Pots and Poppies

Hi All,
Sorry it's been so long since my last pyrography post, but I've been up to my neck in all sorts of things. Sadly, I have very little to show for all my efforts. It is really strange for me because when I worked in a factory for nine hours a day I seemed to have lots of spare time to go fishing, do some painting  etc, but now that I am self-employed and work from home I can't find two spare seconds to rub together.

There is some good news; I have sold three pyrography items this week from my shop on Folksy and they all left good feedback. This means I need to get cracking and replenish some of my stock and I have made a start with another trinket box. These seem to be very popular at the moment so I have done another one but without the usual flowers. I have just decorated it with contours that are done to look like the grain of the wood. See the photos below.

 

 

I am also keen on doing something a bit brasher with a lot of contrast, so my next pyrogrphy project is going to be a couple of large poppies that almost fill the frame that I have chosen for it. So far I have made up a board with a piece of MDF faced with beech veneer and I have drawn the outline of the poppies on it.

At the moment it looks like a template for a stained glass window but I'm hoping that by the time I've done the pyrography work it will come to life. If you would like to see the finished article please come back for my next post.

By the way, if you are wondering how I'm getting on with the oil paints that I had for my birthday. All I can say is that progress is slow, but I'm hoping to give it a good go this week.

Hare Again

Hi All,
I said last week that I was going to do another pyrography hare with the contours, so here it is.

I like the way it turned out and the simplicity of it. The phrase, 'sometimes less is more' is pretty well worn, but in this case it seems to fit. I got the frame from a charity shop and used that to size the piece of white birch veneer that I was going to do the pyrography on. This was then ironed onto a piece of MDF.

I'm still not sure about using MDF because of the health implication if one inhales the dust when working with it. The only solution I have is to do any cutting and sanding outside and hopefully the dust will get lost on the wind.

Anyway, after I'd used my pyrography iron to burn the outline of the hare, I drew the contours on freehand with a pencil. These were then subsequently burnt. Care needs to be taken when going around the curves and I find that it is best to do several short marks rather then trying to burn a long line in one go. Even when using veneer the grain of the wood can easily make the tip of a pyrography iron go off course and if two contour lines end up touching it ruins the whole effect.

The direction of the grain in a piece of wood needs to be taken into account when doing any pyrography work. I find that it is easy to maintain a straight line when burning a line that is 90 degrees to the grain, but keeping that line straight becomes increasingly difficult as I move around to going with the grain.

Whilst we are talking about grain, I also think that consideration should be given to matching the direction of the grain to the subject you are working on. For example, because the hare is running, I think it makes sense to have it going with the grain. It wouldn't work as well with the grain going the other way. If on the other hand I was to do a picture of a tree or a flower, I'd want the grain to go with the direction of growth so that it didn't jar the eye.

I'm not sure what my next project will be, but I will let you know soon. By the way, if anybody is interested, the hare is for sale on Folksy at a reasonable price.

Pyrography Hare

Hi all,
I'm pleased to tell you that I managed to do a bit of pyrography this week. My oil paints have also arrived along with me 62nd birthday, so be prepared to see my first foray into that medium in a few posts time.

Right, back to the pyrography. While I'm out and about I keep my eyes open for wooden items that could be suitable for some pyrography  treatment and find they come in handy. Earlier in the week, I was looking at a pencil box that I bought and, because of it's long thin shape, I was wondering what I could possible pyrograph onto it.
Anyway, I went back to a drawing of some hares that I'd done a couple of months ago on a big box and decided to use one of them. Obviously, these would be too big for the small pencil box, so I located the file on my computer and removed the hare at the back.

I then re sized the image of the single hare to fit the pencil box I was going to use. After transferring the image, I burnt in the outline with my pyrography iron, but didn't bother with any shading. I'd had in my mind for a while to do something different, so I drew some contour lines on the hare that I thought would loosely describe it's form and burnt them in. To make it stand out on the box, I then gave the hare a coat of  medium oak gloss varnish. I was careful not to put any of the colour on to the hare's eye because I wanted that to provide a highlight. Once oak varnish was dry, the whole box was given two more coats of clear gloss varnish to protect it. Here is the finished article.

