First Steps In Pyrography Spiritual Approach 3

Hello again,

If you are passionate about your craft of Pyrography you will be eager to experiment with new possibilities for your craft. For example you may want to create a range of Pyrography products that are not fashioned in a traditional way but are linked in a personal way to you.

As an amateur Pyrographer I appreciate the time that I spend working on my Pyrography projects, because I am in a totally different environment to the one that I normally work in.

It provides extra qualities to my life that I would not necessarily experience otherwise. By this I mean that practising arts and crafts can give you the opportunity to take time out to think. It allows you breathing space in an often very hurried and busy everyday life.

When you have the opportunity to unwind and de-stress and to stop the rush of the world around you, then you also have time to centre and balance your thoughts which can be very beneficial to well being.

Arts and crafts can be used as a way of communicating those things inside you that you may not be able to say but, if they can be released from within you through artistic expression this could be a valuable way to getting the balance back into your life.

If you have experienced exceptional emotional circumstances such as separation, divorce, death of a loved one or ill health, then using art as a way to heal some of the negative thoughts that may be trapped inside you may provide a way in finding a resolution so that you can move on into a more positive future for yourself.

If you use or modify some of the ideas that I wrote about in my last blog, on how to set yourself up in a relaxing and spiritual environment, you will find that your negative ideas can be safely released. Make this your ‘special time about you’.

Remember to have nearby artists materials of your choice and when you are ready begin to let out all negative emotional issues as colours, symbols, patterns. This is your private work that you do not have to show to anyone else.

It would be far too ambitious to say that all your negativity can be released in one go! The more opportunities that you take to give yourself ‘special time’, to release the thoughts that may be hurting inside you, then the weaker these negative feelings become.

I must say that I know this from my own experience as I have used both the written word and art to help me resolve the negativity in my past and it has helped me tremendously. I hope it can help others too.

If you have an experiences of arts/crafts helping you in a healing way that you would like to share with others, please let me know and I will endeavour to write about it in my blog.

Thank you.

First Steps In Pyrography Spiritual Approach 2

Hi there!

How do you tap into ‘spiritual subconscious’ an ethereal type quality that you have within yourself, to aid your creativity and Pyrography work?

It can be quite difficult to step out of the hustle and bustle that surrounds and influences us in everyday life. We need to allow ourselves time to contemplate and access the deeper spiritual side that lies within us. This means finding a peaceful place on our own where we will not be interrupted.

Some of you may know how to use meditation to clear your mind of all thoughts and to allow your spiritual light to shine from within. If you can do this it will be easier for you to convey your thoughts and emotions into shapes and colours straight onto paper or whatever you choose as a material for your creative expression.

If this is something that you have not done before, then just allow yourself to be in a peaceful place and empty your mind and relax. Create an environment perhaps with appropriate music i.e. natural earth sounds, Pans pipes or spiritual melodies of your choice to help you to open up the pathway to releasing your thoughts freely from within.

If you still find this difficult then try this simple exercise which is similar to the one that Jenny Mather Artist and Therapist of Blackberry Barn, Bamford, Derbyshire used at a workshop day that I attended. It helped me to lift the block of always having to draw recognisable shapes.

This little exercise will help you to use symbols to represent how you feel. After the exercise you can think how to use some of your own inner thoughts in the same way to create patterns and images for your Pyrography.

Have some coloured pencils to hand and reading through your paired words quickly draw (don’t think too hard just do it) the symbols that represent your pair of words e.g. (Peaceful may come out as a straight blue line and angry may be red dots or black scribbles) draw whatever appears from your fingertips using the coloured pencil of your choice!

If you wish, then use the word pair examples below or use your own pairs of words.

Happy - Sad: Land - Sea: Light - Dark:
Peaceful - Angry: Home - Away: Black - White:
Big - Small: Hot - Cold: Beautiful - Ugly:
Sun - Moon: Young - Old: Liquid - Solid:
Day - Night: Loud - Quiet: Long - Short:
Laugh - Cry: Love - Hate: Mountain - Valley:

I think you will find the results very stimulating!

