Pyrography A Mistake

Hi All,
I've finished another box so I thought I'd share it with you in this post. But, before we go there I'd like to tell you a little story.

Once upon a time, there was this little boy who grew up in a beautiful little village in England.  He roamed the woods and fields and soon learnt the names of all the magnificent trees and could identify every bird that flew in that enchanted landscape. He was truly at home with nature.

He particularly liked the dragonflies that flitted around the reeds as he spent many an hour fishing beside  a crystal clear stream. He thought these delightful little insects, with their metallic blue wings were great and he adored those dragonflies. However, this was a big mistake. The creatures he thought were dragonflies, were actually damselflies.

He was eighteen years old and fishing a small pool when a real dragonfly buzzed over his head and he nearly s**t himself. It took some time to come to terms with this creature, that was almost as big as a sparrow, and when he got home he looked it up in a book and realised his mistake.

I still have an aversion to dragonflies, but I still have a soft spot for damselflies and that is why I have used them in a couple of my designs.

If and when you start doing your own designs for pyrography, make sure you keep any rough sketches because they can be quickly adapted and used again somewhere else. Here is the original design for the dragon flies which I used on a round plaque.

If you learn to use photoshop you can quickly re-size or move items about in your design which is handy when doing pyrography. It saves me a lot of time re-drawing things that I want to use again.

Below you will find the box with the new damselfly design. I used a spoon tip in my pyrography iron and painted the damselflies with a special watercolour paint that gives the wings a lovely translucent sheen. Because I used a watercolour paint on it, I used spray varnish for the first of the three coats I gave it for protection. Then I gave the insides a nice covering of a deep red felt, just to finish it off.

Before we go I just thought I'd mention mistakes in pyrography. What do you do if you make a mistake with your pyrography iron?

Well, if it's a big mistake there isn't much you can do. I have been lucky enough on occasions to be able to blend the mistake into my work by changing the design or adding another element that wasn't there originally. If that isn't possible all you can do is use the piece of wood for practise.

If I make a small mistake with my pyrography iron, I can sometimes fix it with a craft knife. By using the blade as a scraper rather than a knife, it is possible, if the the burn isn't too big or too deep, to remove it. However, concentration and trying really hard not to make any mistakes is the best way forward with pyrography.

I am currently working on a box for precious memories and I will share that with you next time.

Pyrography Hares

Hi all, in my last post I mention that I'd purchased half a dozen wooden boxes to do some pyrography on. I also said I'd show you some results after I've attacked them with my pyrography iron.
This post is about the first of three that I have been working on.

A few months ago my wife and I were having a little tour around the Peak District in Derbyshire when we came across a small shop/gallery in the heart of Tideswell. The village is lovely and a magnificent church provides a splendid focal point for visitors. The shop in question is more or less opposite the church and we popped in to see what was on offer. Now let me tell you that over the years I've popped into a lot of arty crafty shops and popped right out again just as quick. The reason for my rapid departure is that many of these shops are filled with over priced tat.

Anyway, I walked into the establishment mentioned with crossed fingers and an open mind. Well was I surprised; the place was bursting with with some fantastic pieces of art and was completely devoid of the afor mentioned tat.

Obviously the owner of the shop had impeccable taste, but not only that, everything was priced decently. As we walked around the shop it became obvious that there was a bit of a theme running with Hares.  Hares are magical creatures and this shop boasted some fine examples and my wife declared a liking for them. So this was why I did a pyrography image on one of the 6 boxes.

How I went about it
For years my wife has had a wooden ornament of a running hare. It's a bit basic but the shape is there. So I used that as a model to draw the outline shape and then put some more details in from my imagination. I then scanned it into my computer and using Photo Shop Elements, I sized the image of the hare to suit the box. Then because I wanted two hares running side by side I copied and pasted the original hare then used the move tool to pick it up and position it a little way back from the original hare. I played about with the composition for a while until it looked pleasing. Then I printed it out and used wax free paper to transfer the two hares to the top of the box. Once that was done I used my pyrography iron, with a spoon tip, to burn in the outline. Once that was complete I carefully did the eyes and then the shading.

