Original artwork description:

[commissions accepted, please read below]

String art has been known for decades. In fact, string art is a multitude of different techniques with varying complexity, features and capabilities.

On behalf of a lyric sidenote…. The technique that I tend to explore in my works is very young, it’s only a little over 5 years old. I make precise and thematically sound string artworks by wrapping several kilometers of a single continuous mono-thread around an evenly spaced circle of up to 300 aluminum pins. Working in this technique, I have always strived for the most realistic result and for the consistency of the symbolic meaning of the technique and the artwork subject. I believe that currently I am at the peak of my technique capabilities. Therefore, I was interested in whether it’s possible to combine the power of my approach and the flexibility of a more traditional string art.

This is a portrait of Hayao Miyazdaki. There are over 2500 nails scattered pseudo-randomly across the board, and a thin monofilament thread connects them with about 20000 straight segments. At first glance, a similar technique has been known for decades. The dense arrangement of the nails on the board makes it possible to connect them with a thread, outline the contours and fill spaces with varying densities, achieving locally accurate image reproduction with a web of short thread connections between adjacent nails. Many handmaders have been working in this technique for many years. Some professional artists do as well. I’m absolutely amazed and inspired by the outstanding artworks of Kumi Yamashita.

However, this Miyazaki portrait demonstrates a principal novelty which one may see at a closer look. The thread not only connects adjacent nails, but also distant ones. Straight line segments reach a length of half a meter. Any nail may virtually be connected to any other one. Mathematically backed approach allows one to choose the optimal way of knitting and exploit 100% of the traditional technique’s hidden capabilities. Despite the fact that in some places the portrait is not as detailed, as it could be made with a photorealistic graphics or painting, it completely lacks any artificiality, lacking any spare contours, any redundancy or inaccuracy. In this sense, it is absolutely photorealistic and precise. In a sense, this portrait is the first example of the new string art technique, and is absolutely unique.

This portrait has already been sold to a private collection. However, I believe that the technique needs to be maintained and further explored, so I’d be happy to accept commissions. The work is extremely painstaking, and therefore the price is high and the time it takes is also essential. First of all, the work gets completely digitally modeled. It is achieved with a meticulous iterative computer assisted process of optimization and visualization, in which the best placement of nails and the whole physical knitting workflow get defined. After this, I proceed to knitting. The whole process can take up to several weeks, so I kindly ask you to have some extra time if you are planning a commission.

Materials used:

String, Nails

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