Slovenian artist Sašo Krajnc creates incredibly detailed portraits by tightly winding a single sewing thread on a circular wooden frame to create overlapping straight lines.

That’s actually the most impressive thing about Sašo Krajnc, that he’s able to create such detailed facial features, like the curvatures of the eyes and lips, using only straight lines. He starts out with a circular frame made of wood or aluminium and lined with metal nails. He then takes a long sewing thread and begins winding it around these nails creating hundreds, or even thousands of black straight lines that crisscross and overlap to emphasise the features of his subjects.

The more times lines overlap in an area of the portrait, the darker it gets which allows Krajnc (a.k.a. Cvern) to control the shading and the detail of his artworks.

According to his profile of Saatchi Art, “Cvern has always been amazed by the string art. He is inspired and challenged by the art of straight lines and strives to make work that is beautiful in every point of view. His aim is to create images that go beyond capturing a likeness. The results are compositions of overlapping lines that are created to help magnify the layers of meanings made possible by our senses and perceptions.”

The Slovenian artist worked many years as a graphic designer, software and web developer, but was always inspired and challenged by the art of straight lines, and now dedicates his time to creating awe-inspiring string art at his workshop near Ljubljana.