FIRST STEPS IN PYROGRAPHY OR FIRE ART
Also learn about the bygone writings I found in a re-discovered book on burnt wood etching.
1. When using a pyrography tool you cannot apply it in the same way as you would use a drawing pencil, having said this, you do need to grip the tool as you would hold a pencil as this allows better control but beware of touching any metal part.
2. You will definitely gain in experience from practising on scraps of wood and indeed build up your own test woods. It is easy and economical to get hold of reasonable quality plywood from a hardware store for this purpose, however, you do need to be careful not to burn into it too deeply and hit the glue layer which will cause noxious fumes to be given off.
3. Using a pencil draw yourself a grid on the plywood, allowing enough space in each section to practise a texture.
4. You already know that the colour and depth of mark, depends upon the temperature you have your machine set at and the length of time you hold the point on the wood. I would start at the lowest temperature and try out different nibs on the first row of your grid to create a selection of patterns such as :-
a) Hashing - small sections of lines that cross, straight or wavy with a selection of nibs.
b) Dots - made to different depths creating a stipple effect with nibs such as a Janik Ball Point or Spoon Point in a Wire Nib Burner such as that of a Peter Child's machine.
c) Use lines to create a variety of small brick patterns and build up to give the effect of shading. Burn a grid of parallel lines to different degrees, do some in a diagonal pattern and others in a more random way.
Note:- Important. On a piece of plain paper the same size as your test wood draw a replica grid.
Within this paper grid, notate the nibs and temperatures used to create each particular effect. (This is a handy resource to keep and is rather like a trade painters colour chart that will tell you straight away the information required, in this case how to recreate the same textures. Remember to file it somewhere safe). At a later stage you may build up more of these test woods with intricate and superior designs that come with experience.
Returning to our original test wood - On your second row of the grid turn the temperature up slightly and continue making patterns in a similar way. As you begin each new row turn up your temperature to the next level and finally when the highest temperatures have been selected begin to burn deeper gradients into the wood.
You should now have completed a grid test wood that illustrates the selection of grades and assortment of patterns and shapes that can be achieved by using your machine and nibs. After practising regularly you will become more accustomed to your machine and be able to produce a larger variety of imaginative patterns.
I'd like to end this blog with a snippet from the bygone writings found in a rediscovered book about Burnt Wood Etching.
An extract from the section entitled - Woods for Burning.
This is a subject to which a really serious student of Pyrography cannot devote too much attention, if he contemplates a piece of work that is likely to be of some value when completed. The reader will see the truth of this when he remembers that it is absolutely the ground upon which his work will appear, and quite a different matter to the stretched canvas for oil painting, in which the poor quality will in a measure be hidden by the successive coatings of paint. In Pyrographic work, if the wood be unsuitable for the purpose, every stroke will be a failure, and if it be the right kind of wood but unsound, the artists’ labour will be so much waste of time.
Source- A Handbook of Pyrography or Burnt Wood Etching by Mrs. Maud Maude
So after taking those words to heart, my next blog will be looking at some suitable woods for burning and also other materials to add to your range, plus another snippet from this fascinating manual about Pyrography.
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