Acorn WIP

[Pippin]

Originally Posted by Irish

So ... I was at the grocery store yesterday and came across a pack of three unfinished wooden (poplar) spoons. This is the first at 10" high and 1 1/2" wide. Including the time for a light sanding and the burning it was about a 20 minute project which would make a nice Holiday gift.

I've seen these spoon sets and thought about chopping off most of the handle, drilling a hole in the handle stub, stringing a ribbon, and burning both sides of the bowl for tree ornaments. (keep the handles for paint stirring or chop them up and drill them for beads)

At my probable rate of speed, it would be a 20-hour project.

[Pippin]

Originally Posted by Irish

Those unburned areas dramatically stand out against the solid black background I chose early in the work.

It may just be my monitor, but the lone acorn highlight at the bottom appears to rise above the acorn's surface, as if it has a slight drop shadow. If this is so for other viewers, is there any way to lighten the darkness next to the bottom and side of the highlight, or is the only solution to turn down the value everywhere else around that darkness?

If I'm the only one seeing this, please ignore.

[Irish]

Hey Pippin,

The acorns that I have used as my guide do not have smooth even surfaces. Go back to post #17 and note the dark acorn centered between the leaves and post #34 for the larger guide image.

An acorn can be very smooth on it's surface while it's still green. At that time it is tightly secured inside the cap. But by the time they have become deep brown they are starting to dry out, shriveled, shrink and become striped with ridges. That's when the acorn becomes small enough to loosen from the cap.

So you can usually find green capped acorns, sienna brown striped acorns, chocolate ridged acorns with no caps and empty caps.

Susan

[Irish]

Step 104: I believe that we are on the finishing steps today. The branch still needs it's shading. Then I want to add some detailing to the leaves and acorn caps. A few strong fur hairs for our mouse and a few whiskers should complete the pattern. I also need to work the outer frame ring.

Step 105; I decided to narrow the branch highlight area even more then I had noted in the last postings. I beleive that going with a large highlight as I had previously marked would have over powered the highlight on the mouse's face. By narrowing it I can keep the focus on the mouse.

Step 106: The spoon shader at temp setting 7 and a writing hand position worked very well to both add more texturing to the branch and shading. As I worked away from the highlight area I am adding more and more shading.

Step 107: I worked the branch shading in two sections. First I did all of the shading along the bottom edge of the branch. Then I went back and added the shading along the top edge.

Step 108: My apologizes. As I have added more and more burning the surface of the project has begun to take on a gloss finish. That finish is reeking havic on my flash on the camera. So here is a close up from the final scan for the branch shading.

Susan

[Irish]

Step 109 and 109a: I have switched to the fine writing tip pen and a medium setting around 6. I am using the paint brush position so that I am working right on the very point of the tip. I want to add a FEW detailing lines in the leaves. I decided to burn along the bottom of each of the side veins for my accents.

Notice the vein that goes under the mouse tail and how the detail line is burned on both sides of this vein. Also note that the detail lines are a medium tone not black. Details do not need to be burned in black to have a strong impact of the pattern. Using several tonal values of detailing lines adds to the pattern.

Step 110: Now, having just said that not all detail lines need to be done in black ... I am going to add just a little "V" of black where the veins intersect. Grin!

Step 111: I have moved my temp setting up to 8 and added lots of fine lines to the cap petals. The heaviest concentration of lines fell in the deeper shadowed areas of the cap.

Susan

[Irish]

Step 112: A few dark fur lines have been added along the bottom and back of the mouse, on the outer cheek and on his shoulder. Inside the ears also got a few fine lines. Several long black whiskers finish off the mouse.

Step 113: The pattern work is complete!!!! Now, I wanted to add one more pencil circle outside the one that was on the original pattern. But, I know I will never find the exact center of my patterns for a compass without making a bunch of little holes in the work. So I have grabbed a stoneware plate from the kitchen as a template. Please, don't use plastic for this step!!!!

