Showing posts with label upcycled books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label upcycled books. Show all posts

String Art Letters on Old Books - Upcycled Tutorial




Some may remember my string art project a year or so ago with rubber bands

(I learned a lot from that project including why this is called string art - my rubber bands have since launched themselves across my studio at odd moments zapping me in the back of the head - but great art can be dangerous folks, so rather than take it off the wall, I just work with my bicycle helmet on at all times now - this has created a lot of bad hair days, but on the plus side I am ready to jump on my bike in a flash if I need to make a run for it - ie the zombie apocalypse the CDC was denying existed a couple weeks ago - not that they would tell us if there was a zombie apocalypse or if a Polarity customer has gotten themselves magnetized to a street sign or something - not that this has happened ... yet, but I need to be ready)

I also learned complicated patterns are not for me.

(save them for the experts - ie 10 year olds at summer camp who make those amazing owls and sailboats).

Now I am not actually spelling out the word POLAR here, although we are expecting 100 degree temps today so this would not be a bad thing - but am still working on my last 3 letters.

Trying to decide if I should flip the books over and work on the blank back sides

(this is actually a display project for my upcoming wholesale shows).

The blank sides may be what I end up with, but I really, really love seeing the titles, even though it is all a bit busy, so I am going to try it both ways, but for today in this heat I will just stop with POLAR and focus on this

(since I don't have an air conditioner in here yet).

This is a totally easy project.

Just print out your letters, double stick tape them to your books, drill nail holes - note drilling into books is kind of like rubbing 2 sticks together, so drill slowly unless you want burn marks, nail around the letter, remove your paper template, string your embroidery floss.

There is no right or wrong way to do this - if you like things orderly you will probably need to take your time with your nail holes and strings and want to use the blank book backs.

Some tips would be - if you use the front of books, outline your letters (zigzag in and out) with the floss so you don't lose track of your nails and fill in areas you don't want to fill in, use a thread color that totally contrasts with the book (notice my letter R will probably have to be redone), when threading don't cross a nail head - you don't want a thread hiding a nail head - and you can totally use the small nail heads usually used in string art I wanted a kind of furniture nail head look with this.