I think it looks very good and I have decided to do a larger version on a piece of white beech veneer. I will let you see that in my next post if I get chance to do it.

Birthday Painting

Hi All,
I've got a confession to make. This week I haven't managed to do any pyrography at all, so I haven't got anything to show you. I apologise for this and here's my pathetic excuse. I have just finished writing another book and the pressure is on to get it edited and published.

I promised myself I'd have it finished before my next birthday, which will be upon me again in a couple of days. I can hardly believe that I will be only three years away from retirement and I am looking forward to that. Not the getting old bit, but to get back some of the money I've paid in over the years. I think it will seem very odd to be getting money for nothing, but there again I have paid my dues so I will deserve every penny.

Getting back to birthdays, my wife decided to do me a painting for my birthday and because she was so excited about the results I had it a week early. It is now framed and hanging on the wall in the lounge. I said I wanted a landscape with a river running through it and that is what I got.

You can see the painting below and I think it is brilliant.


In fact, the painting has inspired me to have a go at oil painting. The painting you can see is done in acrylics, but I've tried them and find the quick drying times to be a bit of a bind.

Don't worry, I won't be giving up on the pyrography, but every now and again I just long to use some colour. I am hoping that what I have learnt about the use of tone in my pyrography work can be transferred to oil painting.

It is also interesting that when producing some of my pyrography work I can't help but wonder how it would look in full colour. Anyway, besides the painting, my wife has done for me, she is also buying me enough oil painting stuff to get me cracking and I can't wait.

In my next post I promise to have a piece of pyrography finished and look forward to sharing it with you.

Feeling Fruity

Hi all, I don't know what's happened to the weather, but I am hoping for something warmer soon. We are just entering the last week of March and our garden looks like Finland. A couple of days ago, I had some lovely daffodils and primroses in flower, but now they've been flattened. Here's a picture I took earlier today.

The only good thing about cold weather is that it gives one an opportunity to indulge in ones indoor passions and, despite spending a lot of time writing the finishing chapters to my latest book, I managed to do a little pyrography.

This pyrography project involved drawing and then burning a piece of fruit. I choose an apple because I wanted to see if I could capture the sheen on the skin.

I went about it as follows.

First, I begged a photo frame that I would use on the finished article from my wife, who it has to be said, is a walking cornucopia. I used the frame to size and cut out a piece of MDF and a piece of beech veneer. I then ironed the veneer onto the MDF and left it for twenty four hours to make sure the glue had dried.

Next, I drew an apple by hand and then set about the burning process. Rendering an image of an apple with nothing to determine the value of tone, but the heat from the pyrography iron, takes a lot of patience. If you are thinking of having a go at an apple, please feel free to use my image. However, there is one thing you mustn't do, and that is to outline the apple first. If you put a line around the fruit you will ruin the illusion.

I defined the outside edge of the apple with the back of my spoon tip and used this on a very low temperature setting. Besides the stalk, which can be outlined first, the rest of the image is just shading and this is where you need patience. You also need to make sure that all shading is done in line with the natural shape of the apple because this is what gives the drawing it's form. Start light, but then go darker and darker, but be careful not to lose your highlights.

I liked the finished result and it looks great in the frame supplied by my wife.

Obviously the apple would look strange if I left it dangling in mid air, so I did an abstract effect underneath it to provide another point of interest. If anybody is interested in buying the apple it can be found in my shop on Folksy.com

Next week, I hope to share with you a new image that I have in mind for the top of a pencil box and I'm hoping for warmer weather.

Dandelions

Hi All,
In my last post I showed you a sketch of my next pyrography project and I have included it again below for those who missed the post.

