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Mykel Henry

@mjwiththestring

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A nice change of pace for the fist piece of 2026!

Much less intricate than any of my past designs but that’s part of what I love about this. Nothing flashy, just a simple, clean piece of art. Thought of the idea one night before going to bed and figured it would be quick enough to do in half a day or so. Spent more time drawing, cutting, and sanding, than stringing and nailing which usually isn’t the case.

All around very quick and enjoyable project that came out flawlessly. by @mjwiththestring

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4 months ago

I mean cmon did yall really expect me to just not bring the v1 to life??? It was only a matter of time… I guess that meant the following day 😌 (finished Sunday just waited a bit to post)

Not a whole lot to say about this one and unfortunately I didn’t really take any progress pics since I slammed it so quickly but another project in the books just in time to bring 2025 to an end. This undoubtedly has to be the fastest I’ve ever finished a project of this size no question.

Before you ask, yes, I’m using tires as a table for cutting and a 5 gallon water jug to hold things in place a bit. I never said I was smart, but I get things done and make them work 🤠

Last slide is a quick little tour of the program I use for my designs. I’ve got a handful of projects saved and this is what most of them usually look like. Wish I had more visuals since I took my last two designs in a few different directions when making them but at least you can see where they build off one another a bit when out side by side, and how the original design that’s shown last is the foundation for these newer ones.

Also, didn’t quite have enough space for the board to be a perfect square with the wood I had left but it ended up working out perfectly. The cut at the bottom makes for a nice stand so it can sit as you’re intended to look at it by @mjwiththestring

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8 months ago

Running, lifting, and biking have been my main focus over the last year but ironically enough as 2024 changed over to 2025 I was sitting in my kitchen wrapping up another string art project, so what better way to end the year than exactly how I started it.

This one has been a long time coming. If you look back at the last project I did you’ll see this is a much more complete build off of that old design. I still love the design I originally made but when crafting it I always knew it was missing something and that I could build it out more, I simply just didn’t have the vision. It’s something I’ve thought about on and off all year so to finally finish this design to the point where I was plenty satisfied and bring it to life was amazing. Undoubtedly my most intricate project so far.

As always, every part of this project was tedious, but I never struggled with lack of motivation. Got everything done pretty quickly and had all the nails in in less than 70 minutes (perhaps a new PR for something of this size).

Stringing was a fucking headache. Or more so figuring out how to break it up into sections as well as starting points / transition points (diagram on slide 6 or so?). Once all that was done the stringing itself wasn’t hard at all since I had a clear map to follow, just took forever. Sat for maybe 6 hours today to get it all done.

I also made a v1 of this design that was a bit more simple, and I almost went with it, but I’m glad I didn’t. Might bring it to life someday if I get bored but for now she sits in the drafts.

Feels good to be back, excited to see what another year brings :) by @mjwiththestring

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8 months ago

Starting 2025 off with a crazy one! Very different from any other piece I’ve made which is one of the reasons I was so motivated to attack this. It’s also less complex version of the last design I posted, which posed as a nice compromise for creating this since I wanted to bring that to life but it would have been a massive project.

Everything about this went extremely smooth. I really didn’t run into any issues aside from accidentally deleting the whole design right before stringing, however my familiarity with the program I use made it pretty easy to redesign.

The hardest part by far mentally was figuring out how I wanted to break this up into sections when stringing. There’s a handful of points (nails) where there’s a lot of overlap, which means aiming to keep the path in which I’m stringing as continuous and efficient as possible to avoid excessive stacking. Slide 5 is the rough “map” I came up with for doing so, including color coordinated sections, starting, transition, and finish points.

On the flip side, the quickest part of this shockingly was the nails. Don’t think I’ve ever done nails so quickly in my life, slamming in over 250 in under an hour (59:08).

Incredibly pleased with this overall. We’ll see what the rest of the year brings :) thank you as always to those who support me and anyone who cared to read this far. ❤️ by @mjwiththestring

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2 years ago

Probably never gonna bring this to life but enjoy some digital messing around I did this afternoon by @mjwiththestring

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2 years ago

I usually have a lot to say about my projects but im just gonna leave this one here for you all to observe. A lot of layers, a lot of colors, a lot of nails, and a lot of hard work. Enjoy 🖤 by @mjwiththestring

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2 years ago

by @mjwiththestring

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2 years ago

Quick update post for some activity, finally finishing the wall!

