[Irish]

OK ... I am impressed! I measured the tip of my Colwood from the top of base receptor to the wire tip - just the metal - and came up with 1". So what I am seeing is a highly and finely detailed Canada goose that can't be 3" tall from the head to the feet. Very nice!

Susan

[WOODIE13]

Thank you Susan

[Pyrographer]

Hi Susan,
first before I comment on the wood I have to say something about the firefighter burning you did. I didn't realize that was your pattern. I saw it when it first came out I guess on the back of one of the magazines and I did two burnings of it. The first I used the pattern as is and the second with modifications (changed the lettering on the shirt so it's the way the fire dept in NY has it on their clothing, used a hat from an actual firefighter at the site and used color which I no longer do)...thought you might like to see what I did with your pattern. The first one I sent to Mayor Giuliani and the second one I donated to the local Fire Dept in Texas.

Anyway, back to the wood. When I started burning basswood was my favorite for much the same reasons Susan mentioned it was boring ...clear, light colored and no grain. Yup, Susan is right it doesn't have a lot of personality but for some pieces that's what I need and as a beginner it is much easier to deal with.

My feeling is that the selection of wood really is dependent on many factors: your personal preferences, the style of burning you do and the subject of your burning. In the past when I was first learning and developing my style I always burned with basswood or italian poplar because they are easy to burn on.

I work with a variety of woods now and my selection is made depending on what I'm doing. I work with maple, both plain plaques and burls. I also work with italian poplar and birch plywood as well as some basswood. Each piece I do, I try to match with a wood that will compliment what I'm doing. Something that is rustic and earthy I might still use basswood with the bark edges or I might choose a burl with natural edges. It really is dependent on the actual piece and what would work best with it. When I decided to do a small golden eagle I decided it needed wood with lots of personality so I searched my wood pile and found a small burl that was a "reject" and it just looked great on that piece of wood. On a piece of basswood it would have just been a great eagle on a plain piece of wood and although my 1st golden eagle won many awards including best of show it lacked the personality that this little one has.

I used to just like burning on the light woods because of the contrast of light wood and dark burnings but now I enjoy woods that are darker with more grain and have more personality and the burls certainly do have more personality. I still like the contrast of lights and darks and still do use basswood and poplar but I am expanding my horizons with slightly darker woods lately and loving it.

Like Susan I do like working on 1/8" plywood because it fits so nicely in a frame without having to get a custom frame made but I have taken basswood slabs, removed the bark and had them custom framed and they turn out beautiful.

In many cases basswood, even though it is light and little personality works well with portraits (with my style of burning) and many other things where you want to focus on the burning and nothing more. My portrait of Chief Joseph didn't matter what it was burned on. I could have used toilet paper because the entire piece of wood was covered except for small selected sections. I chose the basswood with the bark because I wanted a rustic look then when it was finished I was talked into removing the bark and having it custom framed. No regrets on that one.

I like maple because it is a hard wood and it has a lot of personality. It takes longer to burn but you get nice crisp, clean detail with it.

Basswood gives a softer look and often for my style of burning it works well.

Italian poplar is very similar to the basswood. It's clear, very little grain and is easy to burn and gives the same effects as basswood and like basswood has very little personality.

I agree with Susan on the Birch and use that from time to time as well now. It is also more clean and crisp for details than basswood and italian poplar.

What I have found is that for beginners burning on basswood and italian poplar is better. It is easier to burn and that is mostly what they burn on in my classes. It 's easier to focus on learning techniques and gaining control when you don't have to fight with grain. As they gain skill and confidence I recommend they experiment with other woods and they can move on to the harder woods with more ease.

I always tell people to experiment and see what works best for you. Learn from everyone you can and then find what works for you. Everyone has their own preferences in wood, pens, styles of burning and you need to take all factors into consideration when making those choices. There's no right or wrong way of burning and there's no right or wrong wood or pen. Susan and I have totally different styles of burning and favorite pens and she burns light and I tend to burn dark. Neither style or preference is right or wrong or better than the other it's just what appeals to you and what works best for you. I love the look of an old sepia photo and that's what I tried to achieve. When I perfected that technique I started experimenting with different woods, techniques and textures from time to time so don't ever think that you have to use a particular style or technique to be good.

When I was first learning (I'm still learning every day) and starting to use my "smooth shading technique" someone criticized my style of burning saying it's not the "right way to burn and that the wood shouldn't be shiny" and I just chuckled to myself. I started looking around at what other people were doing and found some very well known pyrographic artists (David Kreider and Linda Sales) who also use a similar style and I figured if it worked for them it must be ok so I continued to do it and still do. Several years later that same person who criticized my style of burning started using the same style so I guess it's not such a bad style of burning after all.

So, the bottom line is learn from everyone you can, experiment, play with different techniques and woods, different pens and find what works for you. Everyone is different and if everyone burned the same this would be a very boring world.

