String and Nail Artwork

This technique enables so much opportunities of creation and is rather simple, with very little material !

If you want to use a layer of baize to create a coloured background, spread the glue on the plaque and place the fabric layer, and try to avoid creating bumps on the fabric. Try to fold the excess of the baize on the backside of the plaque, and either glue it or use flattened drawing pins.

In order to place the nails, you need to decide if you want to use abstract and geometrical shapes or stylised artwork. You can inspire yourself with minimalist and creative artwork or even create your own! You can then use a template or a stencil to place correctly the nails.

For creating a simple shape, you can for example create 2 lines of nails, both of the same amount, but with different intervals between the nails. However, the nails are at the same intervals on the same line.

Start on one of the extremity of a nail line, by making a knot with the string. With the string, go to the other extremity of the second line (see image 1). Make sure to rotate in a clockwise movement. Now, continue the string to the nail which is directly next to the starting point (orange line from image 2). Continue this process (blue line from image 3) until you obtain something like image 4.

And if you repeat the steps 3 and 4 multiple times, you can create a beautiful abstract artwork ; you can really get creative and play with the infinite possibility of this interesting technique.

Here is another example of this technique !