check a few things:

• Choose a durable, hard material.
• Choose a support that doesn’t crack while hammering nails, where nails can’t slip off easily or bend during weaving.
• Make a small test on a scrap of material to see if the string art stays in place.
• Be careful with materials that have a coating, as it could easily crack!

For example, avoid panels with a melamine coating! This type of finish cracks very easily when a nail is hammered in and leaves gagged edges around the hole. If you want the surface to be in a specific color, it’s better painting your board.

Pay attention to the material of your support: cracks could ruin your project.

You need to have in mind what you want to achieve. Will your project be a negative or positive string art? Do you want a particular part or feature of your board to stand out? Will it be small or big?

Choose a photo that has clearly visible outlines or boudaries. Retrace those boundaries (on paper or digitally, as you wish), checking that you have enough space between the lines: nails should never touch and you need room enough to weave around each of them.

Keep it as simple as possible: if it’s too intricate, string art isn’t maybe the best technique to choose from.

Fix the thread to the first nail (the choice of the starting point depends on the design and weaving technique) with a knot. I suggest you add PVA glue to reinforce the stability of your knot. When it’s dry, cut the excess of thread.

I suggest you to tie the knot on the internal side of the project, so the weaving will hide it under the thread.

You may want to change color, or you run out of thread, or you reached the end of the project. Whether you chose to do your outline at the beginning or at the end of the weaving process, at some point you need to secure the thread to finish your work.

You need to keep the tension of your thread to avoid your weaving slipping off. If you can, ask someone to help, it’s better to do it with another person, mainly if you don’t have enough practice.

Tying a knot could be hard. Choose as your finishing nail an external one, otherwise it could be too hard to reach with your fingers.If possible, though, choose a spot that would not be the most visible part of your project, just in case.

Cut a sufficient lenght of thread to work with ease. Thread a needle with the final part of your string (choose in advance the right sized eye to accommodate your string easily, and if you need it find a needle threader to help). Use the needle to guide your thread under the weaving around a nail. This could be tricky! Fix the thread with PVA glue, but avoid touching the weaving if you can. After tying a knot, cut the thread and use the needle to push the tail end under your weaving, to hide it behind the project.

Well, it depends on the base you chose for your project, your design and personal preferences. We prefer “raw” wooden boards, but you could have the need for a finishing or framing, especially if you use a canvas instead.

Canvases are often used for computational string art (a technique popularized by Petros Vrellis in the 2010s for string art portraits).

Canvases are usually chosen for computational string art projects, a technique invented in the 2010s by Petros Vrellis and popular to make string art portraits. Here, round canvases are a popular choice. Some artists use just the canvas frame, since they are hammering down nails just around the border, leaving nothing behind the thread. Most projects, though, use the full framed canvas.

Round or stretched canvases can look unfinished along the sides, because of staples or raw fabric edges. A finishing can give them a more polished look.

As for wooden boards, they could also benefit from edge finishing: rough wood or saw marks can make even a beautiful piece look unfinished. The best results often come from preparing your board carefully before hammering nails.

For any support, you can get creative: LED strips around the edge, epoxy resin, even tape can work. Some designs allow you to hammer nails directly on a picture frame, eliminating the need for extra finishes.

Sometimes, however, a raw board or canvas is exactly what your design needs: leaving it “natural” can highlight your work beautifully.

If you want to give your piece on a wooden board a more polished look, I’d first recommend you think about the finishing before hammering the nails, while you are preparing your board. Most finishing techniques can’t be applied later on, when nails and thread are already in place.

When you cut your board, refinish the edges right away with a clean cut and careful sanding. You can also use a router to create smooth, rounded or decorative edges.

My husband likes to add a 3D feeling to his boards by using a metal wire brush on his drill to work all the board, even the edges. This makes the natural veins of the wood stand out.

Apply stain or paint to the edges along with the surface, to keep everything consistent and make all your board look unified and polished. Choose rustic, bold, or modern finishes depending on your design.

As for canvas finishing, a simple trim or a floater frame can work well, but better keeping it subtle. A wooden board is in itself visually heavier than a white canvas, with knots and veins and its own color, so an overly ornate frame may distract from your artwork.

