FIRST STEPS IN PYROGRAPHY OR FIRE ART
1. For choice of material to burn upon, the safest and easiest option for wood burning is to purchase your wooden blanks from a pyrographic supplier and then you can be absolutely certain of their quality and suitability for wood burning. A pyrographic supplier will offer you woods such as beech, sycamore, lime and good quality plywood.
2. Another alternative is to buy wood from a dealer that supplies raw timber to furniture makers or wood turners. I was lucky to discover a local woodturning centre where I could purchase woods from a wide selection of timbers. Some of these woods offered a choice of surfaces to burn on, with graining of different densities and widths. Beware of problems that can arise with uneven burning, as the graining changes the strength and rate that your tool burns the surface of the wood. If you are aiming for an even effect it is better to use a close grained and hard wood.
3. Part of the aesthetic appeal of a finished piece of work for me is to see the wood presented in a partially raw state. By this I mean that I have a preference for putting my Fire Art on pieces of wood where the bark is still on the outer edge of the slice or by using wood that has been cut in such a way as to allow by nature of it’s shape, a design to develop from it.
One piece of work that I found very satisfying to do was a bookend. I burned into a piece of Burr Oak with a design from the poem ‘The Owl and the Pussycat’. I took my piece of work into the local Primary School as one of the aids to try and help inspire the children to write their own poetry!
The children were fascinated by the piece of wood itself. So if you are in education of any kind and can use wood as a stimulus for a scientific project or in any other area of the curriculum, please bear in mind how the chance to explore wood as a topic offers a large diversity of learning possibilities.
You might use wood to look at forest sustainability and its importance to wildlife and the surrounding environment. Aspects of science, mathematics and particularly design and technology can be linked to wood and its properties can be used to further children’s knowledge and understanding of the world around them. If you have the resources to be able to fund one or two basic machines for children of perhaps 10 years and above then how about setting up a pyrography section within your arts and crafts club? Of course this must be well supervised and a full risk assessment must be carried out.
4. When we look at wood and its by products, then amazingly and very easily obtainable ordinary paper is a cheap material that can be burned. When I say ordinary I mean that you can burn upon a smooth simple white paper or have a great time experimenting with different thicknesses and types of papers. You might even get interested in making your own paper on which to burn images and patterns.
5.I have experimented burning mainly onto white paper and it is surprising the level of heat required to get subtle sepia tones for a design. When I first put my pyrographic tool upon the paper I was very hesitant thinking that it would go straight up in flames! Why don’t you try it out, start by using your machine at it’s lowest temperature and make sure you paper is laying on a flame resistant surface.
As I have said before the opportunities with pyrography are limitless in more ways than one!
Here are a couple of interesting little excerpts from the bygone book on Burnt Wood Etching that I found. The first refers to the problems of working with unseasoned wood and the second to working with velvet and leather as a material.
Extracted from - Woods For Burning.
1 It is absolutely necessary that the wood be sound, free from knots and well seasoned, particularly the latter, for if it be at all green, the heat of the point will cause its contraction on one side, thus giving the picture a boat shaped appearance, with the chance of its splitting down the centre if an attempt be made to straighten it. If a board should begin to curve from unequal drying, the best remedy is to put it at an early stage into a narrow grooved frame, which will keep it flat, and in course of time it will dry all through.
2. Velvet also is a most satisfactory material to work upon, burning away the pile, but of course exercising judgment in the amount of heat used, it being necessary to leave the groundwork of the material unscorched. The velvet should be fastened by the edges to a board so that it will not “ruck” during the work and the pattern traced through ordinary transfer paper, which can be obtained in several colours, blue, orange, white or black. The hand must be held over not on the velvet while marking the outline, as pressure would cause the colour to come off in the wrong place and ruin the entire surface. Some good effects can also be obtained on leather, but many people object to the very unpleasant odour which arises when heat is applied to the surface.
Source - A Handbook of Pyrography or Burnt Wood Etching by Mrs. Maud Maude
Next Time:- Looking at more exotic materials to burn.
Plus A Burning Secret?
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