 

Anyway, I was quite pleased with the sketch and it didn't take me long to make some inroads into it with my pyrography iron. However, I had to be careful because with this image the shading was going to be very important.

 

It had always been my intention to create a very dark background so that I could have an excuse to use some paint to make the seed heads stand out. This meant that the pyrography work had to be done in a certain order to reserve the white of the wood.

 

I burnt around the seed heads and the stalks first and then began the shading. This was done in a circular motion from the place where I wanted the lightest tone, to edges where the burning would be at its darkest.

 

The shading was all done with a spoon tip and although very tedious and time consuming (it also played havoc with my Carpel Tunnel Syndrome) it was very satisfying when completed. To do this sort of shading, you must take your time and start off with a low temperature and quick iron movements until you start to create the tonal value you are trying to create. As you get away from the lighter tones increase the temperature of the iron and slow down on the speed of your movements.

 

One thing is absolutely critical, if you take your iron tip off the wood, even for just a short period of time, make sure to blow on it to cool it before you put it back down. If you don't, you will finish up with black spots all over your work.

 

Once the pyrography work was complete I used some watercolour paints to create the white parts of the seed heads. I used watercolours in preference to acrylics because I wanted them to be almost transparent in the centre. I find that acrylic paints tend to be more opaque than watercolours.

 

In fact, it took several applications of paint to get the image right. I built up several layers to give a solid edge around the top while graduating away slowly towards the centre.

 

Once it was finished, I sprayed it with three coats of varnish to protect it. I have mentioned this before, but I will say it again for those who may have missed it. Do not use 'brush on' varnish with anything you have done using water colours because it will smudge badly. Always use spray varnish with watercolours and you can't go wrong.

 

I quite like the effect I created with this image and framed it in a recycled frame from a charity shop. My only problem with it is whether I should sell it or not. Answers on a postcard please.

Bluebirds and Dandelions

Hi All, I have just completed a sketch for my next pyrography project, but before I show you that I thought it would be nice for you to see what my wife has been up to.

If you have been following these posts you will know that she is very skillful with the pyrography iron and that she also likes a nice splash of colour. Her latest bit of work follows the same pattern and I have included a picture for you below.

A chequered pattern in blue covers all sides of the box and on the top she has done a pair of swallows. It is a very nice box and one she should be proud of. By the way most of my wife's items are adorning our house but we are running out of space so she is going to start sellling some. You can find this box on http://www.burningdesire.folksy.com

Regarding my own pyrography, and following on from my last project where I depicted some dandelion seed heads on a trinket box. (This can be seen in the previous post). I decided to do a whole dandelion on a piece of white beech veneer.

So far I have done a rough sketch of the image that I am aiming to reproduce. Here is the method I followed so far
1 I cut a piece of MDF to the size of the frame I was going to use on the finished work.
2 I glued the veneer to the MDF.
3 On a sketch pad, I used a pencil to draw around the piece of MDF to give me the exact size.
4 I did a sketch of the dandelions and seed heads with a 4b pencil and once I was hapy with the composition I went over the pencil marks with a 005 Staedtler fine line pen. Then I used an eraser to remove any pencil marks.
5 Using a pencil, I roughly shaded in the sketch to give me a range of tones. It is my intention to have a light source partly behind the dandelion head to give it a warm glow, whilst also providing an area of darkness which will allow the feathery ends of the seed heads to show through. I say hopefully because it isn't always often that the vision in ones mind actually turns up on the finished piece.
6 I scanned the sketch into photoshop and adjusted the contrast to deepen the image and then printed it out so that I can transfer it to the veneer. I will file away my original sketch so that it will be availble for future use.

In my next post you will be able to see if it worked out as expected. By the way my wife asked me to add a PS to this post after she had edited it. So here it is.

PS My wife would like it to be known that the insperation for doing dandelions came from her. She says I stole her idea and I'll have to admit it, she's right.