I know I usually do this the other way around but surprise, you get to see the final design before it’s done! Really wanted to make a digitalized version of all the pieces individually as two of them are covered quite a bit so it’s hard to appreciate the full intricacies of them. However now you can get lost in each piece as you please :)

Started working on the last piece a bit yesterday, not sure when it’ll be done but it shouldn’t take too long. Excited to finally wrap this ongoing project up, been long overdue. Consider this the start to the end by @mjwiththestring

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2 years ago

It’s been awhile but I’m back… perhaps with my absolute favorite piece ever!

This was very different from anything I’ve done so far in a lot of different ways, particularly shape, layering, and color scheme. Although I like how crisp and vibrant the digital design looks I’m really happy with how coherently all of those characteristics I mentioned before came together in the physical piece.

The stringing on this felt like it took forever since I had to be very conscious of tie off points as well as height of the string on the nails due to how much overlap there is particularly on the center nails. All in all it went pretty quickly, maybe less than 8 hours? (I didn’t really keep track)

As always thank you to everyone who supports me in what I do, I love you guys and can’t thank you enough for all the kind words. We’ll see what’s next!

Video explanation: thought I’d showcase how I go about getting the tread unraveled and organized so that it doesn’t get knotted while stringing since there’s genuinely nothing worse than dealing with a rats nest mid string by @mjwiththestring

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2 years ago

Back with another piece, this time for @spoom5 🤍

There’s noting better than making things for people you love, especially someone who I’ve always considered to be my 2nd set of parents at that.

Been wanting for make a piece with a mocha / coffee color scheme ever since I started creating (despite blues being my go to always) and coincidentally what I came up with just happened to go perfectly with the condo!

Also switched it up a bit by making a shaped piece of wood as well as framing the design with the colors I used in the piece just for some more depth. Really loved how it all came together.

Context for the hairdryer photo: it was freezing in the garage and I was impatient waiting for paint to dry so I decided to speed things up a bit and it worked flawlessly 😂

Ended up procrastinating this project forever after I got the stencil on the wood strictly due to the nails. Not the most I’ve ever done by a long shot but I still wasn’t looking forward putting in 300+ nails. After I finally got off my ass tho it went much quicker than expected (just a little over 2 hours for the nails) and it was so worth it to see both the outcome as well as the reaction from Katie and Steve. I love you guys and I hope this piece always serves as a reminder to how important you both are to me. Thank you as always if you read this far by @mjwiththestring

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2 years ago

Starting off 2024 with a new favorite 💚🤎🤍
Perhaps the fastest I’ve ever finished a project of this scale (22.5 x 22.5, 288 nails) in around 5 maybe 6 hours total of work. Buckled down and slammed the nails out in one 90 minute session since that’s ALWAYS my least favorite part, and that really set the tone for the rest of this piece.

I was gifted these colors for Christmas and as soon as I saw them they made me think of a link themed color scheme. I played OOT as a kid but @ecological.ani (who this piece is for) is the one that introduced me to TOTK, which ultimately lead to me getting a switch and playing my first Zelda game since twilight princess as well as replaying OOT.

No draw up for this piece since I was too lazy, but the idea of the design is just an extension of the top piece on the design I made for myself a few months back. So there was sort of some structure, I just didn’t know how it was gonna truly look until I was done stringing it.

Anyways, I’m absolutely in love with this piece, but I’m happy to be giving it away to someone who’s gonna have equal appreciation for it. Thank you as always to any of those who read this far and all of you who support me. I love you guys ❤️

Enjoy the catfish editing in the first pic 🤪 (the colors look way cooler in person) by @mjwiththestring

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3 years ago

Haven’t made anything in awhile but I’m back momentarily!!! Wrapped up a new piece for @hanndidion the other week and it came out fantastic. Initially planned for a blue color scheme but ended up going with pink per request to match her room.

Finished all the woodwork and mapping pretty quickly but once I got to the nails it absolutely destroyed my motivation and I took maybe a month or so off from working on it. By no means was this even close to the most nails I’ve had in a project but they still managed to catch me off guard once I started hammering them in, always my least favorite part and what I dread the most every time I start a new piece. Really happy I got my act together and wrapped it up for the holidays tho.

Anyways I’m not sure what I’ll make next or when but I’ll try not to have such a large gap between projects. Thank you as always if you read all this, I appreciate you! by @mjwiththestring

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3 years ago