I think that pyrography comes to life at the shading in stage. Burning outlines is all well and good, but mastering the art of shading is what gives any pyrography work substance. I'm still working on the art of mastering it, but I'll stick at it because pyrography is like anything else. Success won't come easily, you have to practise.

If you are trying to get to grips with shading hares or anything else for that matter here are my tips.
1 Draw the item on paper first and shade it in. Your shading won't be right first time so rub the mistakes out and try again. You can't rub out the mistakes you make with a pyrography iron but you can rub out those drawn with a pencil.

2 Use the back of a spoon tip when shading and keep the temperature really low. Remember. Rushing when shading will result in disaster.

3 Keep your pyrography iron moving at all times. I find small circular motions are the best.

4 Get into the habit of blowing on your tip as you put it down onto the wood, that along with the low temperature I've already suggested will ensure you don't end up with deep burn marks where you don't want them.

I know you are dying to see it so here is the completed box.

 

The box in the picture below looks bowed, but it's just the barrelling effect of the camera lens.

By the way I have a request.
I like doing pyrography work on bowls, but I have a problem with my supplier. They are currently out of stock and it doesn't look as if they are going to order any more. Bummer, if you know where I can find some I,d love to hear from you.

Pyrography Pencil Box

Hi All,
Although pyrography is relatively new to me, I've been doing artistic things all my life. In 1966 my mother gave me a painting by numbers set for Christmas and I enjoyed following the pattern and coming up with a piece of art work.

 However, I had quite a bit of paint left over in those tiny little pots and wondered what I could do with it. Eventually, I cut a piece of cardboard out of the back of a corn flakes packet and drew on it, an oak tree with an eagle's nest and eagle flying out of it. I used the left over paints to colour it in and was amazed how good it was, and so were my family and friends.

I suppose I could've gone on to bigger and better things, but I was only fifteen at the time and a few weeks later my dad decided that we would all emigrate to Australia. So art went out the window as we prepared for a life down under. I couldn't take the eagle painting with me and it was snaffled up by a girl called Linda Davidson. If by chance your name is Linda and you lived in Bramall close Seighford, perhaps you could let me know what became of my first masterpiece.

Anyway, I eventually returned to England and years later when I tripped into my forties the art bug bit again. By the way, thanks for being patient because at last I'm getting to the gist of this story. Since 1992 I have been keeping my art pencils and pens in a pencil pouch. Every time I wanted a pencil I'd have to rummage about in the pouch to find the one that was right for the task at hand. Very frustrating it was too.

It took a long time, but the penny eventually dropped and I got a box for the job and now I can choose a pencil with ease. I have done a pyrography pattern on the front.  Actually, I brought a job lot of boxes, well six to be exact and have been wondering what to do with them. Having done a pencil box for myself, I thought it might be worth personalising one or two. After all, if it made a great pencil box for me, then others might like to buy one. I think they'd make a cracking gift. Below is an example: of course it doesn't have to be a pencil box, the wording can be changed to nick-nacks or anything the customer requires.

For those who are interested, here's how I created it.
I drew the left and side of the pattern of leaves by hand concentrating mostly on creating pleasing curves. Then I scanned it into my computer and copy and pasted it. Then I used the move tool to move and flip the top layer through 180 degrees and this gave me a perfect mirror image.

Then I printed it off and used wax free paper to transfer the design to the top of the box. The pyrography work was all done with a spoon tip and was painstaking yet enjoyable. 100 percent concentration was required on the lettering because mistakes cannot be changed. If I made a mistake on the leaves design I could always modify it to suit, but with letters it is almost impossible.

After the pyrography work was completed, I varnished the box and then my wife put a layer of felt on the bottom inside and out, and another layer inside the lid.

