Which brings us to the point of this page. There's a handful of resources online that give instructions on how to make string figures, and I've found and lost them multiple times over the years. Therefore, this page sets out to attempt to preserve the instructions for this art form, so that it can't be lost again. I'm starting out mirroring the book String Figures and How to Make Them by Caroline Furness Jayne (mirrored from here) (I emailed her and stuff and she was delighted to know that it was backed up somewhere).
There's several others that I have stumbled across or otherwise created myself over the years, and once I re-locate the instructions for them (or create them from scratch), I'll be adding those to the string figure page as well. Otherwise, it's amazing fun that you can have with just a simple string. Click the image to the right or the link above to see how they're made :D
I started making string figures probably somewhere in the 80's, where a string figure artist came to our school for a demonstration. I remember receiving a string from them, which to my memory ended up breaking or otherwise getting lost. sometime after that however, I made what I count as my original string (Samantha) out of some old curtain drawstring that I found in our basement at the time. It was probably a decade old by that time, but it was still strong. It's made from a material that doesn't melt (cotton?), so the ends had to be stitched together with thread. And from there it lasted me for years, making string figures with friends or during breaks in my first call-center jobs. However, the years have taken their toll on Samantha, so she's been put into retirement and replaced with the paracord I now use (I've made several - Samantha II - V).
My favourite one, pictured to the right, is called 'Many Stars', and my own, personally created one called Cave Entrance can be found here (also here).
