string art au naturale

I posted this on facebook and instagram, but of course it needs a bloggie feature! 

The string art au naturale! 

I had a request to do this from someone who went into City Arts Boutique (where I have some of these for sale). 

Confession: I've never stained anything before. 

I found a tutorial on pinterest for aging wood using vinegar and steel wool. You just stick the steel wool into the vinegar and rub it onto the wood. 

I failed. That's it on the right. I let it sit overnight, and the next morning it still looked super light, so I grabbed some Minwax stain on the way home. I brought both outside and tried another couple of layers of the vinegar/steel wool but no luck. You'll see why further down..

The stain looked lovely though! I got a cheap paint brush to brush it on, and used an old tshirt I cut up to wipe it off between every layer. I wore gloves, and I suggest you do the same or else you'll look like a brown ink pen exploded on you. And we all know what brown ink looks like..

I added a couple of more layers of stain after this picture. I let a couple layers sit on there for several minutes to soak in a bit before I wiped it off. 

I'm going to have to try the vinegar stain again because I accidentally grabbed steel wool SOAP PADS. Ugh. I was frantic running through the store because I wanted to get it done before the sun set outside. I clearly wasn't thinking straight. 

It was probably for the best though. The stain turned out awesome! 

I'll be making several more for Birmingham Artwalk! EEE! 

These are also for sale on Etsy! I can do any city and state. Check 'em out in my shop!