With a pencil I have marked little guides outside the pattern circle at about 1/8" spacing.

Step 114: I can drop the plate onto the project, center it within the guide lines and then use it as a template.

Susan

[Irish]

Step 115A and 116: All right! I did it again, another dumb mistake. I tried to pull that line without moving the project away from the tripod of my camera ... dumb! I promptly got my hand stuck in between the tripod legs and the plate with no room to move. So in the next step you will see several dark spots along the circle where the tip burned hot because I didn't have moving room ... dumb!

Step 116: This tech does work when you are not trying to work around a tripod ... Sigh! You can seethe medium toned line that can be pulled when your hand and arm are free to move.

Step 117: O used the writing tip at a temp setting of 8 along the outer edge in a simple scribble type stroke. For the center section of that circle I turned the temp down to 6 1/2 and the inner edge was at 5. This gives me a simple
graduated tone circle frame. And, I signed and dated the project in the middle unburned circle.

We're done!

A light sanding with either very fine sand paper, 320 grit, or a light burnish with steel wool and this project is ready for framing. I will probably not add polyurethane to this but instead use glass in the frame to keep the wood surface clean.

Hope you had fun watching this WPI ... If you have any questions, please just let me know!

Susan

[Irish]

Step 119: Ok ... ready ... In My Opinion ...

I found the Colwood Detailer to be an excellent wood burning system.

* The small size of the burner takes very little space on my work table. A small foot print for the burner unit meant more work space for me.

* It's heavy weight meant that the burning system did not accidentally get moved from my pulling on the pen cord. It stayed where I put it. The pen cord is long enough for easy movement of my hand and arm to reach across the table. It's four little rubber feet gives it lots of grab and stability on my work surface.

* Working a sample board with just the temp settings gave me an excellent tonal value scale. Little or no guessing for the new wood burning student.

* I love the cork handle, only twice did the pen become hot to the touch. Both times I was working large areas at a temp setting of 9 or more.

* The cork gives a secure grip that can easily be rolled in my finger tips. Did I say I love the cork?

* The pen tips have a nice long length that let me use a very comfortable, for me, writing position during burning. Not once did I have any hand cramps or discomfort.

* The pen connection to the power cord is secure, firm and easy to change out.

* The interchangeable pen and interchangeable tip system is extremely user friendly. I could not see any difference between using an interchangeable tip to one of the fixed tips. With this system, the Colwood, I would not hesitate in investing in a wide variety of interchangeable tips for hard and steady use. Changing an interchangeable tip is as easy as changing a fixed pen.

* There really is a difference in heat transfer between the standard 18 gauge pen cord and the heavier 16 gauge cord if you want to super charge your unit.

* I can not see that any of the tip wires have become warped or miss shaped from the burning. They are just as straight as when I first used them.

* The wire tips seem very heavy to what I am use to using and have very even heat distribution. Only once did I notice a drop in temp for the tip and that was when I placed the tip against the ceramic plate - to be expected! Otherwise the heat at the beginning of the burn was there throughout the entire burn.

* The three primary tips that I used - the basic writing tip, the small writing tip and the spoon shader - gave me all of the variety that I needed to create the design that we burned.

* The tips hit their temp setting very very quickly. There was almost no delay between turning up or down the temp setting and going back to burning.

* And, the only time I fussed at this stem was when I forgot to check the temp setting after I changed out the power cords ... I did fuss just a touch to find myself holding an instantly white hot tip


In my opinion, as a professional pyrographer, Colwood's Detailer really stood up and shined thorughout the test.

It gave me everything I asked of it and more! The Detailer, their basic beginner's unit, will give a power house of potential for the most experienced wood burner to the newest pyrographer!

Now, that's just my opinion. Please if you have a chance visit a local retailer or wood working show where you can sit down, temp up and put the Colwood through the test yourself.

Thanks for joining in the fun, L. Susan Irish