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.