I am busy at the moment working another couple of these boxes and will be pleased to show you them in my next post.

Using Colour in Pyrography

Hi all,
Some die hard pyrographers would sooner have their wisdom teeth put back in than use colour on their pyrography work. Personally, I like to keep an open mind; if I think my pyrography will be improved by some colour then I will use it.

Generally, you should plan up front about using colour because just slapping a bit of paint onto a piece of pyrography work is liable to make it worse not better. You also need to be careful when using colour because if not used properly it can take the essence out of your pyrography work and make it look like something from a child's colouring book.

Having said all that, here are the mediums I sometimes use on my pyrography:
Watercolour paint and pencils.
Wax based pencils
Acrylic paints
Coloured varnish

I generally use water colour paint and pencils where the subject matter is delicate or needs to have a subtle blending of tones. In the round plaque pictured below you can see how I used water colour paint on the damsel flies to bring the work to life. I also considered painting the reeds green, but thought this would detract from the image so I shaded them in with my pyrography iron.

Wax based pencils can be used to good effect with pyrography. They can be applied to the wood without the need for any liquid and blended on the wood. If you take a look at the fox below you will see how the colours on the fox have been blended. This effect would be difficult to achieve with paint.

You may also notice that because the pencils are semi transparent, they do not hide any of the pyrography work.

Here's a tip when it comes to varnishing any pyrography to which you have applied water colour paint, pencils or wax based pencils. Use a spray based varnish for the first coat because if you don't, that lovely bit of blending you've just done will be spread all over your wood. I find that once the spray varnish is dry I can apply further layers of varnish with a brush. Where possible I prefer to apply varnish with a brush because it gives me more control and it's a hell of a lot cheaper.

If the subject of my pyrography requires a bit of strong colour, I will use acrylic paint. I like to use a coat of white acrlic gesso as an undercoat first because this allows any colour that is applied over the top to really shine through. There is no need to worry about acrylics smudging when you vanish over them because they are very tough. Acrylic paint also ruins brushes very quickly. Keep a big container of water handy and rinse the brush you are using every couple of minutes. If you don't you will soon find that it will be more use as a potato dibber.

Here is a platter that my wife did. The clematis was crying out for some strong colour so she gave it a nice coat of purple acrylic.

Lastly, here's a few words about coloured varnish. One could be tempted to try out a range of the coloured varnishes that are now on the market, but I guess when one sees how much a single tin costs, the temptation soon dies. Anyway, if the varnish is too dark it will hide all of your delicate pyrography work, so if you;'ve got a pocket full of dosh and want to try lots of coloured vanishes, only go for the very lightest shades.

I haven't mentioned coloured wood dyes because I haven't tried them yet. I've seen them advertised in a magazine and will probably give them a go at some stage but for now I have all the colour I need. If you've tried wood dyes, I would be interested to know how you got on.

In my next post I will show you how I got on doing some pyrography on a big pencil box.

A Good Finish

Hi all,
I've been doing pyrography now for almost 18 months and I thought I'd tell you what I've learnt about finishes. Lots of money can be wasted on finding the right finish for pyrography so here's how I got on.

When I started doing pyrography, I did a bit of research and bought three books on the subject in an effort to give me a good grounding. I did some of the exercises in the books and followed the advice of the authors wherever possible. When it came to finishes, Danish Oil was what they recommended, because it is colourless and they said that it would bring out the beauty in my pyrography work.

It was a bit on the expensive side, so I purchased the smallest can I could get and gave it a try. I tried it on a book marker that I'd done some grasses on and I was disappointed. I paid about £14 for that tin of Danish Oil and about £13.95 worth of it is still left in the tin.

I'd like to find something good to say about Danish Oil but I can't. If anybody knows of any attributes that I may have overlooked perhaps they'll let me know what they are. From my point of view it doesn't provide much in the way of protection and it doesn't give my work the rich look I'm after. Besides that, it smells funny and needs to be left for at least 4 hours before re-coating. But worst of all was the warning I found on the back of the tin. This warning reads something like this,"After you've applied the Danish Oil with a rag make sure that they are laid out flat to dry. Otherwise they may set on fire due to spontaneous combustion."

