Pyrography - the art of woodburning

While this blog is mostly about my scratchboard, I have taken a recent dabble into wood burning, also known as pyrography.

I did a bit of burning back about 8 or 9 years ago with a cheap woodburner bought at a local craft store for about $25.  It was a lot of fun and at the time I was relatively happy with the results, but I also knew that higher quality wood burners existed where you can control the temperature and use more variety of tips to get different effects (as well as much better results).  So a better wood burner has been one of those things that I had thought about getting on many occasions, but it never became a top priority of my disposable income.  Anyways this year when my parents asked me what I wanted for Christmas... finally that was what I told them.  My Dad is a woodworker, and has been for longer than I have been alive, so I knew he would know where to get one!  They got me an optima 2 burner and it comes with a couple of tips.  It is so fun to work with and I am hooked!

This was my first project with it and I was amazed how many similarities it shares with scratchboard, so it felt very natural and easy to me, though there is still plenty for me to learn and certain mistakes I hope not to make next time.  I am already planning my next project with it.

As you see it here is about life size.  It was just a small 5" x 8" blank (at least the working area).  The wood is basswood and I purchased it at hobby lobby, a local craft/art store chain.  I liked the natural look with the bark on.  However I am looking forward to working much larger (this small size was tough to get the details all as I wanted them with the size tips I have right now) and with a variety of different woods to see what I like.

I titled the piece "Caterwaul"  and this is it as a work in progress until what I am calling completed (though I may still mess with it a bit more)