If you haven’t seen it before, there are three foundational pieces common to all string art. Aside from wood planks, you’ll need one-inch nails hammered into a pleasing pattern and decorative, colored string that’s wound around the nails to create woven effects. With that in mind, your first design choice starts with your wood scraps. What do you have available and do pieces need to be combined to construct a large enough canvas? Move your planks around to come up with a shape you prefer. Do you like the color of the wood or would you prefer to stain or paint it? Sand first, apply a wood stain color you love, and then finish with a sealant or polyurethane if you like.

Consider practicing on a small piece of wood first. Identify an easy shape like a tree or a coffee cup. On paper, use dots to draw the outline of, let’s say, a tree. When you’re happy with it, tape the paper to the wood to secure it, then hammer your nails into each dot. Don’t hammer too deeply; you need to be able to wrap string around each nail and you don’t want sharp points poking out the back. Remove the paper, tie a knot around any nail, and start weaving your string. When done, tie it again and snip off any excess from the knot.