Untied Possibilities: Recycled Art from Discarded Shoelaces

Shoelaces are made to be handled. They cross, tighten, loosen, knot, and guide a foot into a shoe. When a pair becomes worn, stained, mismatched, or too short for its original use, the laces are often thrown away with the footwear. Yet their length, flexibility, colour, woven texture, and familiar gestures make them excellent material for recycled art.

Discarded shoelaces can become line drawings, woven panels, stitched maps, hanging forms, coiled vessels, and sculptural lettering. They are especially useful when an artwork needs movement. Unlike a flat strip of paper, a lace can curve, loop, knot, or pull a neighbouring material into place. It brings the memory of tying and untying into a new visual language.

Gather a Useful Collection

Collect clean, dry laces from family drawers, repair shops, reuse centres, schools, and friends. Ask before taking laces from shoes that are still in use. Sort them by length, thickness, colour, texture, and type of end finish. Flat cotton laces behave differently from round synthetic cords, and elastic laces create a different kind of tension.

Wash washable laces gently and allow them to dry completely. Avoid using laces with sharp metal aglets or damaged wire ends in work that will be handled. Keep unusual pieces, such as bright sports laces or children’s patterned laces, in a separate container. Their strong colours can become accents in a more restrained composition.

Start with a Line Drawing

Choose a reclaimed board, piece of thick cardboard, or stretched fabric as your support. Sketch a simple route: a river, branch, spiral, face, skyline, or abstract path. Lay the laces along the drawing without attaching them. Let them cross and separate. A line that begins as a road may become a branch if the surrounding marks change.

When the arrangement feels balanced, attach the laces with small stitches, paper tabs, clips, or carefully placed points of adhesive. Stitching is often the most repairable method because the lace can be removed later. Leave a few short ends visible. They show how the line was made and keep the composition from feeling too polished.

Woven Lace Landscapes

Shoelaces are naturally suited to weaving. Make a simple loom from a reclaimed cardboard box or an old frame. Stretch thicker laces vertically as the warp, then weave shorter laces horizontally. Alternate wide flat laces with narrow round ones so the surface changes rhythm.

Colour can create a landscape without any painted image. Dark laces may become a ground or distant ridge, pale laces may suggest sky, and a single red or yellow lace can act as a road, sunset, or flowering tree. Keep the edges uneven if you want the work to feel like a growing field rather than a strict rectangle.

Do not pull every lace tightly. A little slack creates raised sections and shadows. If the panel will hang, secure the outer edges with thread or a reclaimed binding strip. The weaving should be stable but still visibly flexible.

Knotting as Mark-Making

A knot is more than a way to fasten a lace. It is a compact shape with a centre, loops, and direction. Use a series of knots to create dots, flowers, seeds, or points on a map. Make the knots consistent when you want a pattern, then change their size when you want the viewer to feel movement.

Try making a small circular artwork from one continuous lace. Coil the centre, add a loose knot, then continue the line outward. A long lace can become a spiral sun, a shell, a storm, or a nest. If you have several laces, let the spirals overlap so their colours blend where they meet.

Knots can also form words. Draw the letters first, then follow the shapes with laces. Shorter pieces work well for individual letters, while a long lace can create a single flowing word. Choose a word related to reuse, place, or memory, and allow the joins to remain visible.

Make a Hanging Lace Mobile

For a lightweight installation, gather a reclaimed branch, an old embroidery hoop, or a bent wire frame. Tie laces at different lengths and attach small cardboard shapes, fabric scraps, paper rings, or other safe reclaimed elements to their ends. Keep the palette limited so the movement remains the focus.

Test the mobile in the space where it will hang. Laces that look still in the studio may move strongly near a doorway or window. Vary the lengths so the elements do not collide constantly. A small amount of gentle movement can make the piece feel alive; too much movement can make its form difficult to read.

Layered Lace Relief

Attach laces to a board in overlapping arcs. Begin with a few large curves and add smaller lines where the composition needs detail. A cluster of arcs can suggest waves, tree rings, topographic lines, or sound. Place some laces flat against the surface and raise others with small cardboard spacers.

Side lighting will reveal the raised lines. Use a warm lamp or daylight to study the shadows before fixing the final arrangement. A lace relief can be quiet from the front and dramatic from the side, so consider where the viewer will stand.

When combining different materials, pair soft laces with rough wood, old denim, paper, or cardboard. The contrast helps each surface remain legible. Avoid covering every section with decoration. Open space gives the lines a chance to breathe.

A Reclaimed Lace Palette

Colour sorting can turn an assorted collection into a deliberate artwork. Make groups of neutrals, cool colours, warm colours, and bright accents. Create one panel from each family, using the same basic structure so the series can be viewed together. The difference between the panels will come from the material rather than from a new design every time.

Alternatively, make a palette based on a place: a beach with sand, blue, seaweed green, and sunlit yellow; a city with charcoal, cream, rust, and signal red; or a garden with leaf green, soil brown, flower pink, and sky blue. The laces do not need to depict the place literally. Their colours can carry its atmosphere.

