Yarn prints

MATERIALS:

• Paper
• Yarn or string
• Tempera paint
• Phone book

This is another craft that Emma found in this French craft book. It’s quite simple.

STEPS:

1) Place a sheet of paper in an old phone book, coat the yarn or string (except one end) in paint, and arrange the yarn on the sheet of paper, leaving the end hanging out:

2) Place a second sheet of paper on top and close the phone book:

3) Remove the string, pressing down on the phone book

4) Open phone book, retrieve papers, and lay out to dry

RESULTS:

We made three different prints using slight variations to this technique.

Here is the first print, which was done with a lot of paint on the yarn and pressing down quite firmly on the phone book:

A second print with a moderate amount of paint, done closing the book and then re-opening and separating the pages before removing the yarn:

A third print made with the least amount of paint and pressing only lightly on the phone book while removing the yarn:

The third technique is the one recommended by the book, and I think I do like the effect best.

Emma enjoyed this activity and it created minimal mess, but she wasn’t interested in making more than three prints. I think it is something we’ll try again, though, and I’d like to turn the prints we have into cards. I also think this could be a good activity for introducing the concept of mirror images.