Have you ever been to the hairdressers and after having explained clearly the haircut you wanted, you came out with something completely different. Well if you have, you will know how I felt when I finished my latest pyrography creation. Up until now almost everything I have done regarding pyrography has turned out more or less to plan. However, my latest effort looks nothing like the image I had in my mind when I started. To make matters worse, this item wasn't something that I knocked up in five minutes, several hours went into it. You can see Olly on the right.
When I started Olly, the vision I had in my head was of an owl peering out of the hole in a tree. The idea was based on a photograph of an owl that I took at the Argyll Zoo, near Inveraray in Scotland. Once I'd drawn the image I coloured it in with Derwent coloursoft pencils. These are lovely to work with and I thought I would be able to blend in a lot of colours. That was a mistake; wood is not a good surface for more than two layers of pencil. There simply isn't enough tooth in the wood to accommodate the number of layers I would need. Perhaps I should have sanded the wood down again and made a fresh start but I fooled myself into thinking it was good enough.
The next step was to burn in the bark. My plan at this stage was to try and make it look as realistic as possible. However, the time it took to complete just a small area of bark was ridiculous and, seeing as I had no confidence in the owl, I compromised and came up with a stylised bark design. It's funny really because when my wife eventually managed to stop laughing at my owl she said she really liked the bark.
Still it wasn't all waste; all pyrography is therapy so at least I was relaxed while I was burning it. Luckily for me, there is still hope on the horizon for Olly the Owl. My wife reckons she knows what is wrong with him and she is going to paint over him using acrylic paints. It might take a couple of weeks before she picks up her brushes and gets on with it, but I promise to show you the results when she has finished.
The moral of the story is; enjoy doing your pyrography and if it comes out great, treat it as a bonus.
I would be interested to hear what you think of Olly the Owl, so if you have any comments or any other questions about pyrography, please let me know.
To see more of my pyrography please click here,
or to visit my discount pyrography shop on Folksy.com please click here.
Finally,if you would like to know more about me and my books please click here.
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