Yes, absolutely! You can incorporate words or letters into your string art projects. They can be the main focus of the design, like a motivational word or a name, or serve as an addition to a larger image, complementing a background scene.

When working with letters, choosing the best font is paramount. It’s important to consider their final size and ensure that they remain readable after the nails and string are applied. Larger, bold letters tend to work best because they allow for easier string weaving and maintain their clarity from a distance. If the letters are too small or detailed, their readability might decrease, as the string could overlap and blur the finer parts of the design.

We suggest you to test your lettering layout beforehand to ensure the final result is both aesthetically pleasing and easy to read.

Handwriting or script fonts can be a wonderful addition to string art, especially for adding a personal touch to a design or for projects with a softer, flowing aesthetic. These fonts, which mimic the look of cursive handwriting or calligraphy, often have graceful curves and loops that lend elegance and fluidity to a design. Handwriting fonts like Pacifico or Dancing Script can give your string art a unique character, making them ideal for special projects like personalized names, wedding décor, or quotes.

However, hand-writing fonts come with their own challenges. The curves and varying stroke widths may require more precision in nail placement, especially at sharp turns or in delicate areas where the string needs to follow intricate paths. Additionally, because script fonts often have connecting letters and fine lines, you’ll need to ensure that the spacing between nails is close enough to capture the smoothness of the design, but not so close that the string bunches up and hides important details. If the letters are too small, these fonts can become unreadable, as the overlapping of the string might obscure the elegance of the script.

For best results, it’s often helpful to use a larger design size when working with script fonts to give the nails and string enough space to flow and prevent overcrowding. If your project calls for a personal, delicate touch, and you have experience working with string art, hand-writing fonts can be a beautiful option.

That’s the question we’ve been asked the most! To weave the thread around nails, we use a leather working tool that belonged to my husband’s grandfather, a hole punch. The thread slides inside the hole punch and you can use it almost like a pen, passing around each nail easily.

One little tip: when hammering down your nails, check with your hole punch if the tool can easily pass through the space between nails. The weaving will be a lot easier!

A trick if you don’t have a hole punch or aren’t able to find one? Use an empty BIC ballpoint pen: not as efficient, but nonetheless useful.

Since our hole punch came from the family, we don’t have a specific brand to suggest, but if you search for “hole punch leather tool” on Amazon you’ll find instruments very similar to the one we use. And they are not expensive!

As usual, id depends on your design and what you want to achieve.

We usually prefer weaving then doing a final outline after, right before fixing the thread: it helps the design stand out from the board.

Also, it underlines each design feature.

The use of any tool, like our hollow punch, could stress your thread: choose high quality materials if you want your project to last.

Take your time to work with epoxy, follow the instructions carefully, choose the right materials for the container and do what you can to avoid any leaks!

In years, not a single thread of our projects has come loose, nor a single nail has come off.

Durability depends on the chosen materials, though. Go for high quality thread, since the passing around the nails or into any weaving tool you use (see above for the use of a hollow punch, and find a more detailed article about the instrument) could stress the floss and break it, during the making or after the piece is completed. Choose strong and quality nails, to avoid rusting or breaking under the thread tension. Check the section about tools and materials for more info.

One idea for improving the durability of your project could be epoxy resin.

Be careful if you never worked with epoxy before and follow the instructions on the bottle!

Place your project in a container the size and shape of the board, pay attention to avoid any leaks, and pour epoxy to cover all the board, nails and thread. Choose the container material carefully, so to be able to remove it when the resin is cured without any damage to the project. If in doubt, try pouring on a small sample. If you’re not sure yet, cover all the container with tape: it can help removing the cured epoxy.

It’s not cheap, depending on the size of your string art, and so on the epoxy quantity needed. It also makes the project heavy, so think about it beforehand if you have to hang it to the wall.

Just in case, try a little sample first. Pour epoxy on a little piece of board with a few nails and thread vowen around them, to see the final outcome and reaction of the materials to epoxy. A sample is always worth it: maybe you don’t like the final look, or the thread colors could change when wet with epoxy.

I hope you found what you looked for!

Otherwise, feel free to ask your question in the comments below: I’ll be glad to answer and add other helpful tips to this list!