Responsible Construction

Inspect every lace before using it. Remove loose metal parts, sharp wires, and dirt that could damage the support. Choose a secure backing for heavy or densely layered pieces. If the artwork will be handled by children, avoid small detachable parts and supervise knotting tools.

Use reversible construction where possible. Stitching, lacing, clips, and paper tabs allow the artwork to be repaired or dismantled. If adhesive is necessary, apply it sparingly and test it on a spare lace first. Too much glue can make a flexible line stiff and difficult to reuse.

Document the materials and keep offcuts in a labelled container. Short lace pieces can become knots, woven accents, or texture in a later collage. When the artwork reaches the end of its display life, separate laces from board, wire, and fabric so the components can be reused again.

A Studio Prompt: One Lace, Three Routes

Choose one unwanted lace and make three quick studies. In the first, let it become a road. In the second, turn it into a vine. In the third, coil it into a shelter or nest. Do not cut it. Change only the way it bends, crosses, and rests on the support.

Compare the three meanings. The material stays the same, but the surrounding idea changes. This exercise shows why recycled art is not simply a matter of substitution. It is a way of paying attention to an object’s physical possibilities and letting those possibilities guide the work.

When the Knot Becomes a Beginning

Discarded shoelaces carry the memory of everyday movement. They have been tied for school, work, travel, sport, and play. In a new artwork, their lines can become maps, vines, waves, letters, and paths. Their knots can hold small stories, while their colours can build a complete atmosphere from a collection of mismatched leftovers.

At Soh and Soh Art, we believe creative reuse begins when an ordinary object is allowed to be more than its original function. A lace that no longer belongs on a shoe can still connect materials, guide the eye, hold a shape, or invite a viewer to imagine a route. When it is woven, knotted, and displayed with care, an untied leftover becomes a new beginning.

Reading the Ends and Edges

The ends of shoelaces deserve attention. Plastic aglets can create small points of colour, while frayed fabric ends create softer marks. Instead of hiding every end, arrange them so they become part of the composition. A row of aglets can suggest seeds, beads, rain, or distant lights. A group of frayed ends can become grass, hair, feathers, or the edge of a cloud.

When several lace types are combined, decide whether you want their differences to be obvious or blended. A project may be stronger when a round cord crosses a flat braid and the join remains visible. The contrast tells the viewer that the artwork was assembled from many histories rather than made from a single uniform material.

Building a Three-Dimensional Form

Shoelaces can create the framework of a small sculpture. Tie or weave them around a reclaimed cardboard tube, bent branch, or wire shape to make a cage, nest, basket, or abstract vessel. Work slowly around the form and check that the tension is not pulling the support out of shape.

Leave openings in the surface so the object can be seen through. A lace sculpture becomes more interesting when the viewer can look into it and notice layers of colour. Add a small paper or fabric element inside only if it helps the form, rather than filling every opening.

For a freestanding object, use a stable base and test it from several angles. A sculpture may look balanced from the front but lean when seen from the side. Because laces are flexible, small adjustments are easy. That flexibility is one of the material’s strengths.

Working in a Series

A single lace study can become the first piece in a series about connection. Make one work from loops, one from knots, and one from long crossing lines. Keep the backing size or colour consistent so the changing construction becomes the subject. A series also makes it easier to use a mixed collection without forcing every lace into one crowded composition.

Consider giving each work a verb: “Crossing,” “Holding,” “Untying,” “Returning,” or “Wandering.” The words describe what the material is doing rather than what it is supposed to represent. They allow the viewer to notice movement before settling on an interpretation.

Preparing a Community Workshop

Shoelace art works well in a community setting because the basic actions are familiar. Participants can weave, tie, loop, and connect without needing advanced craft skills. Prepare blunt scissors, sturdy cardboard, reclaimed frames, fabric scraps, and trays for sorting. Explain how to check that each lace is clean and safe before it reaches the shared table.

Give the group a simple shared prompt, such as “make a map of a place you feel welcome” or “build a path from one colour to another.” Individual sections can later be joined into one long wall piece. This approach respects different skill levels while creating a finished work that feels collective.

Photograph the sorting and construction stages, not only the final display. The process shows that reuse is collaborative and that a large artwork can grow from many small contributions.

Keeping the Work Honest

There is no need to disguise the fact that the material came from shoes. A visible knot, a familiar braid, or a mismatched pair can add meaning. The artwork can acknowledge the ordinary life of the lace while giving it a new role. This is especially important when using objects connected to movement, because the traces of use are part of their character.

At Soh and Soh Art, we return to everyday remnants because they carry more than their material properties. A shoelace has been pulled, tightened, released, and tied again. When it becomes a line in a drawing or a thread in a woven panel, those actions remain present. They give the finished artwork a quiet sense of connection and continuity.

Stay creative and keep upcycling,
The Team at Soh and Soh Art