Bye for now - I hope you enjoy creating your own 'special place' where you can explore safely what lies within and make a creation unique to you!

First Steps In Pyrography A Spiritual Approach

Hello again,

Pyrography is often used to make a wooden household item look more attractive. If you are an amateur just as I am, then sometimes it feels safer and easier to stick to simple designs on these kinds of items.

There is nothing wrong in developing your skills in this way and it may lead you eventually into areas such as furniture embellishment, decorative household signs or other house and garden wares to expand your business.

The way in which you use and develop your skill in Pyrography, depends upon your outlook. If you have already made a plan with goals to work towards, then great! This will go a long way to giving you incentives that you can progress towards and layered levels of achievement to help you on your way.

You may be a Pyrographer that is looking for an alternative way to develop your craft, one in which you will be able to inject 100% of your own personality and individuality into a piece of Pyrographic work. This concept appeals to me but where do you start?

I decided to try out an exercise to help awaken my ‘creative powers’ by tapping into my ‘spiritual subconscious’ as I wanted to explore new ideas for my Pyrography.

Why should I want to tap into this ethereal quality that we all have within ourselves? Opening deeper areas within the subconscious mind allows the freedom to explore and express feelings from past and present thoughts. It is like allowing yourself to open a gateway to your personal story of past experienced emotions.

Just as the wrinkles add to the character of a face, feelings and emotions combine with your memory to bring back remembered pictures full of sounds, movement, taste, touch, smell and the sight of many shapes and vivid colours.

You have the choice to release these emotional memories through writing, music, dance, drama or art as creative expression.

Once you have opened the gateway to your ‘spiritual subconscious’ you will find it easy to express your art, as it will flow out into a creation that is an expression of you as an individual. Your thoughts, feelings and emotional memories from the past and possibly of how you feel now and how you wish to feel in the future come to the surface.

As an artist, if you allow yourself to create with materials that feel right to you and colours that represent your deepest thoughts and emotions, then the possibilities for creative work are immeasurable and can be very challenging and exciting!

Next time:- A few ideas on how into tap your ‘spiritual subconscious’.

Pyrography For Pleasure or Profit

Hello again!

I have been surfing the net to see what’s happening in the world of wood burning and connected wood crafts.

I have found some amazing Pyrography from all corners of the earth! I hadn’t realised that there was such an interest and so many forms of burned wood etching!

It seems Pyrography has many forms including as an embellishment that a wood turner may use to give a personalised finish to a piece of work.

The same applies to wooden furniture makers. Bespoke furniture can be created and a design may be repeated for example on kitchen cupboard doors or perhaps on the wooden furniture in a child’s room, adding a touch of originality to the piece.

Pyrography is surprisingly adaptable and can be used to give a decorative finish to household items which can be themed and coloured to enhance the original item.

If you have a flair for the arts then Pyrography can be used in many imaginative and creative ways including 'Fire Art' for pictures and sculptures. Pyrography also lends itself to a embellishment on wooden or leather jewellery.

This craft can offer you a bottomless reservoir of potential ideas, however, what do you do if you know that you would like to create for instance, a picture on wood but you don’t know what the picture should be?

Or perhaps you have already created many pieces of work and now all your ideas have dried up, this can happen to the best of us.

The first thing I did when this happened to me was to think about ways that I could open up my mind, so that I might become more receptive to experimenting with new forms of Pyrography.

I went down to the library to search out books that may help me to think more laterally. I needed to find books that talked about techniques of ‘lateral thinking’. I wanted to see if I might be able to unblock the stopper and release a new wave of ideas that I could use for my craft.

Research of this kind in a library or on the net may not appeal to everyone but I found some of the ideas quite stimulating and freeing. It is definitely worth the extra effort - why not try reading some of the literature yourself (that is of course if you are not already experienced in this kind of thinking)!

I will write again soon - until next time!

