One of my nicest pieces, a clock for the living room. My own design, this clock is made with brass nails and 'strung' with copper wire, giving it the nice metallic look. The clock did indeed operate.
This is another of my own design. A roommate at the time loved camels, so I came up with this diddy. It's made with beige nails and brown thread. The 'fur' is tan wool, fluffed with a wire brush.
One of many 'abstract' designs - art for arts sake if you will. This was made for the companion for the roommate of the camel (also my roommate). I went with a blue color scheme to match the room decor. Design was just something freehand I came up with. Aside from 'filling in the circles' with string, you will notice there are additional nails and designs within some of the paisleys - not something seen often in string art.
Another abstract design. One of my first in self design. This is silver nails with a silver-sparkily coasted string. What is lost in the photo is the third dimension. The two upper webs are of three different heights, giving the webs a 3D look.
Another self-designed piece. While not too 'exciting', the different string arcs provide some illusion, with the juxposition of different overlapping shapes. This was actually string with a verigated white/yellow string.
[[second mantle pic]]
One of my largest pieces. This abstract was made for my aunt to hang over her mantle. Another abstract of my own design - I like the geometry of this one. The overlay of the shapes defined by the nail lines, vs the shapes filled in with thread. Again, the photo doesn't give you the depth of the work. It is about 1.5" from nail head to felt - and each color has it's own level, so the corners have a 'bowl-like' look to them. The horizontal designs on either side of the main diamond also step up from felt level to nail level as they move into the piece.
One of my early pieces taken from a string art book. (Lack of straight nail alignment is a giveaway... :) This is a good example of some of the simple shapes attained by different stringing methods.
Another abstract piece taken form a book. The main design is a flowing curve in the center, almost invisible, connecting the two fanned endpoints. For this piece the lower layer is a thick thread covered with a sparkily silver coating. The upper layer is just a colored thread.
A self-designed piece. Part of the experimental phase - I had the scrap wood and wanted to something a little more interesting. An interesting flair on top, with the large common nail providing the anchor for the missing cut.
A abstract piece from a string art book. I used the viridian green and turquoise to give it a deep sea feel. Again, this is a nice example of how two rows of nails can be string in quite different ways
The first of several self-designed butterflies. It's been a while, but I remember seeing a picture of a butterfly drawn on some wrapping paper, and that gave me the inspiration for this style design.
This is a butterfly design I did for my aunt. Unlike the other bright orange butterfly, I went with some more subdued colors here to go with her home. I also adventured into some more interesting 'markings' than just plain circles in this butterfly.
This is a store bought kit that I did. It's been so long I can't recall any more info.
My own design. After doing some other ships (below) I got the idea of how sails and all should look in string art and went forth in my own design. Since I wanted this to look totally like a shadow, I used black nails, so they would blend in with the black thread.
1 of 2 ship kits I did in my youth. It was kinf of anoying, as there were so many nails, and not too much string connecting them. A lesson in patience I suppose. :-)
The companion to the above kit
It's not pretty, but it's the start. This is my very first string art kit. And I hated it. :) I have to stay,it sat onthe shelf half donw for a year or more. It was way too much work to not only hammer all the nail sin, but get them in straight (it shows, doesn't it). But I eventually got it done, and it did look nice. Things just took off from there.
This is form a pattern in a string art book. Thought it was neat for the nails to make a pic, and just use string as the outline.
Back to abstract. This pattern was taken from a string art book. A nice illustration of making a shape with the string that isn't apparent by just looking at the nails.
Another pattern taken form a string art book. It was a cute pattern, so I made quite a few out of many different materials. This isn't the best owl I made, but it's the only surviving picture.
One of the nicer kits that I have come across. Nice design, colors, and multi-dimentional. So nice I kept the pattern after I was done to re-create it in the future.
The first in a series of mirrors I enhanced with a bit of string art. This a basic mirror with a string frame. So I wouldn't get in trouble, I have erased Mom and her bad perm from the reflection. :)
Second in a series of mirrors. I Had access to some irregularly shapped mirrors, so I used that to a bit of an advantage.
Third and most interesting in the 'mirror' series. thi is 'scrap mirror with scrap wood',leading to a rather unique piece. Yes, the securing points for the string in the upper left are behind the mirror. And a thumb tack providing a very visible ancor inside a double fan on the upper right.
A spider plants and two house plants; both from kits. Although it loks nice, it was a lot of nails for so little string.
Another of my early kits. As well as liking trains myself, it's a interesting kit due to the added bits of hardware. Although it adds somethign interesting, I never thought to add other 'things' to my self designed pieces.
This is actually the duplication of a kit. The store was going out of business, and they had this piece, assembled but damaged, for a cheap price. So I picked it up, copied the pattern, and then made a 'good' one for myself.
Decided to have a little fun here with a no-longer-used corner shelf...
One of the more unique forms for string art I've had the pleasure of. Found this 'pattern' in a book. The flowers are made by creating three different sizes of springs, forming the springs into a loop, and stringing them. Each petal is then assembled into the stem, and there you have it.
