String sculptures are fun for both children and adults to make. They can be very simple or very complex, and make great decorations to children’s rooms, patios, front porches, and even Christmas trees. Making a string sculpture requires few materials, and the materials necessary are very inexpensive. If you’re ready to let your creative juices flow by making a string sculpture, make sure you have the following materials:
Balloons
Thick string or yarn
Elmer’s glue
Water
Mixing bowl
Scissors
Newspaper
Step One: For each sculpture, blow up one balloon. These balloons can be of any size. If you want to make a large sculpture to hang from the ceiling, use a big balloon. Long, thin balloons are also good to use for sculptures to hang. If you’re looking to make decorations for a Christmas tree, use smaller balloons. Tie of the blown up balloon once it is the size that you want.
Step Two: Make a glue solution by mixing two parts of glue with one part water in a mixing bowl. Make as little or as much as you think you’re going to need. Make sure to set out newspaper over the table you’re going to use to make this project, as it can get quite messy. If you feel very creative, try adding a bit of glitter or colored paint to the glue mixture. Remember that paint will color your string, though. Also, if children are involved, make sure they wear paint smocks and roll up their sleeves!
Step Three: Cut off a piece of yarn at least four feet long. Be creative with your string colors, as they will be one of the main focuses of the sculpture. You can make this string as long as you want, depending on how thick you want your sculpture to be. Also, you can use more than one strip of string to make your sculpture, so if your first cut is not long enough, you can add more string later. Try using different colors!
Step Four: Saturate the string in the glue solution. This does not take very long, but make sure that each piece of string is fully saturated.
Step Five: Decorate the balloon with the string, making sure to overlap it several times. You can crisscross the string, form it in loops, wrap it around the balloon, and so on. It is important to crisscross the string at several intersections, however. These intersections will hold your sculpture together once it has dried. Use as much string as you would like, but make sure that it is fully saturated with glue; if it isn’t the project won’t hold up well once it is dry.
Step Six: Finish your decoration and let the glued string and balloon dry. Find a smooth surface, ideally plastic, on which to let the balloons dry, as the glue will stick to newspaper.
Step Seven: Once the balloon and string have dried COMPLETELY, pop the balloon! Once it is popped, carefully peel away the pieces of balloon until all that is left is the shaped pieces of string! You now have your very own string sculpture. Be careful with it, as it is very fragile. Hang up your string sculpture for display.
