Do you want to make your own rope text art into any shape you want and have it be simple to do? This project is definitely for you then, it only requires minimal supplies and can be done in any shape, text, or configuration you want! I chose “Dont Be Crabby” because I thought it was funny and made a simple smiley crab to go with it but you can do anything you want, so lets get started!

If you would like to support me in making these projects you can do so here.

Here is a complete list of Supplies & Tools you will need. They are not all the same supplies I used but should be similar or better replacements.

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Supplies

• Natural Jute Rope 5mm – (I got mine from hobby lobby but this amazon one should be similar.)
• Natural Wood Slices Variety Pack – (I got mine from hobby lobby but this amazon one should be similar. I ended up using something else in the end but this was my original plan.)
• Steel Wire 19 Gauge – (I used a roll of dark annealed I had lying around for years but this galvanized wire is what I would have used otherwise.)

Tools

• Scissors – (Any pair of scissors should work.)
• Angled Wire Cutter Set – (Any wire cutter will work this set also includes multiple needle nose pliers which are needed for this as well.)
• Needle Nose Pliers – (Similar to the style I used for this project.)
• Ryobi Hot Glue Gun Mini – (This is the one I used the mini glue sticks seem to hold better then some of the normal ones. Requires a Ryobi 18v Battery and the glue sticks are sold separately, these gorilla glue sticks 74 count would be a good choice.)
• Normal Glue Gun – (This Surebonder is the one I used to use before I got the Ryobi Glue Guns. If you want plenty of glue sticks for cheap check out this 90 pack which is what I used before the Ryobi mini.)

First print the stencil attached to this step if you are doing the same design as me of "Dont Be Crabby" with a picture of a crab. I made this stencil using a rope font in inkscape for the text, and the crab by tracing over a crab outline and giving it a smiley face and eyes. Then take some of your rope from the center, cut the wire to size I did a bit over 2 inches, and then cut the rope to a bit more then the wire. Unstrand the rope and then we are ready for the next step, mine was 6 ply so I ended up with 6 smaller strands!

Now take two strands and twist them around the wire holding the end so it doesn’t unwind. Two strands give it a slightly thicker appearance, if you don’t want that one strand works just as well.

Now put a dot of hot glue on the end of the wire and twist the strands around the wire and upwards. It should make it almost solid on the end like the pictures show and then trim off the excess. My hot glue gun was still warming up so I did the first two by hand but this is not recommended as hot glue gets really hot really fast. See later steps pictures for how I did it with needle nose pliers.

Now take the wired rope which is what I will refer to the rope twisted around the wire and glued on both ends as from this point on. Then place it on the stencil and bend it by hand and with the pliers if needed to match as close to the shape as you can. Having a stencil helps a lot with getting the text to look right but you can also just eyeball it if you want to.

This is the next wired rope for the "o" in "Dont" which I took more pictures of zoomed in so you can see the process better. I again used my hands but at this point the hot glue is getting hot enough that I will use pliers from here on out, see the next few steps for how.

Now place the wired rope on the stencil again and bend it to match the cursive “o” in “Dont”. I had enough left over that I will use it to form part of the “n” as well in the next step.

Bend the remaining from the “o” into the shape of the n and then glue another wired rope to it and bend it into the rest of the shape of the “n”. I had enough left over I also used it to make the line in the “T”.

I wanted the “D” to match the stencil a bit more so I took a strand of the rope and glued it to the bottom so it matches the stencil. Its just the rope strand on this, there is no wire in the center.

This time I took the wire and a single strand of rope and twisted it around the wire and then glued the ends and twisted the glue with needle nose pliers which is what I would recommend as the hot glue gets hot enough to burn you after a short time. I attached a video of the process to illustrate it better. Then take the small wired rope and insert it through the line that makes the “T” leftover from the “n” prior. I also used scissors to get rid of some of the loose bits on the rope between the “n” of “Dont” so it would be more visible.

The “B” requires two wired rope so I made one with the two strands and bent it into the shape which is a lot like a backwards “E”. Then I took another wired rope made with one strand and put it through the loop in the center of the “B” to form the back of the letter “B”.

You get the idea at this point so go ahead and finish making wired rope and bend them to make the various letters. The pictures in this one are of the finished letter sitting on the stencil. I also included one more video of making the wired rope as I got pretty fast at it by this point and another video of bending it into the shape.

Now make a really long single strand of rope wired rope which will be used to make the crab. I used 4 strands of probably about 8 inches and twisted them around the wire gluing them as they ran out and then gluing the next one where the last one ended. It should give you a pretty good length of wired rope I think I had roughly 20 inches by the end, possibly a bit more. This is just enough for the crab, the eyes, and the mouth. I attached a video of twisting the first strands on the really long wired rope.

Now take the long strand of wired rope you just finished making and bend it around the stencil to make the crab. Then use wire cutters to cut it where it overlaps and glue it onto the other end of the wired rope and twist around like before. It didn’t quite turn out as close to the stencil as I hoped but it still doesn’t look bad as I wanted it more cartoony to begin with as you can tell with the stencil.

Take the extra wired rope from making the crab and form it into a smiley face mouth and smiley eyes either curved on the eyes or triangular like this “^_^”. I wanted the crab to be very happy so that its fun and funny, without the crab it wouldn’t be nearly as enjoyable to look at.

I was originally going to use the sliced cuts of a wood log like the ones listed under the supplies but I ended up having made it too big and it didn’t fit. Looking around in my miscellaneous bin I found this nice board that has also been lacquered. It had various bits of paint and some holes from staples from whatever it was originally attached to but it easily fit all the letters and the crab so I used it!

Now holding the letter with the pliers put hot glue at various points around the letters and glue them on one at a time arranged however you like it the best. For the odd shaped log I found I went for a much different layout then the stencil which turned out good. Add any extra hot glue where something is sticking up or didn’t stick. Push it flat and be careful not to burn yourself, or it might be a good idea to push it flat with something else rather then your fingers as I had some fun hot glue moments.

Now do the same thing as before and hot glue the crab onto the board and push it flat and then once its body is glued in place glue its eyes and mouth. After that take some bits of rope and glue them on the bottom to make legs.

Just like that you are now done with your text art! I rather enjoyed the process of making it as well as figuring out how to make the rope have a wire core in it. Now you can use the same process to make any other text art you want so have fun with it! Once your done then place it somewhere you can look at it all the time and have it help improve your mood on difficult days!

Here are some upgrade ideas:

• Colored ropes or dying the natural jute rope would make it stand out even more.
• Instead of a board you could attach it to a box, a mirror, a wall, a picture frame, and so on.
• You could also use the wired rope as a decoration on other projects, or as a handle on a filing cabinet, wrapped around a jar, wrapped around wires, and so on.
• You could even make little stick figures that can stand up on their own with the wired rope, something I might do in the future for fun.

If you would like to support me in making these projects you can do so here.

Do you have any more suggestions? I will add good ones to this list and if there is enough demand I will possibly do some of these ideas in the future.