The craft, not the code
String art guides.
Five pages covering the whole distance from a photograph to a board on a wall. Every number here is sourced — mostly from people who published their build logs rather than from anyone selling something.
- 015 minutes
Choosing a photo that will actually work
String art has a narrow tonal vocabulary. Here is what survives the translation to thread, what does not, and how to test a photo in thirty seconds.
Read - 02One shopping trip
Materials, sizes and what it costs
Boards, nails and thread with real numbers — thicknesses, gauges, dtex, spool lengths — and the sources they came from.
Read - 03An evening, plus paint drying
Building the board and placing 240 nails
Printing the template at true scale, joining the tiles, hammering to a consistent depth, and getting the paper back out from under the nails.
Read - 043 to 6 hours
Winding the thread without losing your place
Tying on, tension, one wrap per nail, keeping count over four hours, joining a broken thread, and tying off so it stays tied.
Read - 05Read before you need it
When it goes wrong
Flat grey results, a template that printed at the wrong size, nails pulling out, a preview that looks nothing like the board, and what to do about each.
Read
Want the algorithm instead?
How the solver picks each chord, why over-darkening costs double, and where the constants came from.