Flower of Life

Hi all,
I have just completed a new pyrography project. It was a bit tedious but somehow it was still enjoyable, probably because it needed a lot of concentration.

The project concerned a birthday gift for my wife's daughter who is of Pagan persuasion. Knowing that we both indulge in the black art of pyrography, she rang up one night asking if we could do her a wooden board with the "Flower of life pattern" on it.

We hadn't got a clue, but that didn't matter because we have good old Google. We soon found what we were looking for and sourcing a suitable piece of wood for the task. This turned out to be a wooden cutting board from a kitchen ware shop.

If you are wondering what the flower of life pattern is, here is the finished piece.

Now you can see why it was tedious. A lot of lines and they needed to be accurate or it wouldn't have looked very good. I am quite impressed with how neat I managed to get it. It looks like it could have been done with a machine.

The secret of my success was, as usual, the Peter Childs machine and the spoon tip, which I used inverted. Using it inverted means that you get a natural curve to the burnt line.

I've just started a new walking stick and you can see the start of it and the last one I did on this short video. Please consider subscribing if you like it.

Thanks for looking.

Finished walking stick

Hi all,
In my last post I showed you the horrible knobs that I'd made for my walking stick, well I've done another one that isn't perfect, but it's a damn sight better than the previous two and it'll do for me.

Here is the top of the knob complete with turquoise inlay.

Pretty neat even though I do say so myself. Here is the pattern on the body of the stick.

That also turn out very nice. Here is the whole stick ready to go for a walk.

You can see in this photo the shape of the knob which is much improved. The only thing I dislike about it is the size of the metal ferrule. I think it needs to be half that size. My wife has asked me to do a stick for her so I'm going to reduce the size of the ferrule on hers.

There is a lot of work in that stick but every part of the process was pleasant. I enjoyed drawing the design and doing the carving and pyrography work. Okay it was time consuming but it was also therapeutic.

I have taken it for a couple of walks and it does the job well. It feels sturdy and a aid to my poor old legs.

I have started work on something called a "Flower of Life" and I should be able to show you that in my next post.

I am also managing t keep up with digital painting and have just uploaded a painting I did of some calla lilies.

Please take a look if you are interested in seeing how they were done and subscribe if you would like to see more. My next painting will be of some autumn leaves and a robin. Any comments on the video or the stick are welcome.