I like my workspace and I'm not taking the risk of having it burnt down to the ground because I forgot to flatten out a piece of oily cloth.

Another oil that I tried was chopping board oil. When I started pyrography I, like many others, went down the kitchenware route. I burnt patterns onto wooden spoons, egg cups, and chopping boards etc. These items need to be finished with chopping board oil because it is safe for items that come into contact with food. I still have most of that left in a tin too because I've stopped doing kitchenware items, and to be honest the finish wasn't anything to write home about. One of my chopping boards can be seen below.

Anyway, after giving up on the oils I decided to give good old-fashioned varnish a chance to shine and when compared with the oils I was very impressed. It dries quickly, gives a really nice glossy finish and it protects my pyrography work. I don't know if it is just me, but people seem to have got very snobby over the use of varnish. They seem to think that it's just something that sailors use to coat the bottom of their Yachts. My advice would be give it a try a see the results for yourself.

I use Ronseal quick drying gloss varnish, which dries in 1 hour, so my usual three coats can be done in half a day. The brush I use can be cleaned easily with soap and water so no nasty chemicals are involved. If you want your work to really shine, give your work a light sanding with some fine sandpaper before you apply the last coat.

You can get Ronseal varnish in various shades and besides the clear gloss I also use light oak where my wood needs to be warmed up a bit. I wouldn't go any darker than light oak because if you do it will cancel out some of your pyrography work.

Here are some tips about the use of varnish.
Work quickly and always brush it on in the same direction as the grain on the wood.
I apply several thin coats rather than a couple of thick ones.
Lastly, before you put the lid back on the can, take a piece of kitchen towel and wipe any varnish off the lid and from around the rim on the tin. The reason for this is because if you don't, the next time you open the tin, little bits of dried up varnish will drop into your tin and these will be transferred onto your work. The net result is that you will have to chuck the tin away before you have used half of it, due to it being full of bits. I know this is true because it happened to me. At £8 for a small tin chucking any of it away seems like a daft option, but there again I've always been as tight as a drum skin.

Above is a honey pot that I did and you can see varnish gives it a bit of sparkle.

In my next post, I'll explain my use of colour. Why use it at all and when do acrylics give better results than watercolours.

Treasure Chest Part2

Hi All,
Following on from my last post, the next thing I did was darken the background. It needed to be dark to create the right contrast with the daisies, which I will be painting white and yellow.

Shading in the background can be difficult especially if you try to go too dark too quickly. Also you will find that when you go around the edges of the flowers you will have to take your time. The trouble with taking your time with pyrography means that you will get a very dark burn and a dark black line around the flowers which looks ugly.

To overcome this issue, I turn the heat down on the pyrography iron and work quickly around the flowers. I also try not to go in straight lines when doing the shading because this produces straight dark lines which don't look right.

I do the shading by burning in a circular motion and vary the speed at which I move my pyrography iron. By doing this I can give the wood a mottled effect that gives the flowers a nice background. It took me quite a while to burn my way around all the flowers and fill in the rest of the blank wood, but like I said in my last post, I find it quite therapeutic. Below is the box after I'd burnt in the background.

The box was beginning to take shape at last, and although the background looked good it needed something to make it special. I decided to paint over the pyrography work with a light oak varnish which provided a luxurious finish. The varnish gave the whole thing uniformity and gave it a walnut sort of look. At this stage I also painted the inside of the box with the same varnish.

Once I was satisfied with the background, it was time to tackle the daisies. Every petal needed to be painted individually and that was a big task. In total there are approximately 460 petals on that box. I used acrylic paint, a very fine brush and a skip-load of patience. If you ever use acrylic paints on a subject like this, wash your brush out after completing each flower because if you don't, you will soon find your brush is ruined. Only dynamite can wreck brushes faster than acrylic paint.