I added a couple of pieces I did several years ago to show some other interesting woods to work on. The wood was given to me at a show by one of the wood vendors who wanted me to see how I liked burning on it. I love burning at the shows anyway so I sketched out some designs and began to test out the wood. I did not like burning on the Tupelo (left with mushrooms) but I LOVED the Holly (sunflowers on the right). The tupelo had a greyish cast and felt like burning on a marshmallow. Hard to describe. The Holly was a harder wood and I got great detail working with it.

Nedra

[Irish]

Beautiful photos and a great source of info on wood Nedra! Thank you.

I'm not sure quite how to reply here ... ... the fireman is fantastic! Since I put that pattern out for public distribution I have seen many renditions of it with different Fire Company letters, names and emblems. Your coloring makes that piece just outstanding.

I really agree with the idea of learning on soft and more non-describt woods so that the newbie can clearly and easily see exactly what each new burning stroke looks like.

Now ... FOTF ... I don't know which make me smile bigger - the 'right vs WRONG way' to wood burn or the marshmallow tupelo ... Oh Geez!

The only two things I can imagine as WRONG to do in wood burning is one to set the house or studio on fire or two try to burn fine detailing with a blow torch .... HEE HEE HEE!

As for tupelo burning like marshmallows ... it carves like that too.

Thanks for the great input and smile.

Susan

[Pyrographer]

Susan, it had been a while since the pattern came out so I had forgotten who did it originally. I should have known it was yours . I've seen several versions as well, most of them were carved. Glad you liked my version. The fire department was so thrilled to receive it they invited us to the graduation of the new firemen and did a formal presentation. I understand that they have the plaque hanging up in the training center. Made me feel real good.

I agree there is no right or wrong way to burn and I chuckle to myself everytime I am reminded of that incident. I do have to add one more thing to your list of wrong ways to burn....turn your burner off when you stop burning. ESPECIALLY in class when you are handing the instructor your burner to use as a demo I tell my students that over and over again and I can't tell you how many times they forget and walk away or hand me their pen to do a demo and I get zapped...ouch!


Nice to know tupelo carves the same way it burns!!! I was so thrilled with the way Holly burned I asked Al to chop down our Holly tree when we got home from the show. Of course he didn't but it was a nice thought...free wood. I have a lady living south of me in an agricultural town (yes there is one in New Mexico) who's willing to barter some wood for a class and I told her YES!!!! She's got some great wood that I can't get elsewhere right in her back yard and already cut and dried. I hope she has some Holly

[WOODIE13]

Little more one the box, got the marsh scene on the front, now just need to work on the sides. Maybe add a bird or two as well, not sure.

[Woodartist]

Nicely done Woodie and I like the border accent around the outside. How large is the box?

[WOODIE13]

I will have to get the dimensions from it. I would guessitmate 3"x6"x12".

[Irish]

Step 41: I have moved into the acorn with a darkening of the mapping area under the cap's edge. I am working at a temp 6 setting because I want the acorn the darkest element of the patterns. I am using my writing tip with a random doodle stroke.

Step 42: I quickly decided that the random doodle was not what I wanted in the acorn. I took a moment to really look at the acorn that has been rolling around on my work table the last few days. It's has a much more linear look as if it were created from long tightly backed fibers. Those fibers look as if they run from the top of the acorn, under the cap, to the tip at the bottom.
So, since I have been working in light layers it is very easy to change my stroke pattern now to something that will automatically give me that same look.

For these first strokes I am dropping the pen tip at the pattern line of the cap then pulling the line down into the acorn body. I am curving each stroke to match the outer edge curve of the acorn. This gives me an extra dark spot in the shadow area under the cap and the line pales as I pull out of the stroke.

Step 43: One of those mornings, I should have really looked before I leapt (leaped, jumped) into burning. As I was working the first long pull strokes I was looking at both the actual acorn and our reference photo. I decided that this area is complicated enough that I would stop again and take a few moments to create a reference map for myself.

I have cut a piece of vellum that is larger then the acorn's shape. Vellum is a medium to heavy weight paper that is semi-transparent and great for working patterns and designs. If you don't have any vellum try onion skin paper or tracing paper that you can get at most office supply stores.
I start be penciling in the outline of the area that I want to map, the acorn.
The highlights were also marked.

Step 44: Next I am marking in the most obvious highlight areas and shadow areas. I like to mark these with a number so that small areas where I don't have room to write a note I can simply write a number.

These areas do not need to be absolutely accurate to the photo or to the acorn on my desk. They are just guidelines that I can use and refine later in the burning.

Step 45: I can either pencil trace these guidelines from the vellum map onto the birch plywood or, as I am doing here, use them as a visual guide. On the map you can see that I have only marked in three color tones for pale, medium and dark. The tones between these I will add where one area meets another.

Susan

[Irish]

Step 46: Back to burning ...

I have worked that line pull stroke on temp setting 6 and using the writing tip along the edge of the acorn at the cap. Notice that this stroke leaves that extra little areas of darkness at the beginning of each stroke.

Once the cap areas has been worked I have turned the board around so that I can easily pull that same stroke in the dark area near the tip. Since this is the first burning in this area I turned down my temp setting to 5.

Step 47: This is just to show the direction of the movement of the strokes.

Step 48: Just a quick scanner image of where we are.

Susan