Bye for now enjoy your craft!

First Steps In Pyrography

Hi,

It is a few months since I last spoke to you on my blog. These have been busy months where I have been learning how to build my own website: - Hotwood Pyrography which for a computer novice has been quite a challenge!

If you are still struggling with simple Pyrography techniques, try searching in your local area for a course in Pyrography.

I attended a one day course with Bob Neill - Britain’s Top Pyrographer - see my review on the Hotwood Pyrography website.

Bob Neill is a trained teacher and artist and is a very experienced Pyrographer who has a vast knowledge of Pyrography and also of Arts and Crafts techniques that can be applied to working with wood. He appears at many craft venues regionally and nationally and often has a tuition area set up on his craft stand for people to try out their Pyrography skills.

If you would like to find out about Pyrography courses with Bob Neill visit his web site at http://www.bobneillpyrography.co.uk/

At the end of January I took part in an Art Therapy Workshop at Blackberry Barn Studio, Bamford, Derbyshire, where Jenny Mather Artist and Therapist is based. The workshop experience was unique and helped me in many ways; I have written a review of the day on the Hotwood Pyrography website.

Jenny Mather has three Open Studio Events soon at Blackberry Barn Studio, Bamford between 11.00 - 5.00 each day.

Sat April 26/Sun 27
Sat May 3/Sun 4/ Mon 5
Sat May 24/Sun 25/ Mon 26

Visit the Jenny Mather site for more details and information regarding her Art Therapy Workshops at http://jennymather.co.uk/ it could be the start of awakening a new wave of creative ideas for you.

That’s all for now but I shall be back soon, thanks for your attention!

Sam

First Steps In Pyrography a 'Fire Art' 12

Thank you for reading

FIRST STEPS IN PYROGRAPHY OR FIRE ART

I am hopeful that my blog FIRST STEPS IN PYROGRAPHY OR FIRE ART has “FIRED” your imagination and inspired you to try out this creative skill. Although patience and practise are important, if you take the time to learn step by step, eventually you will be very pleased with the grand results that you can obtain with wood burning. The broadness and depth of work is never ending and with practise you will add to your skills and this will result in you being able to produce not only pieces of work that have great delicacy, but work that appears consistent and professional and this will appeal to a wide spectrum of people.

1. “Poker Work” or wood art can be seen as one of many traditional art forms within a wide selection of cultures and in the past has mainly been used as a way to decorate items of utility. Traditional Pyrography or Poker Work has played it’s part in many continents including Africa, Australasia, America, and Asia. Some beautifully decorated pieces of medieval pokerwork can be found in Europe and especially in private English collections.

2. The oldest pieces of work have been produced by heating an iron in an open fire or in a traditional forge with burning irons. The fire-etcher went on to use copper tools not unlike soldering -irons set into wooden or other non-conducting handles. These tools cooled rapidly, and had to be constantly shifted while oxidation of the copper necessitated constant cleaning. The etcher had to constantly feed up his fire and blow it with hand bellows, so it is remarkable that that anything was produced at all!

3.The art of Pyrography did not become more open to people in general until it was discovered that a thermo -cautery surgical instrument used for cauterizing could be adapted for the use of the artist, allowing him to work with comparative freedom. As a consequence of this pyrography a lost art became popularised in the late 1800’s and early 20th century and it also became an acceptable art skill for women of that time to participate in. It was during this period that the “Vulcan Box” was invented and Pyrographers used an outfit that consisted of benzoline bottles, a union-cork, a double rubber bulb with connecting rubber tube, a cork handle, a platinum point (a selection of points were available), an alcohol lamp and indiarubber bellows.

4. Of course we have now moved on considerably, with a variety of electrical machines that offer a range of different burning strengths. The large selection of points enable a pyrographer to create a wonderful display of patterns. There are a wide variety of woods and other materials to choose to burn. We can pick from a marvelous selection of wonderful colours in paints, inks, pens etc and make life easier with the use of templates, stamps, books of designs and patterns if we choose.