Once the petals were done, I also gave the centres a coat of white acrylic. I would later paint them yellow, but I find that if I use an undercoat of white first, it helps the colour to shine through.

When you are using a pyrography iron or paint brush on an odd shaped thing like a box, it is easy to get the wobbles. So I use a couple of blocks of wood to rest my hand on while doing the work. If you haven't got wooden blocks just stack up a few books and rest your hand on them.

Despite being as precise as possible when doing the painting, I find that I make the odd mistake and go over the odd pyrography line on the petals. We're all human and it doesn't matter because I just wait until the paint is dry and burn the line in again. This needs to be done quickly or you will find that the white paint soon becomes brown and I've never seen a daisy with brown petals.

At this time I will also touch up a few of the petals by giving them another layer of white paint and then paint the centres yellow.

Once that was done, I gave the whole thing 3 separate coats of clear gloss varnish.

Lastly I stuck a layer of felt on the bottom of the box, both inside and out, and also put a layer inside the lid. Here is the finished box. I think it looks great and I had a relaxing time whilst doing it.

In my next post I will be tell you what I think about the various finishes that can be used on pyrography work. I've produced a number items now and by following the information I found in pyrography books I've wasted some money on various finishes and that's not a good thing.

By the way, all of the pyrography work done on this box, was done with a spoon tip. In fact I rarely use anything else.

Treasure Chest

Hi, I have just started a new pyrography project and thought I'd take you through the process I use.
Those of you who have been following this blog will know that I have done a few small round trinket boxes but this is my first rectangular jobbie.

I was going to use my pyrography iron to burn a tree, some mushrooms and a fairy into it, but decided it was too small for such an intricate image. After soul searching through the image banks in my mind I came up with a daisy pattern. This would suit me because it would be simple to draw and the pyrography work would be therapeutic in its simplicity. Here is a photo of the box after I had drawn the daisies on it with a pencil.

Drawing a daisy might at first glance look very skillful, but I'll let you into a secret, its easy peasy. I once read a book about drawing that said the best way to draw anything is to break it down into basic shapes, so that is what I do with daisies.

Draw a circle first for the centre of the daisy, then draw an upside down tie. Follow my diagram and you'll soon be drawing daisies everywhere. It didn't take me long using the method described above to cover every side of the box with pleasing compositions. I always find that flowers look better if there are a few overlapping petals here and there to give the image a bit of perspective. I  don't worry  about being too precise or trying to make my daisies too symetrical because nature doesn't work like that.

 

Anyway, I soon put my pyrography iron to work and burnt in the daisies at one end of the box. I did an end first to allow me to get into my stride with the pattern. I find it best to do the centre circle first and then do the petals. At this stage I don't follow my pencil marks exactly, I use them for guidance only and once I start burning I get a feel for the pattern.

Once I have completed a side I get out my eraser and remove all traces of pencil before I forget. It looks horrible if you can see a bit of pencil work once the varnish has been applied.

 

There are 22 daisies on this box and there are those who may think that burning that many flowers on a small box with a pyrography iron is very tedious. Well I don't, in fact, I find it very therapeutic and often find my mind mulling over the plot for my next book. There are those who may think that it is not cost effective to spend so much time burning and later painting so many daisies. Well its true that if I was doing it for the money I'd be earning less than a slave, but there again I could have wasted my time doing a jig saw puzzle and, at the end of the day, have to break my creation up and put it back in the box so my Mrs can lay the table for our evening meal.

 

And here is another thing, how many hours a week do people spend doing crosswords and Soduko, just for fun? The answer is millions. Okay, it may take me ten hours to create a box that I'll probably sell for less than a tenner, but I've had great value from the sheer joy of doing it. Anyway,  that's enough of that, here's a photo of the box after all the pyrography iron line work was finished.

It is now at the half-way stage and I think it looks kind of cute. In my next post I hope to be able to show you how it turned out