5. Pyrography will almost certainly remain a decorative art. If the experienced Pyrographer takes the time to pay attention to detail in his work in the same way that any artist would apply his skills to design or paint a picture, then there is absolutely no reason why the finished piece of work will not be held in even greater esteem than any other piece of art work because of it’s uniqueness and beauty.

All that remains for me to say is ……

Be Excited!
Be Fired Up!

Be Unique and Create With A Passion to Bring Beauty and Life Back to Pyrography!

First Steps In Pyrography a 'Fire Art' 11

Welcome again to

FIRST STEPS IN PYROGRAPHY OR FIRE ART

Applying artificial colours may help to enhance your work but be careful not to 'over do it' and destroy the true features of the wood. If the colour is selected carefully you can enrich a pattern by defining it and colour can also add a finishing touch of professionalism to your design.

How do you introduce colour to your work?

There are several different ways to do this.

1. The most straightforward and natural way is to burn at different levels of heat creating a variety of natural sepia tones ranging from the lightest brown when a you apply a light quick touch with the correct nib to the darkest deepest brown from more concentrated burning. This may be the simplest way to add colour but it is not the easiest thing to do and requires accuracy and knowledge of the nib to be used and of burning time, it therefore takes determined practise.

2. Before you colour your design think about how much colour you need to apply and whether you would like the natural grain of the wood to show through. As with painting of any kind it is very easy to keep applying colour.

3.Materials for colouring are easily obtainable from craft shops and fairly inexpensive. Whether you are using watercolours, acrylics, inks, wood stains, pencils or felt tipped pens always take your time to test them out first on a small piece of the same wood. This way you can see the effect that will be achieved before you colour the actual piece. When the colour is dry you can also burn on top of this to finish of your project if you wish.

4. When applying colours or stains to wood the colour must be put on with great care. Add just enough colour on a small brush as you do not want the colour to run over the design. With all liquid based products always test them on a sample wood first as colour can bleed into the wood and ruin your design. It is wise to do a test check before you begin your work. If you dilute the colour with water and use it as a transparent wash this will allow the grain of the wood to show through allowing a more natural effect.

5. Wood absorbs the colour in a similar way to blotting paper, however if you are painting on top of wood that has already been burned, the paint will not be absorbed in the same way as a barrier to the surface of the wood is formed when it is burned. You can still colour on top of pyrography but the colour is more likely to be held by the wood that is left between the lines of your design.

6. There are also a variety of pens and pencils that you can choose from to colour in your pyrography designs. Water based felt tips blend well and you are able to see the surface of the wood more readily than with permanent markers or felt tip pens. Pencil crayons allow you to create a softer and more gentle range of colours. I have recently discovered Prismacolor Premier pencils from the USA. They are great for giving a good cover of colour and they have light fast properties and should not fade so easily!

7. Once you have completed your design and added your colour then you will probably want to finish it to protect it as pyrography can fade particularly if exposed to strong sunlight. You can buy acrylic lacquer or fixatives to spray your work and you can chose whether to varnish with a natural matt finish or a highly polished finish. If you piece of work is destined to be on display outside then a yacht varnish would probably be appropriate.

A further extract from Burnt Wood Etchings entitled Lustra Colours

Lustra Colours will apply to Heraldry, Japanese decoration, and as tips to the plumage of Tropical Birds, etc. I would advise that in putting them on, care should be taken to entirely cover the “ground,” i.e. to hide the wood or other material where they are employed, and in some instances, doubtless, a good result may be obtained by laying them so thickly upon the wood as to show in slight relief.
The beauties of Gold and Silver united with Pyrography will be easily discerned by the reader. Gold agrees with all colours, being in itself a glorious neutral. Silver, also has particular and symbolic qualifications. Many experiments might be made, but no inferior preparation of the metals should be used.

Source A Handbook of Pyrography or Burnt Wood Etching by Mrs. Maud Maude

Enjoy your burning passion!